LF: Application Launcher for OS9 Finder

gmark2000 · Dec 19th, 2006, 01:14 AM

Hi folks,

If you take your minds back to the days of OS9, there used to be an application that you could run that took over your Finder view and put up about six application buttons (squares) on the main screen.

This was used for school children so that they didn't muck up things in the Finder and only run the approved/installed applications. You simply clicked on the button to run the app and when you quit, it brought you back to this menu screen.

What was the name of this app? Where can I find it?

I need this for the iMac G3s that I am giving to my kids to run OS9 preschool games.

Thanks,

John Clay · Dec 19th, 2006, 01:28 AM

If I recall properly it was called "Launcher". I seem to recall it being part of the OS, but I can't really remember back that far...

Chealion · Dec 19th, 2006, 02:18 AM

Launcher was a control panel that was based off At Ease IIRC. Or vice versa. I just remember using Launcher from OS 7.5 through 8.1 for sure.

That said At Ease was replaced by the Multiple Users Control Panel which brought most of the At Ease features right into the OS itself in OS 9.

Have you tried setting it up with Multiple Users in OS 9?

gmark2000 · Dec 19th, 2006, 01:16 PM

Not yet. Will look into this tonight. Thanks.

gmark2000 · Dec 19th, 2006, 01:24 PM

Found this blurb:

"The Launcher control panel had humble beginnings. It started life as part of the Performa operating system, providing a simple way for less experienced Macintosh users to launch programs. The Launcher presented all the programs on a hard drive as big, chunky buttons. A single click launched a program and got you rolling. Now a standard part of the Macintosh OS, the Launcher isn't just for novices. With a few tweaks, you can give it considerable power and elegance."

And another:

"Use The Launcher To Start Your Favorite Applications. The Launcher makes it easy to create a floating palette with click-on buttons (aliases) to installed applications. To launch a program, simply click the program's button.

To personalize your Launcher palette, open the Apple menu, select Control Panels, and click Launcher. The Launcher palette opens with two buttons already there: Script Editor and SimpleText. To remove an item from the Launcher palette, hold the OPTION key as you drag the item to the Trash. Trashing a Launcher item deletes the alias, not the original item. To place an item in the Launcher, open your hard drive icon on the desktop and drag the desired application's icon into the Launcher window.

If you close the Launcher window, it disappears from the desktop. To keep it on the desktop, double-click the hard drive to open it, double-click the System folder, double-click the Control Panels folder, and press OPTION-M as you drag an alias of the Launcher to the desktop. "

I will muck around with this tonight.

gmark2000 · Dec 19th, 2006, 02:23 PM

In doing some more reading, I see these screen shots that show a window closer, window shade and resizing corner. The app I remember superceded the finder and didn't have a window per se. It was the whole screen or a graphical box in it.

Chealion · Dec 19th, 2006, 04:58 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by gmark2000
	In doing some more reading, I see these screen shots that show a window closer, window shade and resizing corner. The app I remember superceded the finder and didn't have a window per se. It was the whole screen or a graphical box in it.

That sounds more like At Ease which only supported up to OS 8.6.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Ease)

gmark2000 · Dec 19th, 2006, 08:54 PM

Looks like that would be it.

I would love to know how I can lockdown these iMacs for the kids? I can see that through a control panel, I can lockdown the system folder but they can end up renaming alias and such on the desktop and getting into things via the apple menu etc...