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Regional Mena Crsa
Child Rights Situation Analysis
Middle East and North Africa
Report Commissioned by
Save the Children Sweden
August 2011
Written by:Yara Abdul-Hamid
Our Vision
Save the Childrens vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.
Our Mission
Save the Childrens mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives This publication was created by Save the Children Sweden, Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa
Save the Children Sweden 2011
Regional Director: Sanna Johnson Project Manager: Ibrahim Faltas Production management: Simine Alam and Mohamad Alasmar Author: Yara Abdul-Hamid, independent consultant Graphic design: CreaPix Advertising Design Agency, Lebanon Images: Save the Children Sweden Financial support: SIDA (The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) Second Edition, 2011
Save the Children Sweden, Regional Office For the Middle East and North Africa P.O.BOX 113-7167 Beirut, Lebanon Phone: +961 1 738 654/5 Fax: +961 1 739 023 Website: http://mena.savethechildren.se
Contents
Foreword
Executive Summary
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List of Acronyms
Section I: Regional Analysis Section II: Country Profiles
Algeria Country Profile Bahrain Country Profile Egypt Country Profile Iraq Country Profile Jordan Country Profile Kuwait Country Profile Lebanon Country Profile Libya Country Profile Morocco Country Profile Occupied Palestinian territory Profile Oman Country Profile Qatar Country Profile Saudi Arabia Country Profile Syria Country Profile Tunisia Country Profile United Arab Emirates Country Profile Yemen Country Profile Concluding Remarks and Way Forward Annexes
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75 76 84 101 109 109 119 126 136 143 151 160 167 172 179 189 197 204 216 218
Foreword
Save the Children Sweden is a nongovernmental organization founded in 1919. The basis of Save the Children Swedens work is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These build on the principles that all people are equal, children have special rights and everyone has a responsibility - but governments have a special obligation. is giving civil society organisations the tools to identify gaps, to report on child rights violations and to take action in terms of raising awareness and advocating for the fulfilment of these rights.
Save the Children would like to extend our gratitude to the consultant, Yara Abdul-Hamid, who did the desk review and thank you to the regional team who contributed in providing material and Save the Children Swedens rights input in the drafting and finalisation of perspective emphasises that States this study. have the overall responsibility, but that everyone can contribute to children having their rights fulfilled. We believe that children themselves can also fight for their rights, if they are given the Sanna Johnson chance to do so and if they receive Regional Director Middle East and support and encouragement. North Africa Save the Children Sweden To better respond to the needs of children, Save the Children Sweden develops Child Rights Situation Analyses (CRSA) on a periodic basis. This regional CRSA has been developed by the MENA Regional office in order to explore the violations of child rights that exist in the MENA region. As this study is the result of a desk review, it sheds light on important issues but leaves some gaps which could not be covered in a one-month desk review. But it acts as a basis to further explore the child rights violations and fill in the gaps. Save the Children Sweden has been responding to these gaps since 2009, through a regional project which aims at strengthening civil society organisations in 17 countries in the region. The project
Executive Summary
ountries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are displaying a growing awareness of the importance of protecting and promoting child rights. All the states in the region have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Convention), and with the exception of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), all the states covered in this report have ratified the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC) and on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts (OPAC). The MENA countries are implementing legislative, policy, and institutional measures to promote the rights of children, as enshrined in the Convention, international human rights conventions, and regional instruments such as the League of Arab States Arab Charter on Human Rights and the African Unions African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. ignificant gaps however persist and countless children suffer from rights violation, in the fields of protection, education, survival and development, and health. Long-term political instability and violence in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Iraq, and Yemen continue to adversely impact upon the rights of children, while recent political developments, as manifested by the Arab Spring of 2011, have heighted protection risks for children, particularly in Syria, Libya, and Bahrain. The protests that have swept through the MENA region since early 2011 have brought violations of rights, including child rights, to the forefront of international attention.
children from violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation, in line with recommendations made by the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child (Committee). Regional bodies, namely the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the League of Arab States, and the African Union (AU) have also been taking positive measures to promote the implementation of the recommendations of the UN Study on Violence against Children (UNVAC), and have committed to place the issue of violence against children as a permanent item on the agenda of their summits.
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n the field of right to protection, considerable advances have been made on the legislative front to protect
any of the countries are proposing comprehensive Child Laws that bring together legal provisions for the protection of the child, or drafting amendments to specific laws namely criminal codes, or are proposing new laws, for example on anti-trafficking, to better protect children from violence, exploitation, and abuse. Child bills, for example, are under discussion in Qatar and Syria, while Kuwait has prepared a Draft Childrens Code and draft bill to amend the Penal Code. These legislative moves demonstrate the efforts of countries to better align their national legislation to international legal instruments. While welcoming these legislative gains, the Committee has consistently recommended MENA countries to expedite the adoption and enforcement of proposed laws, to allocate more resources to protection of children, and to ensure that relevant domestic laws are in full conformity with the provisions and principles of the Convention, namely best interest of the child, the right to participation and, non-discrimination. he agenda for child protection is far from complete. Many children lack the protective environment required to safeguard them from harm and ill-treatment, and mechanisms to monitor and document child rights violations, need to be strengthened to be able to effectively protection children. Although countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, and the occupied Palestinian (oPt) have made considerable progress in developing child protection systems, the MENA countries in general lack a comprehensive approach in addressing child abuse and violence including, for example, studies, legislative measures, public education campaigns, childsensitive procedures and mechanisms, prosecuting violators and providing
care, recovery and reintegration for victims, and training for professionals in identification, reporting and management of ill-treatment cases. In addition, with the exception of Tunisia, none of the countries have implemented legislative measures to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, despite repeated recommendations by the Committee as well the UNVAC to prohibit all corporal punishment as a matter of urgency. With the exception of Tunisia, corporal punishment is viewed as a form of right to discipline in the home and in alternative care settings and is not conceived of as a form of violence children need protection from. In Egypt, for example, Article 7A of the Child Law allows the right to discipline of parents and carers (reasonable corporal punishment) indicating that provisions against violence and abuse is not interpreted as prohibiting corporal punishment.
The need to ban corporal punishment in the home, to promote alternative disciplinary measures and develop effective enforcement mechanisms is necessary to address the widespread prevalence of violence and abuse of children. The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) reports that three in four children in the region are subject to physical punishment. In general, children are better protected in law from corporal punishment in schools than in the home or in alternative care settings, and countries such as Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen have all issued prohibitions against corporal punishment in schools, while Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Saudi Arabia, and Syria have issued directives, policies, or circulars banning corporal punishment at schools. However, enforcement mechanisms are weak, and physical violence as a form of corporal punishment persists. oreover, in a number of countries, traditional harmful practices such as early marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), honour crimes and child marriage still occur and children continue to suffer from grave violations of their right to protection. In recent years, many of the countries have instituted laws to increase the age of marriage of girls to 18 (for example, Morocco and Egypt), but the practice of child marriage still persists, particularly in remote rural areas. FGM is practiced in countries such as Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, and Oman, and is believed to be practiced to a lesser extent among communities in Jordan, and the oPt. Legal frameworks diverge: FGM has been banned and is criminalised in
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Egypt (2008) and in Iraqi Kurdistan (2011), while in Yemen and Oman there is no law against FGM. Legislative gains have also been made in Jordan and Iraqi Kurdistan with regards to honour crimes, where traditionally perpetrators of honour killings have often gone unpunished due to discriminatory laws or lenient sentences.
hile birth registration rates are high in many of the countries (of over 95 per cent), it remains a critical issue in Yemen, where only 22 per cent of births are registered, adversely affecting the ability of children to have access to public services, including health care and education. In countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, there are reports that hundreds of thousands of persons remain stateless, without access to official documentation, including birth certificates in certain cases. This is the case for example of a significant number of Kurds in Syria (maktumeen, who have no form of identification at all), who face great difficulties in accessing health care, goods and services due to their statelessness.
hildren without adequate parental care are a particularly vulnerable group. In Egypt, although there are no reliable comprehensive estimates, government data indicates that 46,000 children reside in care various types of care institutions, and between 200,000 and 2 million children are living in the streets. As for Lebanon, it is reportedly the country with the highest per cent of institutionalised children in the world, the majority of which are not orphans. In Iraq, the main issue is the high number of war orphans.
hild trafficking and exploitative labour are also protection risks facing an increasing number of children in the region, despite considerable advances made to enact anti-trafficking laws. Nearly one-in-ten children between the ages of 5 and 14 are involved in child labour. Child labour rates, however, may actually be higher due to under-reporting in sectors such as domestic service, agriculture, and street vending where children tend to be concentrated. In general, working children tend to come from disadvantaged families and children of migrants and refugees are more likely to become child labourers, with girls more likely to drop out of school. In Lebanon for example, literature suggests that Iraqi refugee children, Palestinian children, migrant children, children living in the streets, and children from low-income
families are particularly vulnerable to exploitative labour practices. In a 2009 assessment of camps in Tyre, Palestinian children were found to be exposed to exploitative employers, very poor wages, lack of training and physically inappropriate demand, and higher risk of physical punishment and sexual abuse. According to one study, in Yemen, 60 per cent of the estimated half a million working children have been exposed to injury, while 20 per cent of them have been subjected to sexual exploitation.
n its review of periodic reports of the MENA states, the Committee has also consistently urged the countries to improve their administration of juvenile justice and to better protection children in conflict with the law, through raising for example the legal minimum age of criminal responsibility, developing more child-sensitive procedures and institutions, providing free legal assistance to children in conflict with the law, developing effective complaints and data collection system concerning complaints on torture or other forms of ill-treatment of children deprived of their liberty, and ensuring adequate recovery and reinsertion services. Juvenile justice is a glaring issue in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where children may be sentenced to death penalty, and in the oPt, where despite repeated recommendations by the Committee, the State party, Israel, has not made any moves to ensure that international juvenile justice standards are being applied to Palestinians children and juveniles. ith regards to right to education, national legislation guarantees free basic education in all the countries of the region. The right to education is also enshrined in regional human rights instruments, namely the AUs African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, as well as the Arab Charter on Human Rights.
