Frequently Asked Questions
about StarTap

When I try to install, CE Services says that there's "Not enough disk space".
Windows CE Services and Active Sync can get cranky at times, and throw off weird error messages. The only solution that we've found is to reinstall from the Windows CE Services with Active Sync disk.

I got my registration PIN, but where does it go?!
Go to StarTap's main screen, the one that shows the shortcuts. Up at the top of the screen, there should be a ToolBar. Near the left end of the ToolBar, there are two arrows (they're blue on a color unit). Tap on them, and the menu "underneath" the ToolBar will show. From there, you can select Help / Register and enter your PIN.

If you don't have a ToolBar at the top of the screen, then do this: pop up the keyboard, tap on some "white area" in between the icons on StarTap's screen, and then tap 't' on the keyboard. That should make the ToolBar show.

The popup TaskBox will only let me close one program at a time!
Sorry! V3.51 SP2 had this problem. Download the current version, and you'll find it fixed.

My PPC won't turn itself off when the StarBar is showing.
There are a couple of possibilities for this. First, go to Edit / SysInfo / System, and check the setting for Idle Time. If it's zero, then that's your problem. Set it for 2 minutes, instead.

If that's not it, then check Control Panel / StarTap / StarBar, and remove the check from Update. This causes a number of units to remain on, and really isn't necessary in the current versions of StarTap.

The Keyboard function on the StarBar doesn't work.
In Control Panel / Keyboard, put a check mark next to "Allow Applications . . .".

I've used StarTap for awhile, but today it says that it's expired!
When you register StarTap, it looks at your name, as entered in Control Panel / Owner. StarTap uses your name to calculate the Registration ID. When you enter your PIN, StarTap uses that ID to calculate a Key, and saves it.

Every time that StarTap runs, it checks your name, calculates the ID, and verifies that the Key is the proper one. So, if you change the way your name is entered, then that's going to change the ID and you're going to need a new key. Soon, that process should be automated, but for the moment, just send email to support@thumbsupsoft.com. Please send along at least some scrap of information describing your original registration. Some people apparently have 3 different names and 6 different email addresses and trying to match you folks up can become very difficult!

I did a hard reset, and now StarTap won't accept my PIN.
Each new version of StarTap invalidates all of the old PINs. The real purpose of the PINs is to tell StarTap to generate the Key, as described above. The Key is permanent, as long as your name is entered the same way.

How can I save my registration info, so it doesn't get lost?
Since StarTap cares about your Name, and about the Key, we thought it'd be kinda slick if you could save and restore that information. Go to Help / Register / Advanced, and select Save. That will produce an OwnerInfo.str file, in the StarTap directory. Copy it to your desktop computer, and put it in a place where you might find it again.

If StarTap becomes unregistered for one reason or another, copy it back to the StarTap directory, and use Help / Register / Restore to read it back in.

I-Bill won't accept my credit card.
Ah, yes. I-Bill does have it's problems! On top of everything else, they must be angling to appear in a Visa commercial, because they definitely don't take American Express. If you have problems, go back to the Register StarTap page, and head over to the Palm Size PC Store. They should take care of things for you.

I got my PIN, but StarTap won't accept it.
From time to time StarTap's PINs "roll over", and you have to use the current download for it to accept a current PIN. Download again, and you should be OK.

I just installed StarTap, but it says, "Can't find StarTap or one of it's components".
I just installed StarTap, but it says, "StarTap.exe has performed an illegal operation."
Unfortunately for us all, WinCE comes in many different "flavors". PPC, HPC, HPC Pro, 2.0, 2.11, etc. There are three primary downloads of StarTap, for the PPC, the HPC 2.0, and the HPC Pro (2.11). You have to be sure to get the right one!

I can't get the Battery Gauge to show.
You have to Enable battery monitoring in Edit / SysInfo / Battery before you can tell StarTap to show the gauge in the popup TaskBox.

Ever since I installed StarTap, my stylus becomes uncalibrated, my screen flickers, my dog don't love me, and my sex life stinks. Wait! Let me rephrase that. . .
StarTap performs so many functions on the PPC, that we get blamed for darned near everything! Not guilty! In particular, the Calibration and Flickering problems are not ours. The only good news here is that the color units don't seem to suffer from these problems like the B/W units did.

All over the web, there seem to be different versions of StarTap. What's the most current?
I downloaded StarTap from your site, but it says that it's expired!
Yeah, and all too often even our own website has out of date information! Generally, you'll find the information on our main page, or on a StarTap-specific page. Also, since we usually send you over to the good folks at CNet's download.com to get the file, they will sometimes show old version information. Do not despair! Plunge ahead, do the download, and you'll have the current version.

Of course, even that comes with a caveat. Some users have "proxy servers" between themselves and us, and those darned proxies persist in serving up old material even though there's new stuff on our website. If you think you have that problem, send an email to support@thumbsupsoft.com, and we'll get you straightened out.

I upgraded to a color PPC, and StarTap won't run.
Some users have taken the Storage Card out of their old B/W machine, slipped it in a color PPC, and expected StarTap to pick up where it left off. Ain't gonna happen! Although the same StarTap executable runs on both the older and newer machines, the format of the file that StarTap keeps on each of them is different. In going from B/W to color, you have to delete the StarTap.btn file in the StarTap directory, and let it create a new one.

Since I installed StarTap my Casio runs slowly.
Ah, the old "StarTap Slow On Casio" canard. Not our fault! Write to Casio! More particularly, download our Performance Monitor, PeMon. Read the Help File, and we think you'll agree that, although the Casios can be poky at times, it's not a StarTap-specific issue.

I used to be able to make the ToolBar Hide / Show by tapping at the top of the screen.
Sorry! We had so many new users who were inadvertantly getting their ToolBars stuck where the sun don't shine that we had to make this an option, and turn it off by default. Go to Control Panel / StarTap / Shortcuts, and put a check next to Tool Hide.

The Battery Monitoring function doesn't work.
Go to Edit / SysInfo / Battery. Make sure there's a check next to Enable, so that at least it's trying to work. If your machine recharges its batteries (most do), make sure that Rech (the Recharge Factor) is not zero. '2' means that 1 hour of recharging will give you 2 hours of use. '1' is probably the best value to start with. Total Time is the time that you expect your machine to run after a full charge. Start with '4', and you can go up or down as experience dictates.

What does "Capture" do?
How do I make Delayed Capture work?
When you put a check mark next to Capture in Control Panel / StarTap / Images, a new button will appear in the popup TaskBox. Tap on the "eyecon" to capture an image of the screen. This will be saved as a CaptXXXX.bmp file, in the root directory of the PPC. Capture and Delayed Capture can also be assigned to the StarBar icons. See Control Panel / StarTap / StarBar. Delayed capture waits four seconds after being activated before doing the screen capture. Very helpful for taking pictures of the Start Menu and such!

How can I find the total size of the files in a folder?
In Explorer, just select the folder of interest, in either the Tree View or the List View. Then, from the menu, select File / Properties.

Do I have to uninstall the old version before installing a new one?
Nope! Just install the new version right on top of what you have. Your registration information, configuration, and shortcuts will all be carried forward.

There's no StarTap applet in my Control Panel!
What happened to my Settings, Preferences, etc.?
Wow! You must be upgrading a really old version of StarTap! Drag your old Control Panel into Recycle, and then use File / Buttons / Create / Control Panel to make a new one. The StarTap applet will show up in there. This is where the values that used to be in Settings and Preferences are now.

Well, so if I don't want the Plus features, is the download free?
Absolutely! Software improves in two ways: by adding new features, and by taking care of problems with the existing ones! The 4.00 download certainly does take care of some existing problems (and, given the way the world works, probably adds a few, too!).

I installed DeathStar to the Storage Card, but after a soft reset it says, "Can't find DeathStar or one of its components" What's up?
Sorry! We just couldn't think of a good place to warn folks! Since DeathStar runs immediately after a soft reset, it must be installed to Main Memory (the Default Location). Don't worry! It's tiny!

Okay, so I paid my $10 for the upgrade, but where do I dowload StarTap+?
What the StarTap+ registration means is that StarTap's Zip functions, TuBu, and DeathStar will not expire at the end of each month, as our free versions do. Just download and install all three programs, and you should be all set.

How come you're trying to bleed your faithful customers out of more money??!
It wasn't stated in the announcement (but should have been!) that StarTap+ is a new, augmented, and more expensive product ($20) than plain StarTap. This is not simply an update as StarTap has had so many times before. Since the upgrade price ($10) is simply the difference between the StarTap and StarTap+ prices, our current users are *not* being penalized for buying StarTap when they did. If you don't want the additional features that are contained in StarTap+, don't buy it! Plain Old StarTap will always be available, for $10, and will always profit from the "little fixes" that are made. Just download and install the new version, and you can go on as you always have. Also, please don't accuse us of being intentionally misleading: Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity!

I use Calligrapher V5.3, and when StarTap starts, it just hangs.
For reasons that we cannot fathom, Calligrapher will not tolerate having StarTap's Boost Me! option selected. In Control Panel / StarTap / StartUp, remove the check mark from Boost Me!, and the situation should be much improved. Of course, if StarTap hangs, you can't get in there to do anything! Download and install the NoBoost version of StarTap which has the boost function completely disabled. Then remove the check mark, so that it won't happen again if you install a new version!

I installed the new version, and my machine freezes after a soft reset!
Don't hit the power button! This is not truly StarTap-specific, but on some (perhaps all) machines, if the machine freezes in the middle of a soft reset, and you turn off the power, the machine will see that as the signal to do a hard reset, and erase all the information on the PPC. This has happened to at least one of our users, as a result of a (for some reason) incomplete install of StarTap. Instead, try hitting the reset button a couple more times, and if nothing changes, put the little guy in the cradle and see if it will connect to the desktop machine (oftentimes they will, even though the machine itself seems dead). If you get that far, then you should be able to use Mobile Devices to drag all of the shortcuts out of Windows \ StartUp. Then do another soft reset and God willing (and the creek don't rise), it should come back OK.

Does V4.10 run on B/W units?
Absolutely! You'll see that the ToolBar is a little different, since now it's the same on both Color and B/W, but everything should be readable. You can't do much with Color Schemes with only four shades of gray, but everything else should work.

I want nothing to do with V4.10. Give me back V4.00!
As you wish. We aim to please! You can download StarTap V4.00 here, or even V3.51 SP2.

The ToolBar doesn't hide anymore!
Dang! It did yesterday! This is obviously what version numbers were created for. Look for V4.11 at 8:00 AM PST Nov 30,1999. It will correct this, and probably some other as yet undiscovered problems.

Can I delete the Themes that I don't want to use?
Soitanly! The Zipped Themes are just regular files, and the only consequence is that they won't show up in the Theme combo box anymore.

What's worse, the blanking thing won't show, either!
Oy! What a mess! You tell the ToolBar to show. It does this bizarre little dance, and then evaporates. How irritating! As aluded to above, there *is* a fix, but we got it out early. You can download V4.11 anytime, with this peculiar behavior banished.

How do I load a Theme?
Just download a theme, like this one: Big Cats. Use Mobile Devices to move it to the PPC, to the Program Files / StarTap / Themes directory. Then, just load it! Go to Control Panel / StarTap / Themes, and select the new theme by name from the lower combo box. Before you exit the dialog, drop down the Opts dialog, and put check marks next to the parts of the Theme to use. No checkie, no changie!

While the ToolBar is "doing its thing", StarTap won't accept input.
Ah, sounds like this calls for another version! Look for V4.12 (or better) to take care of this annoying behavior.

Do I have to pay again for the new version?
No! Upgrades to Plain StarTap have always been, and remain, free. If you don't want the Zip, Compressed BackUp, and Theme functions of StarTap+, you don't have to pay for them! All registered users can always download and install the current version.

I adjusted the Scroll Button size, and now my controls are weird!
There can be some odd side effects of changing the Scroll Button size. In particular, it's been reported that the slider in System / Memory, and attachments in Inbox can be adversely affected. Use your own judgement, and if you get in trouble, set the Width back to 14, and the Height to 20.

What? V4.15? What was wrong with V4.10?
Well, let me count the ways: V4.10 couldn't Hide and Show the ToolBar, which was annoying if you had the ToolBar already showing, and a bleeding disaster if you didn't. That was fixed in V4.11. Thanks to Mordy, and his gentle ministrations with the lead pipe, we were persuaded to make the animated ToolBar an option in V4.12. See the Shortcuts tab in StarTap Properties. Beyond that, as always, there were lots of little things: On the HPCs, the toolbar consisted of a row of, um, gray buttons. Completely gray. When the Slideshow was run too quickly with large jpg images, the pictures just kinda stacked up and eventually took down the whole machine. Other stuff, too, all corrected here. V4.14 reports errors when a Zip file that's being created uses up all available memory, and makes the Type column in Explorer look a little neater. Also (finally!) StarTap will keep track of what viewing mode you were using in Explorer. The Nino Freezer and HPC Menu Killers have also been tamed.

How do I make the Slideshow work?
Do this: Go to Control Panel / StarTap / Images, and Browse for the first image to use. Also, set in the amount of time to display each image. Now, go to the StarBar tab, and assign Slideshow to one of the Starbar icon functions. OK out of StarTap properties. When you select the appointed StarBar icon function, the Slideshow should begin.

I UnInstalled one of your &%?**! programs and it killed StarTap!
Not Guilty! Blame it on the people who designed CE! Remove Programs has access to all kinds of information about what's installed on your machine. Unfortunately, it doesn't use it. Not intelligently, anyway. If you Install three programs that all install and use the same dll (a little helper file), and then UnInstall one of them, the other two will stop functioning. In StarTap V4.14 and beyond, you'll see an item in the Install screen (on the desktop computer) for "Dlls". ReInstall just this item (leaving StarTap unchecked), and StarTap will be happy again. Sorry!

The Up / Down buttons on the Image Viewer don't work.
Check Control Panel / StarTap / Images, and remove the check mark next to Scroll. That should return the buttons to there image selection function.

OK, I did the hard reset, now how to I get TuBu to run?
You have to use a generally undocumented feature of CE:
1. Do a soft reset.
2. When the desktop shows, pop up the keyboard.
3. Bring up the Start Menu, and then use the Exit button on the side of the PPC to dismiss it. Don't tap anywhere else on the screen!
4. Now, on the keyboard enter "run23", without the quotes (sounds like, "123").
5. A "Run" dialog should appear on the screen. If not, try it again! Try popping up the Start Menu again! Try doing things in a different order! Sooner or later, that dialog will appear!
6. In the Run dialog enter this: "\storage card\tubu" with the quotation marks. If you don't enter the quotes, it'll say that it can't find "\storage" or somesuch. Also, see the answer that follows!

After a hard reset, TuBu says it's &%?**! unregistered!
Whoops! When you do a hard reset, expecting to restore with TuBu, don't set anything! Not the clock, nor the owner name, nor the location. TuBu will reset all those things when it restores the Registry. You do have to calibrate the stylus, of course. If this has already happened, just reset the clock to early '99, and you'll be OK.

For all other questions:
Ack! It's not in the FAQ?! Well, don't despair. Just send your question on to support@thumbsupsoft.com. Of course, you might receive back a link pointing to one of the items right here on this page. That's just our way of saying that you should have read this fascinating manual!