Kick-off! for Windows version 1.0.1 January 28, 2005 Kick-off! is a reliability tool for unattended systems. It ensures that servers and kiosks remain up and running when they're needed. To do this, Kick-off! continuously monitors your system to make sure it is running normally. If the system crashes, Kick-off! restarts it automatically. The current Kick-off! software can be found on our web site, at In addition to system crash detection, Kick-off! can monitor custom applications for failures. The "Kick-off! SDK" includes code and information for adding Kick-off! support to Visual Basic and C++ programs, as well as 4th Dimension databases. This SDK is available on our web site, at the same address listed above. ___________________ System requirements Kick-off! for Windows requires a PC with USB ports, running Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP. It works with 120-240 volt, 50-60Hz electrical systems. NOTE: In order to ensure that Kick-off! can successfully restart your computer after a crash, you may have to modify your BIOS settings. Specifically, you should make sure that your computer starts up automatically after a power failure. See the "Installation" section below for more information. ____________ Installation (The Kick-off! quick-start card that comes with Kick-off! also includes complete installation instructions.) Hardware Installation: 1. Shut down your computer normally. 2. Disconnect the power cord from the back of your computer. 3. Connect Kick-off!'s power cord to the back of your computer. 4. Connect your computer's power cord to the inlet on Kick-off! 5. Connect Kick-off!'s USB cable to one of the USB ports on your computer. BIOS Setup: 6. Start up your computer and enter your BIOS configuration screen. (On most computers, this is done by holding down the DEL key during startup.) 7. Ensure that your computer is configured to start up automatically after a power failure. The location and name of this setting vary, but on many motherboards it can be found in the "Boot" menu, with the label "Restore on AC/Power Loss". Consult your motherboard manual for full instructions. Software Installation: 1. Start up your computer normally. A dialog box may appear asking if you wish to search for drivers for Kick-off! Click the "Cancel" button. 2. Insert the Kick-off! CD or unzip* the downloaded file, and double-click the installer icon. 3. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the software. When the installation is complete the installer will restart your computer. * "Zip" is a standard format for compressing groups of files into a single convenient package for downloading. Many free programs are available to extract the original files from the zip file. One popular program for opening zip files is WinZip, available at . _____________ Configuration Kick-off!'s default configuration should work in most systems, but you can customize its settings using the Kick-off! control panel. This control panel is installed in the Control Panels folder, and can be accessed from the Start menu "Settings" option. To learn about Kick-off!'s features, click the "?" icon at the upper right corner and select an item in the control panel. This will open a ToolTip describing that item. To open the Kick-off! user's manual, click the "Help" button at the lower right corner of the control panel. _________________ Advanced Features Kick-off! also has some additional features which might be of interest to people with special situations. The "Kick-off Advanced Info.htm" document includes the following topics: -- Installing Kick-off! as part of a custom installation system -- Additional configuration options: Customize the power-cycling delay during crash recovery Force a restart in the event that a manual or scheduled restart fails Restart immediately after manual shutdown ________________ Revision History 1.0.1 - 1/28/05 Added advanced features (see "Kick-off Advanced Info.htm" for details) PowerCycleOffTime: Customize power cycle delay when doing crash restart. ForceRestarts: Force a restart if a manual or scheduled restart fails. RebootAfterShutdown: Restart the computer if it's shut down manually. In Windows 98, if an application timer expired, the Kick-off! software correctly initiated a soft restart, but didn't fall back to a hard restart if the soft restart failed -- fixed. Rebound! Timers had a 430-second limit due to the Windows filesystem time format -- fixed. In Windows 2000 and XP, the software didn't always detect when the unit was unplugged -- fixed. 1.0 - 3/20/03 First release. _______________ How to reach us Sophisticated Circuits, Inc. PO Box 727 Bothell, WA 98041-0727 e-mail: info@sophisticated.com, support@sophisticated.com phone: 425-485-7979 web: ______________________________________________________________________ Copyright (C)2002-2005 Sophisticated Circuits, Inc. All rights reserved. The files in this package may not be redistributed in any way without express permission from Sophisticated Circuits, Inc. Kick-off! is a registered trademark of Sophisticated Circuits, Inc. All other products mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners.