I noticed a whole directory in the TSData\ directory called "SimScript" that has a lot (as in hundreds) of testing scripts in it.
Many of the commands are familiar 'cheats', like boolprop, but some with parameters I hadn't yet seen anywhere.
Others are intriguing, like "setDialog" and "waitUntil".
Of course, the comments in the scripts are interesting, too.

Otherwise, the whole thing looks like Sims2 Lite to me.

<* Wes *>

Thank you for the suggestions.
I will try it. I have been having problems playing back old Sims2 movies I made anyway.
<* Wes *>

I uninstalled WMP 11. While the extra effects were cool to play with, 10 starts up with the last playlist you used, even if it was a random collection. WMP 11 forgets what you were playing as soon as you exit it.

While I use WMP to play music to cruise the internet by, I am annoyed with it stopping that and distrupting the playlist because you clicked on a video.

So I wondered if anyone here has a favorite video player they want to recommend as a good default player?

<* Wes *>

I have been watching this thread carefully. It is all I can do to keep myself from taking Dizzy's code, putting it in a DLL and thinking up fourteen new things to make that will never get finished.
I don't see anything in Diz's code (or the task at hand) that needs MFC or .NET, or would be improved by using them.
Keeping it within the standard ANSI C/C++ will help keep feature bloat out, and help it stay portable to OS X and Linux.
.NET is the #1 reason I never wrote a SimPE plugin.

* wes_h goes back to his cave, muttering imponderable obscenities...

I don't think it is an automatically recognized filename, like userstartup.cheat, because I had to use a 'run' command (with full path) in the userstartup.cheat file to make it do anything.
I caused a lot of stuff to be logged when I had this on (I have it commented out right now), but never succeeded in getting any really useful information about why some of my defective home-made packages didn't work (solved, of course, with edit/test/repeat efforts).
So I wondered if anyone else used it before (perhaps with better results). Seems not.

And I would agree, OS X and Windows XP ought to be logged as different entries.

Sorry for veering back to the original topic, but has anyone else ever used the UserLogSettings.cheat file for their game, and if so, what things have you managed to pull from the game into logs?

I always wondered what marketing jean-yus created a name for a drug that enables an impotent male to have sex that would be pronounced as "See Alice".

Poor Alice. Or maybe lucky Alice (a hard man is good to find).

O.K. So I have to figure out not where WFP is configured. Yeah, I know I said DOS mode, but I meant safe mode command prompt. The xerox one I hadn't noticed yet... one more clue to look for.
The WFP isn't my enemy, just the unasked for, unnecessary OS additions its protecting with no user option. I guess it's microscrap's way of feeding a little video eye candy to the masses, then a little mpegijuana, pretty soon we're hooked to an MSN mainline, with a hunnert-dollar-a-day DoodlyToob habit. 

Yes, thanks for the suggestion.
The issue here was you can delete them, but they just come back, like the undead... or like trying to just mow mesquite down.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 added this 'feature' with no undelete, and then added the files to the list of system files that get automatically restored if they disappear.
This just rankles me that they are trying to position it as part of the operating system, when it's a bolt-on application. Not all of their users are blind little mice.
So Jordi gave me the final information I needed to get rid of it. It's gone, and not missed so far.
<* Wes *>

And no self respecting Klingon would ever write some shifty little virus or worm. Klingons would program a septicemia attack that would spread across the intergalacticnet like a big blue ball visible from across the galaxy...

I don't know about your software management program, but I had a few issues after rebooting until I went into the registry and removed all the guid and file things that referenced the DLLs in the Movie Maker directory. I still haven't found where it keeps the "C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\" directory reference it uses, because it locks that directory so I can't delete it. I know I could do it in DOS mode, but I hate the sight of a DOS prompt.

I also disabled some services that run for no apparent reason. Like Telephony. This is a f**king home computer, not a telephone thingy. So far, I haven't found anything I use that won't work with this disabled.

I also saw the early reviews of Vista (nee Longhorn). I don't plan to even think about upgrading until Service Pack 2 or so comes out. None of Microscrap's software worked very well until SR 2. This was true (IMO) for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT4 and Windows XP. While I may wait two more years for that, nothing I see right now makes me want a newer computer (some more RAM and a higher powered graphics card may be in the cards before then).

I gave up assembly language when the Amiga died (15 years or so now). The transition from BE to LE was difficult, but the biggest argument I made to myself was that the C compilers were so much better than what I had struggled with. So I never bothered learning x86 assembler.

But I still know when someone yabbers about how much better this or that language is than some other, about how it enforces good programming practices and any of that other stuff, I think to myself "Billy Sh*t". It's not the saw, it's the carpenter.

I want to be careful so as not to appear to be commercializing anything. I don't wanna catch heck.
I had the same connectivity problems and lack of options, being 'way out in the middle of Texas.
I finally decided to try a satellite internet service.
For about $50/mo I get 500Kbs service. While it is not as good as wired service, due to the inherent lag of satellite round trips (a minor speed-of-light problem), it has worked pretty well. I have some difficulties when it rains hard, but I usually shut down then because of lightning.
I was also burdened by poor dialup modem speed... the fastest I could get connected at was 26K. And that cost nearly half of what the satellite costs. I did have to shell out about $200 for the equipment, but I think I paid that much money for my first modem (back in the olden days).
Enough said. I'm not recommending anything, just reporting my own solution to the problem you describe (I no longer cringe at anything over 1MB in size).

Thanks, Jordi. I knew the files, just hadn't found the dllcache where they wer lurking.
That's the directory. So far, I can't delete the directory itself, even though all the files are gone. I'll have to look in the registry to see if it's specified there.
I used the program a little, and decided it was pretty lame.
Then it started crashing after I erroneously allowed Media Player to upgrade to version 11.
I rolled Media Player back to 10, but couldn't get rid of all of Movie Maker.
I think no one should HAVE to allow MS drivel like that on their computer, that's the biggest reason I want to get rid of it.

This has become a mission here.
I have this program "Windows Movie Maker" that came with Windows XP SP2.
No uninstall for it. No windows component removal tool.
So I deleted everything, except the folder, C:\Program Files\Movie Maker.
The folder "can't be deleted" (something has a lock on it).
However, the executable (moviemk.exe) and 8 additional DLLs keep returning.
I scanned everything for viruses.
I deleted keys from the registry. One refused to be deleted.
I tried stopping all sorts of services, but so far haven't located what MicroScrap code keeps restoring these files.
So, anyone have any SERIOUS idea where to look next? I know there is something somewhere that controls this. The MS site says that it is part of the operating system and isn't suppposed to be deleted. I just hate the idea that I have to keep this just 'cause "they say so".

I looked there this AM. Will cruise on over soon.
<* Wes *>

So it would look as good as Blender?

Inside information sharing events have become a lot further apart since MaxoidTom disappeared.

For what it's worth, the wiki at MTS2 has been the exchange that got things where they are. People long absent deciphered the file format and divined the basic purpose for the various parts, based at least in part to the work that was done on SimCity4. Those that have done additional research since, myself included, stand on the shoulders of giants (my apologies to Sir Isaac Newton).

There is plenty of room for the critics to contribute themselves to the effort. There are plenty of known facts that have been disclosed in threads here (like dizzy's discoveries) and at MTS2 which are not in the wiki because NO ONE HAS WRITTEN IT UP. If you're waiting for someone else to do it for you, then you're a part of the problem.

The only in-depth thing I have done at the wiki is the GMDC reference. I didn't start it, and I didn't discover everything in it, but I have made my contribution and I keep it updated. I have some additional recent work that will be added when I get the last research finished.

<* Wes *>

(b.t.w Where/what is N99??)

What I suspected... we were on different pages. Told you I am easily confused.

Well, if you're so inclined you can use the foundation classes or .net classes to make bloatware with in C++. Usually this isn't noted as being so painful only because the library bloat is already installed, anyway, to run your day-to-day bloatware.

I was curious how many migs you have there? I don't have any here because I don't have an airstrip long enough to land one on while retaining the wheels and general body-shape.

Are we talking together, or past each other? Or are we on different threads entirely? (I do confuse easily).
What dizzy posted for a program could be put on a floppy 140 times or so. I appreciate the lean and mean sentiment, but if dizzy shrank it by 10% it would still be a whole 10K.
Now, it is far from a complete solution, and would grow some getting there... but it is written in C and seems to use only the standard libraries that should already be installed when you installed WINDOZE XP [eXtra Pudgy].
You'd probably need 20 megs of stuff to compile it, if you don't already have a C compiler, but it is a nice, small program, just like you ordered.

I just want to say that this is an elegant little program dizzy has cooked up.
I have my head all wrapped up in a new plugins version, so I will think about what I might be able to contribute, if anything (certainly testing).
Given I can't contribute anything to the effort at the moment, I will refrain from throwing any suggestions into the ring (since dizzy provided the source, I could do it myself but for my other work).
<* Wes *>

Mr. Dizzy:
I get confused easily. Since I see a "b" in the name, I think this is the latest rev? (I'd hate to start finding the same bugs you already exterminated).
If you are going to do this, can you put the latest version somewhere that stays put?
Can a moderator help him make a sticky message for this?

<* Wes *>

p.s. I have written a line or two in C before. Maybe I could help.

Pes makes some compelling arguments.
I agree with Inge about Quaxi and some of the others that have contributed. SimPE's main problem now is it addresses too many things. It takes too long to load, and pauses inexplicably to load something or another if you happen to click on a 3IDR resource.
I will be looking at dizzy's work, although I also HATE command-line programs (although I have a few here I hacked together at one time or another, including a gmdc parser/component disassembler I use pretty often). I think there is a need and room for something like the original SimPE... a (.)Package Editor. I like dizzy's argument about small add-on tools. One tool to package, one tool to edit, and no tool to rule them all.
I would love to have a SimPE option with no bells-and-whistles. I have sped the process of opening and doing many things I do by copying the whole installation to another directory, making a new desktop icon and then deleting the plugins folder from the additional directory. So I use one icon for the full package with all tools, and the other for a simple package manipulation.

As usual, there are important exceptions to everything.
Some text string items (STR#) are used to define the object. Often these have an instance number of 0x00000085, and the name is the first or second item in the string list. If you change that one, you will break the link to the scenegraph.
You can usually recognize these easily, because the string might be something like "afMyObject" and the Resource (CRES) will be named "afMyObject_cres".
Leaving this alone should not be a problem, because that string isn't generally printed in the game, except for debugging cheats.