East Asia, average levels of educational attainment in the MENA region witnessed the fastest expansion in the world between 1990 and 2010. By 2009, the region averaged 91per cent primary school net enrolment ratio for boys and 86 per cent for girls. egional figures however mask significant variations between the countries: while Bahrain and Tunisia have the highest level of net primary school enrolment in the region at 98 per cent average for boys and girls, this ratio is only 68 per cent in Oman, which is even lower than for resource-poor and conflict-ridden Yemen, where the net primary school enrolment averages 73 per cent. In addition to these two countries which are not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of Universal Primary Goal, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and Iraq are also not on track to meet this MDG. In both countries, education levels have plummeted due to the volatile political and security environment. Indeed, the UN reports that enrolment rates have dropped by over 20 percentage points since 1999 in the oPt. Yemen and Iraq are the two countries in the region which have been least successful in reducing gender gaps.
ver the past decade, the MENA region has made significant progress in enhancing childrens right to education, as demonstrated by high government investments in education sector, increased enrolment rates in primary and secondary schools and narrowing of gender gaps in education. While still lower than levels observed in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and
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he current challenge to MENA countries is to extend quality education to children who have been left out of initial efforts to provide basic education. In 2007, at least 3.1 million children of primary school age were out of school in the countries covered by this report. In the region, there is a clear gender bias against the education girls, with nearly 67 per cent of out of school children girls. Typically, children who are excluded from primary school, or who drop out before completing primary education are poor, living in disadvantaged rural communities, or in urban slums. In other words, spatial and wealth disparities in educational attainment can be discerned in many of the countries, with low-income households in economically lagging communities tending to have least access to primary education.
a r ti c i pati on i n s econda r y education also varies greatly by country, with net secondary school enrolment ratios varying from 89 per cent in Bahrain to 34.5 per cent in Morocco. Although the MENA region has yet to attain full secondary school enrolment, there has been significant progress in reducing gender gap. Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, oPt, Qatar, Tunisia and the UAE all have higher net secondary school enrolment ratios for girls than boys indicating that once girls enter school, then tend to stay longer than boys. urveys and statistics highlight that in addition to poor children in economically lagging communities, specific groups of children are vulnerable to being excluded from primary and secondary education. These include children living with disabilities, working children, children living in situations of conflict and insecurity, children of
migrant workers, stateless persons and refugees. In line with repeated recommendations of the Committee, many of the countries are improving legislative, policy, and institutional environment for specific groups of vulnerable children. In practice however, exclusionary practices persist, and right to education of these groups of children is not being respected. For example, across the region, given that more 95 per cent of children living with disabilities are not integrated into schools, much more efforts would need to be expended to ensure their right to education. Similarly, more investment is needed to ensure that right of education of refugee children is respected, through legislative reforms complemented by on-the-ground programmes for children and their families. For example, although there are no restrictions preventing Iraqi children from attending public schools in Syria, up to 35 per cent of Iraqi children may be out of school.
n addition, despite heavy investments in education, the quality of education remains low across the region, demonstrated by low average scores on international tests. Quality of school education is negatively affected by overcrowded classrooms, inadequate training of teachers and infrastructure, and the high prevalence of violence, undermining the overall value of free and equal access. In general, across the region, teaching is characterised by rote learning with little emphasis on problem-solving, and interactive and inquiry-based teaching methods are rare. Achieving better quality will require additional incentive mechanisms for teachers as well as additional public accountability measures.
while child mortality decreased by 47 per cent. Statistical analysis confirms a strong relationship between child mortality improvements and the level of female education, illustrating that investments in female education have had a positive impact on child survival and development. Another important factor behind reductions in mortality rates across the region is increased immunisation coverage.
hild malnutrition however remains a significant problem in many of the MENA countries, but has thus far received little attention from policy makers. For example, given the severity of drought and its impact on food insecurity, Syria is not expected to meet the MDG of halving the prevalence of underweight children under five years of age by 2015. The region is also characterised by an extremely low rate of exclusive breastfeeding for infants imilarly, although pre-primary up to six months, a contributing factor education has witnessed an increase towards child malnutrition. in enrolment, with gross enrolment rates increasing from 15 to 19 per cent lthough the MENA region has between 1999 and 2009, the sector made considerable progress still suffers from a lack of investment, towards improving the health of public understanding of its importance under-five children, disparities within in a childs early cognitive and social these countries persist, making this development and an overall lack of progress inequitable. An analysis of resources including trained staff and the Concluding Observations of the curriculum standardisation, according Committee for the Arab countries to the UN. confirms that the countries need to pay more attention to decreasing disparities ith regards to childrens right to and extending services to vulnerable survival and development, most groups of children. Disparities are of the countries are now on track to generally caused by same factors as meet the child mortality target of MDG those for educational disparities: wealth by 2015, although conflict-affected disparities, disability, gender, and status areas and poor regions within better off as children of refugees, internally countries are lagging behind. Between displaced persons, migrant workers, 1990 and 2009, infant mortality rate or stateless persons. In Morocco for for the MENA region (including example, although infant mortality countries not covered through this has fallen in both urban and rural report) decreased by 44 per cent, populations over the past 20 years,
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facto discrimination against children living in remote areas and questioned whether the resources allocated for the delivery of basic services like healthcare were sufficient to meet the needs of vulnerable children outside the capital. Similarly while Syrias National Plan to Combat Disability, adopted in 2008, represents an important policy step in the process of improving healthcare for children living with disabilities, including through the provision of free rehabilitative and therapeutic services he right to health is guaranteed in access to health care of children living the legislation of all Arab countries, with disabilities is still be restricted. and is enshrined in regional treaties. In ne area where very little progress March 2011 the Arab Health Ministers has been achieved is the right Council launched the Beirut Declaration of children and adolescents to sexual for Women and Child Health Rights, the first regional declaration affirming the and reproductive health care services importance of promoting child health. and information. This is all the more The Arab countries, members of the important as there are indications that AU, have also signed up to the African the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, although Charter on Human and Peoples Rights relatively low in Arab countries, is set to and the African Charter on the Rights rise, unless preventive measures are put in and Welfare of the Child, two key place. Too often, however, youth sexual regional instruments which protect the and reproductive health promotion is excluded from national health policies right to health. and programmes of MENA countries, espite significant health gains despite repeated recommendations across the region, a number of by the Committee. In general, gender challenges remain in ensuring the health and age disaggregated data on issues rights of children and adolescents. pertaining to sexual health in particular Foremost amongst these are striking are rare in the region. Available data geographic disparities in the availability does indicate that adolescents access of health care. The World Bank reports to sexual and reproductive health that there are localised pockets of bad information and services is limited and health indicators in countries such as that many girls and boys demonstrate Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and low level of knowledge, including on Morocco. The issue of disparities in sexually transmitted infections. Other the availability of health care has been emerging child and adolescent health consistently raised by the Committee challenges that have not received in its review of periodic reports adequate government attention are submitted by Arab countries on the mental health of adolescents, accident, implementation of the Convention. including road accident prevention, To give an example, in 2006, in its and the rising rates of child obesity, review of Jordans periodic report, the especially in Gulf countries. Committee expressed concern at de the absolute disparity in rates between urban and rural communities have remained the same. Similarly, the right to survival and development of Sahrawi refugee children in Tindouf, Algeria, is fragile; at 62 per 1,000 live births under-five mortality rate is higher than national average: infants are particularly vulnerable to acute diarrheal disease and respiratory infections, exacerbated by inadequate water and sanitation facilities.
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hildren in the region continue to face significant gaps in protection under emergencies. Armed conflicts continue to scar childrens lives in a region marked by political volatility and massive displacements of persons. Added to long term political insecurity in the oPt, Iraq, and Yemen and decades of political violence experienced by Algeria and Lebanon the Arab Spring of 2011 has also unleashed civil strife in Libya, Bahrain, and Syria, and heighted protection risks for children. Across the region, there is an urgent need for improved protection of the rights of children and adolescents under emergencies. he region both hosts and produces millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees. The region is home to nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee in the Near East (UNRWA) in its five areas of operation (West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria). The political and economic situation, national policies regarding refugee status, and the level and possibility of access to governmental services in the hosting countries strongly influence the quality of life and educational and health status of Palestinian refugee children. In general, poverty, unemployment and poor social security are constant issues among Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA. Poverty rates of refugees are particularly high in Lebanon, where Palestinian refugees face the most severe restrictions in accessing labour market, services, and property. According to a recent survey, children are particularly vulnerable to poverty, with estimates of up to 70 per cent of children and adolescents living in poverty, and 9 per cent in extreme poverty. Palestinian refugees are also highly vulnerable to displacement, especially in conflict-prone Lebanon and Gaza, and countless children subsequently suffer from trauma and mental distress. ver 1.5 million Iraqis remain displaced within their own country and a million Iraqi refugees live in neighbouring countries. The three countries hosting the largest numbers of Iraqis registered with United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
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are Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. While the degree to which the countries respect the need of refugees to be protected varies, in all the countries there is a growing need for mental health and psychosocial support amongst refugee communities. Psychological stress and the need for psycho-social and mental health services appear to be intensifying as the length of stay in the country of asylum is prolonged. In Yemen, over 325,000 persons have been displaced by consecutive wars in the north of the country, and the country is also host to over 190,000, mainly Somali, refugees registered with UNHCR, while an estimated 165,000 Sahrawi refugees have been residing in Tindouf camps in Algeria, some for nearly two decades.
ountless children suffer from grave violations including attacks against schools and hospitals, with detrimental impact on their mental and physical health and development. In Iraq, an estimated 9 per cent of children and adolescents aged between 10 and 19 years have suffered from war-sustained disability, with the northern governorates sustaining the highest disability rates caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance. In the oPt, there have been worrying increases in the number of child casualties and displacement leading to severe disruptions in education, reports the UN: in the first five months of 2011 alone, 332 cases of child n oPt and Iraq, the respect of the injuries were reported and 228 children principle of humanitarian access has displaced due to the demolition of their been denied or access to humanitarian homes. Similarly, the right of children actors rendered difficult by violence, to education and health has been insecurity absence of law and order. disrupted by destruction of facilities In Yemen, this has been compounded and infrastructure in Yemen: by the by negligible humanitarian access to end of 2010, 43 per cent of schools conflict-prone areas, particularly those in Saada were partially or completely not under government control, and the presence of land mines and unexploded
hile welcoming refugees, the MENA countries have important strides to make in improving the protection climate. With the exception of Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco, the MENA countries are not signatories to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol. Even signatory countries, however, have not put in place domestic refugee or asylum legislation consistent with international standards. The absence of national legislation on the treatment of refugees in most of the countries of asylum continues to present challenges for the displaced and the humanitarian agencies that work with them.
ordnance which have rendered access even more problematic. One of the gravest violations of childrens rights is the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and groups. In Iraq, according to the UN 2010 report on Children and Armed Conflict, children have been used to spy and scout, transport military supplies and equipment, videotape attacks for propaganda purposes, plant explosive devices and actively engage in attacks against security forces and civilians, while in Yemen, despite signing of the OPAC and national legislation that prohibits recruitment or direct involvement of children below 18 years of age in armed conflicts, under-age recruitment to the armed forces remains common.
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destroyed and unexploded ordnance and bombs were sighted in educational facilities; over 80 per cent of health-care facilities were damaged. National and international organisations have also expressed deep concerns that the Arab Spring have resulted in breaches to the basic rights to survival, health and education of children, particularly in Syria and Libya where government crackdown has been extremely violent. cross the region, countries need to better meet their obligations under the Convention and international humanitarian law, and to take all necessary steps to protect children from the direct and indirect effects of violence. Policy, institutional, and legislative environment need to better reflect the needs of children living in emergency situations, and the right to quality education and healthcare need to be integrated in all emergency and response plans, and child participation needs to be incorporated into national disaster strategies.
tate parties are the primary duty-bearers for the realisation of the rights guaranteed under the Convention and have assumed the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the rights enshrined in the Convention. In the MENA region, State parties need to ensure that they are respecting all the Concluding Observations and recommendations of the Committee. Adequate budgets for childrens rights, comprehensive policies to tackle wealth inequalities, discrimination including of the girl child and children living with disabilities, enhanced support, regularisation or naturalisation of stateless persons, combined with improved monitoring and oversight through better data collection, analysis and use, adequate resourcing and
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upgrading of personnel are required for government bodies responsible for childhood development and protection to set the foundation for respecting and fulfilling child rights. hile national governments are the primary duty-bearers, civil society organisations (CSOs) have a crucial role to play in the monitoring and implementation of the Convention, as CSOs can provide critical and evidence-based analysis on the implementation of the Convention, including through presenting alternative reports to complement the State Report. Across the region, there is greater scope for CSOs capitalise on the Convention reporting mechanism to voice their concerns, to focus attention on a particular, persistent problem with the aim of obtaining specific recommendations from the monitoring body, or to enable childrens voice to be heard. Advocacy initiatives such as the production of policy papers and position statements on child rights, monitoring the implementation of relevant government plans and budget allocations, delivery of training sessions on child rights monitoring, thematic campaigns, are some of the mechanisms that can be used by CSOs working on child rights, to lobby relevant duty bearers to ensure that the Convention principles and provisions are respected in law and practice.
n general, however, the legal and regulatory system for the establishment and operation of civil association is inhibitive in the Arab region, hindering the exercise of the right to association. Although restrictions facing CSOs vary from country to country, they generally include tight restrictions on the sources of funding and state power to dissolve or suspend organisations. Even in countries
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such as Egypt, with a flourishing civil society of over 16,000 registered associations, the regulatory environment is generally restrictive. For CSOs to be able to deliver social services, conduct efficient social action, or influence public policy in favour of child rights fulfilment, the legislative and operational environment needs to be enhanced. Furthermore, the participation of children in national plans and policies needs to be promoted to empower children in their own development and protection. Although there have been a number of initiatives to enhance child participation, mainly through the establishment of Child Parliaments and Forums, children are still not being perceived as subjects of rights with the capacity to claim their rights. There is untapped potential to expand opportunities for adolescents to participate and voice their opinion, through for example, youth councils or forums, community organisations, online activism and other forms of social digital media which would enable adolescents to make their voices heard. he challenge for governments across the region is to build on the progress achieved, working together with civil society organisations, including child groups, international, regional, and national agencies and media, to reach out to those children and adolescents who are still being denied their rights to protection, education, survival and development, and health.
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List of Acronyms
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Section I: Regional Analysis
Regional Political Trends, Actors Analysis and Common Trends: Right to Protection, Right to Education, Right to Survival and Development, Right to Health, Refugee Rights
1. Political Developments and Implications on Child Rights The collective actions of the people of North Africa and the Middle East have reaffirmed the importance and universality of human rights in a way we could not have dreamed of on 1 January this yearit is a message {of} renewed hope in the power of people to realise change, Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.1 A lone man setting himself on fire in Tunisia, after an official prevented him from selling vegetables, struck a chord with hundreds of thousands across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and unleashed the Arab Spring of 2011.2 Nearly all the Arab countries have all been rocked by protests, unrest and uprisings, which have often been met with violent and repressive government reactions. Recent events have illuminated Arab governments preoccupation with their own political security and the neglect of their peoples human security and failure to uphold the human rights on which that depends, Amnesty International reports.3 Common regional factors which have triggered these events include high incidences of unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, lack of social justice, rampant wealth inequalities, failure of democratic governance, and the growth of communication including new social media, which has fostered increased social engagement.4 In Tunisia and Egypt, the uprisings led to the rapid downfall of regimes. In Tunisia, following 28 days of protests, the former president, Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January 2011, ending 23 years in power, while in Egypt, the 25 January Revolution led to the ousting of Hosni Mubarak on 11 February. Elsewhere, violent confrontations between pro
and anti-government forces were ongoing in Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen (at the time of writing of this report). Sporadic protests have also occurred in Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. In the immediate term, the Arab Spring has brought violations of rights, including child rights, to the forefront of international attention. Political developments have heighted protection risks for children. Many of the protestors are reported to be of young age, reflecting the demographic profile of the region, where over 40 per cent of the population are below the age of 18.5 In all the Arab countries that have experienced protests, demonstrations, children have not been sufficiently protected. In many of the countries, children have been reported to be participating in street protests, on their own or with their families. Eyewitness account suggests that children participated in violent clashes in Egypt, and have been caught up in political violence in Libya, leaving them vulnerable to injury and psychological trauma, according to Save the Children.6
5-2004 figures, total Middle East and North Africa population estimated at 371.3 million, and total child population 153.6 million, UNICEF, State of the World, 2006 http://www. unicef.org/sowc06/pdfs/regional_stat_sum_s21_mena.pdf 6-Save the Children UK, Egyptian children caught up in violent clashes are at risk, 3 February 2011, http://www. savethechildren.org.uk/en/14868.htm
1-UN News Centre Arab Spring shows human rights are for everyone, everywhere UN official, 30 June 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=388 =98&Cr=north+africa&Cr1 2-For chronological information on the Arab Spring, see the Guardian, Arab Spring: an interactive timeline of Middle East protests, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactivetimeline 3-Amnesty International, State of the Worlds Human Rights Annual Report 2011, 2011 4-ILO, Challenges in the Arab World: An ILO Response, 2011 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/ pardev/download/development/mena/mena-strategy.pdf
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Although accurate information is hard to obtain, there are reports that hundreds of children have been killed or injured in clashes in Yemen and Syria. In Bahrain, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights reports that the deterioration of human rights situation in the country has adversely impacted upon children and that children have became victims of Bahraini regime excessive use of force.7 In response to political unrest in Bahrain, the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child (Committee) in its 2011 Concluding Observations expressed its deep concerns that children have not been sufficiently protected during the recent political unrest and protests that have swept across the country, and called upon the country to strengthen its legal and institutional system for the protection and promotion of the rights of the child, especially those in contact with the law.8
Convention (Convention) on the Rights of the Child and the commitments it has undertaken in the Marrakesh Declaration, adopted in December 2010 by the Fourth Arab High Level Conference on the Rights of the Child.10 The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) has also been urging all parties to meet their obligations under the Convention and international humanitarian law, and to take all necessary steps to protect children from the direct and indirect effects of violence.11 National and international organisations have also expressed deep concerns that the events have resulted in breaches to the basic rights to survival, health and education of children. In Yemen, this has been compounded by negligible humanitarian access to conflict-prone areas, particularly those not under Government control, and the presence of land mines and unexploded ordnance which have rendered access even more problematic.12 In Libya likewise, restricted access to the country has limited the humanitarian communitys ability to assess needs and develop a meaningful understanding of the situation inside, according to the UN.13
In response to the events in Egypt, the Committee has also urged the country to strengthen its protection of the rights of the child during this critical transitional period towards democratic governance.9 The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children has called upon the government of Syria to ensure the protection The broader impact and implications of these of all children from violence, in accordance events on child rights will fully unfold in the with its obligations under the United Nations coming months and years. In the aftermath of
7-Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Violations of the Rights of the Child worse than Ever: Deaths by Excessive Force, and Military Trials at Age of 15, 29 May 2011, http://www. bahrainrights.org/en/node/4186 8-Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations: Bahrain, CRC/C/BHR/CO/2-3, Advanced Unedited Version, 17 June 2011 9-Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations: Egypt, Advance Unedited Version, 20 June 2011 10-Office of the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on Violence against Children SRSG Santos Pais calls 3 June 2011 upon Syria to protect children from violence, 11-UNICEF, Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake on situation of children in the Middle East and North Africa, 20 April 2011, http://www.unicef.org/ media/media_58332.html 12-UN OCHA, OCHA in Yemen, http://www.unocha.org/ where-we-work/yemen 13-UN OCHA, Regional Flash Appeal for the Libyan Crisis, 18 May 2011, https://docs.google.com/
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the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt, relief and development agencies have been supporting countries to transition to new forms of government. What that will ultimately look like is still a work in progress, claims the World Bank.14 There are high expectations that new forms of governments in the MENA region will be more accountable and responsive to its citizens, including children, than previous regimes. The UN proclaims there are moments when historic, transformational change is possible. This is one of those moments in the Arab States15 underlying the hope that this transition will create opportunities for improved respect for human rights. As they are embracing political reforms, the countries have an opportunity to put in place policies that effectively address childrens need. However, whether the turmoil in the Arab world will yield concrete progress toward fulfilment of child rights is unclear. When asked about their expectations for the future political climate and security after transition, young Egyptians showed cautious optimism with 63 per cent of them expecting the political and security situation to be slightly better in the future. Expectations over economic reforms are stronger, with over 80 per cent of respondents expecting the national economy and their household income to improve over the course of the next year.16
2. Actors Analysis
2.1 The League of Arab States, often referred to as the Arab League, is a regional organisation, founded in 1945, aiming to strengthen relationships between its 22 member states through political, cultural, and economic cooperation. The full list of members is as follows: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen. Eritrea, Brazil, Venezuela and India are observer states. The main bodies within the Arab League responsible for child rights programmes and policies are the Childhood Division at the Administration of Family, Women and Childhood, and the Advisory Technical Committee for Arab Childhood and its Technical Secretariat.17 The Cairo-based Arab Council for Childhood and Development (ACCD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) established in 1987 upon the initiative of Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, is a permanent member of the Advisory Technical Committee for Arab Childhood.
viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxwcm90ZWN0aW9uY2x1c3RlcmxpYnlhfGd4OjYwOTljZDg1NjFiZTFlYzM 14-World Bank, Justice, Jobs and a Fair Chance for All, June 2011, http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/MENAEXT/0,,contentMDK:22951704~pagePK:146736~piPK:14683 0~theSitePK:256299,00.html 15-UNDP, Clark on Jobs, Equity and Voice: Economic and Political Inclusion, 6 April 2011, http://content.undp.org/go/ newsroom/2011/april/clark-jobs-equity-and-voice-why-economic-and-political-inclusion-matter.en 16-IOM, Egypt January 25 events have only a limited impact in the migration intentions of Egyptian youth, who remain relatively optimistic about the future of their country, 2011 17-Unless otherwise stated information is extracted from League of Arab States website, http://www.arableagueonline.org/las/index.jsp (Arabic)
2.1.1
League of Arab States
Regional Bodies
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Since the 1990s, the Arab League has developed and adopted a number of policy documents, frameworks and treaties that aim to promote child rights in the Arab world. Four Arab High Level Conferences on the Rights of the Child have thus far been convened (as of June 2011). The first Conference was held in 1992 in Tunis, the outcome of which was the Arab Plan for Child Survival, Protection, and Development.18 In July 2001, the Arab League convened the Second Conference, which concluded with the declaration for the period 2001-2010, entitled An Arab World Fit for Children: Mechanisms for Joint Arab Action and an Arab Common Position19 mirroring the World Fit for Children outcome document of the United Nations (UN) Special Session on Children. The Third Arab High Level Conference was held in Tunisia in 200420 and concluded with the adaptation of the Second Arab Plan of Action for Children: 2004-2014, a document that identifies strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and improving the situation of children in the region.21 The three-day event was held in Marrakesh in December 2010, under the title of strengthening the partnership for the advancement of Arab children conditions, and a range of partners, including the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations (UN) Secretary-Generals Special Representative on Violence against Children, and representatives from civil society organisations (CSOs) participated.It focused on the progress achieved in of the implementation of the Second Arab Childhood Plan for Childhood at the national and regional levels, and concluded
18-United Nations General Assembly Progress at Mid-Decade on Implementation of General Assembly resolution 45/217 on the World Summit for Children, Report of the SecretaryGeneral, 26 July 1996 19-UNICEF, Arab High Level Conference on the Rights of the Child Concludes in Cairo, July 2001, www.unicef.org/ specialsession/.../arab-conference-2-4-july-01-eng.doc this declaration was later adopted at the Beirut Summit of March 2003. 20-League of Arab States, Third Arab High Level Conference On the Rights of the Child Final Report, Recommendations and Resolutions, The Tunis Declaration, Youths Statement, January 2004 21- League of Arab States, Draft Arab Action Plan on Childhood (Ten-Year Plan), August 2003
with the ambitious Marrakesh Declaration.Other child-related events which took place during the period 2009-2010 include the Advanced Meeting on the Status of Women and Children in Arab legislation (Cairo, May 2010) and the Ordinary Ministerial Session 84, which included recommendation on setting up of Arab Parliament for Children (Cairo, March 2009). Most recently, in June 2011, with support from Save the Children and World Bank, an Arab Regional Conference on Childrens Rights to Education under Emergencies, was organised urging for concerted efforts to provide education for children in countries
22- League of Arab States, Marrakesh Declaration: Fourth Arab High Level Conference on the Rights of the Child Marrakech, 19-21 December 2010, http://www.childsrights. org/html/site_fr/cnews/userfiles/file/Marrakech_ Declaration%20English%20final%20version.pdf
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facing crises and disasters. The increased commitment of the Arab League to work with a wide range of stakeholders in the promotion of child rights is to be welcomed. For example, in preparation of the Forth Conference, a Civil Society Forum (February 2010), a Media Forum (May 2010) and a Youth Forum were held (July 2010) to involve various actors in the Second Arab Childhood Plan. The extent to which civil society however effectively participate in decision-making with the framework of the Arab League is restricted. How effective declarations and meetings of the Arab League have been in improving child rights is debatable. While the countries have endorsed the decade-long Arab Plan of Action for Children, information on its implementation at the national level is limited, and mechanisms for monitoring countries progress remain inadequate. The Marrakesh Declaration of December 2010 commits the Arab League to update the Plan to include well-defined goals, fixed time-frames, and subject to assessment, monitoring and follow-up. The Committee for Arab Childhood, which is responsible for proposing policies and plans in compliance with regional and international charters, is tasked with producing reports every two years on the status of Arab children and indicators of performance. Although more extensive research is needed on monitoring and reporting mechanisms of the Arab League, it appears that these reports are either not being produced or are not diffused to the general public. The main regional human rights instrument initiated by the Arab League is the Arab Charter on Human Rights. The Arab Charter on Human Rights, introduced in September 2004, was only ratified by one state, Jordan, and never came into force. It was heavily criticised by experts, CSOs and academics, as falling far short of international standards.23 In response, the Arab League proposed a new version more in line with international human rights frameworks. The Amended Arab Charter on Human Rights (Charter) was adopted during the 16th Ordinary Session of the Arab Summit which was held on 23 May 2004 in Tunis. The Charter entered into force on 15 March 2008, 60 days afterratification by the seventh state, the United Arab Emirates, on 15 January 2008.24 The seven states that ratified the Charter are Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, the oPt, Syria, and the UAE. Since the Charter came into force, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen have also ratified
23-For the history of redrafting of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, see Amnesty International Re-drafting the Arab Charter on Human Rights: Building for a better future, 11 March 2004 24-Child Rights Information Network (CRIN), Arab Charter on Human Rights, http://www.crin.org/Law/instrument. asp?InstID=1267
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the Charter.25 If ratified by all of the 22 Member States of LAS by 2015, the Charter will potentially affect some 395 million people.26 The Charter is a regional instrument that protects civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights and includes articles specifically promoting and protecting child rights. Article 10(b) of the Charter bans the exploitation of children in situation of armed conflicts. Article 29(b) on the right to nationality urges States parties to enable children to acquire the nationality of their mothers. Article 33(b) of the Charter adopts a ban on all forms of violence and abuse against women and children within the family. Article 34(c) on child labour recommends States parties to adopt legislative measures ensuring the protection of children against economic exploitation, hazardous work, and work that is obstructing the childs education, or is detrimental to the childs healthy development.As for juvenile justice, Article 17 of the Charter is consistent with the minimum protection standards contained in Convention Article 40. The Charter has been criticised as not being entirely consistent with international human rights standards, and not at par with UN treaties and conventions signed by Member States. Concern has been expressed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights27 as well as civil society groups the protection of the rights of the child in the draft Charter falls short of internationally agreed human rights standards, particularly the right to life. Article 7 of the Charter does not fully prohibit the use of the death penalty against persons below the age of 18. In addition, the right to education is limited to child citizens according to Article 41(b), which states that Member States shall guarantee every citizen free education at least throughout the primary and fundamental levels. All types and levels of primary education shall be compulsory and accessible to all without discrimination of any kind. Amnesty International has also pointed out that the Charter does not ensure that the victims of violations of human rights have the possibility of obtaining all five forms of reparation (restitution, rehabilitation, compensation, satisfaction, and guarantees of nonrepetition) to which victims are entitled.28 One of the main criticisms of the Charter has been the lack of effective enforcement mechanism. And as such, in March 2009, the Arab Human Rights Committee was established as the treaty body for monitoring the implementation of the Charter, and under Article 45, State Parties undertake to submit reports on the measures they have taken for the realisation of rights enshrined in the Charter. In October 2009, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Arab Organisation for Human Rights and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies met with the Arab Human Rights Committee to discuss civil society engagement in the work of the Committee.29 Whether Arab civil society will engage with the Arab Human Rights Committee in a similar way to international systems, for example, through submitting alternative or shadow reports to national reports prepared by governments, or through engaging in constructive debates on human rights, is yet to be determined.
2.1.2 Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was founded on 25 September 1969 in Rabat, Morocco. Since its founding, the OIC has expanded from 30 to 57 countries, making it the second largest multilateral organisation in the world, after the United Nations (UN).30 OIC Member States
1. Introduction
ac'tivAid (pronunciation: activate) is a small tool that enhances Windows, giving useful functions known from other operating systems. ac'tivAid is developed with the script language AutoHotkey (http://www.autohotkey.com) and the source is available. Thanks to the quite simple syntax of AutoHotkey and the articles of the German computer magazine c't, ac'tivAid is extendable quite simple. Because many additional functions were added since the first version, the concept has changed. The single functions are no longer combined in one large script, but have been split. Now every function has its own script file. These Scripts extend the main script which only has two main functions, the tray menu and the graphical interface for configuration. If you have problems with ac'tivAid or found a bug, you can report it at http://activaid.rumborak.de Or you can write an e-mail to (se@ctmagazin.de) If ac'tivAid does not start, make sure you have the appropriate version of AutoHotkey installed. You can download the newest version from: http://www.autohotkey.com/download/1.1. Terms of a license
ac'tivAid is subject to the copyright of the Heise Zeitschriften Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. AutoHotkey is OpenSource and is licensed under GNU General Public License Version 2. ac'tivAid and AutoHotkey are allowed to use without restrictions for private and commercial issues. However it is not allowed to make commercial use of an unchanged or modified ac'tivAid. Modification and propagation of ac'tivAid is allowed as long as the copyright comment of the Heise Zeitschriften Verlag is not removed or modified. The compiled version of ac'tivAid (e.g. created with PackAndGo) is partly licensed under GNU General Public License (AutoHotkey) and the copyright of the Heise Zeitschriften Verlag. GPL v2: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl2.html Source code of AutoHotkey (self-extracting archive): http://www.autohotkey.com/download/AutoHotkey_source.exe ac'tivAid additionally uses the following useful tools: - DevEject: http://www.heise.de/ct/03/16/links/208.shtml � 2003 Heise Zeitschriften Verlag GmbH - RemoveDrive: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html � 2006 Uwe Sieber - SQLite: http://www.sqlite.org/ Public Domain2. System requirements and installation
ac'tivAid requires Windows Vista, Windows XP or Windows 2000. Older versions of Windows have not been tested, because AutoHotkey does not provide the complete scope of operations and partly behaves differently. Additional the interpreter for the script language AutoHotkey is needed. It is provided together with the installation files and can also be downloaded here: http://www.autohotkey.com/download Some extensions have known restrictions regarding to the operating system. In these cases it is always stated at the top of the help text of the extension. Example: "Vista restrictions: Only works with classic XP Design." There are also some known problems with specific system settings. In this case the extensions are deactivated when installed the first time, or ac'tivAid provides a possible solution for the problem. ac'tivAid can be installed in any directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\ac'tivAid\) using the provided installers. After the first installation, no extension is active. To be able to use the functions of ac'tivAid, first some extensions have to be installed using the configuration (see chapter 3). There is also a (German) FAQ page containing the most frequently asked questions. It can be opened using the help menu of the configuration.2.1. ac'tivAid and limited user rights
In general ac'tivAid works well with limited user rights. In this case it automatically starts in the multi-user mode. For user accounts with administrative rights, ac'tivAid can be toggled between single-user mode (default) and multi-user mode using the activAid menu in the configuration. In single-user mode the settings are stored in the subdirectory settings of the ac'tivAid directory (for Vista this does not apply see below). In multi-user mode ac'tivAid saves the setting in the directory "%appdata%\ac'tivAid". