Microsoft Windows

Over the years working on the Toshiba Linux utilities I have had a number of enquires about using some of the information embedded in the programs and documentation under Microsoft Windows to control Toshiba laptops, and a considerable number asking for a Windows version of the fan program.

There is now a Windows version of the fan program that can be downloaded from here. It is known to work under Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP. It does not work under Windows 95 and NT. Once run it installs itself in the system tray and you can turn the fan on/off by clicking on the icon. If you right click on the icon you can also select an option to force the fan to stay on by turning it on several times a second. There are no command line options for setting any of the options at startup. For the program to work it is vital that you have installed the Toshiba Utilities for Windows for the specific version of Windows that you are using and the model of your laptop. These can be obtained from the Toshiba website www.toshiba.com

The program itself is Shareware and if you want to keep using it beyond the timeout out period then you must register. Registration is cheap at only £1.50 (approximately $2.50/2.50EUR) so you have no excuse for not registering. Just click on the PayPal icon below to make the payment. For your trouble I will send you a version of the program that has no time limit. Please make sure that the email address registered with your PayPal account can accept executable attachements. Your copy of the program will be automatically sent to your registered PayPal email address next time I go on the internet. Normally this will be in 24 hours, but could be upto a 10 days if I am away. If you have not received the program after 10 days, please send an email to let me know. There is no need for threating emails, I am not trying to rip you off. However it is important that you make sure your registered PayPal email address is valid before registering as I will only send the program to the registered PayPal email address.

For those living in the United Kingdom you may prefer to send a cheque or Postal Order for £1.50 to me instead of using PayPal. The address is 34 Kepwell Road, Prudhoe, NE42 6PD, and make the cheque payable to Jonathan Buzzard. Please do not send cash through the post. If you do send cash you do so entirelly at your own risk. Envelopes arriving with no cash inside will not receive a copy of the program. If you live outside the United Kingdom then PayPal is your only option currently. The only delivery option is via email so if you do send a cheque or postal order please make sure you include your email address.

It is entirely your responsibility to ensure that the fan program does what you want it to do before registering. There are no refunds if you later decided it does not work for you or does not do what you want

The registration price has been deliberately kept very low so you have no excuse for not registering. Even if you don't use Microsoft Windows those of you who have in expressed a wish of saying thank you in some way can still register and consider it a small gift.

In addition to the fan program I also have developed a software development kit for Microsoft Windows. The SDK exposes the Toshiba System Configuration and Hardware Configuration interfaces under Microsoft Windows for easy manuipulation. Although much of this is already supported by the various utilities that Toshiba provide with the laptops, people have previously expressed an interest in being able to control this progamatically.

The SDK is primarly targetted at laptops with Windows 2000 installed, however I should also work under 98/ME/NT. I does not work on Windows 95. In order to confirm that your laptop is supported you can use the fan program mentioned above. If this works then the SDK will also work. It should be noted that you need to have the Toshiba Utilities for which ever version of Windows you are using installed for the fan program and the SDK to work. The SDK is provided as plain C source, but can easily be used from C++ or even translated into Pascal/Visual Basic. It is licensed under a no noncense, non-GPL aggreement, and is free of any royalties.

If you wish to purchase a copy of the SDK (which also includes fairly comprehensive documentation) then please feel free to contact me via email for further information and price. Be aware that the price of the SDK reflects the time invested in discovering the information contained within and the target audience. While far from being excessive it is not cheap either. As a final note if the Toshiba utilities don't do it then you can not do it under the SDK either.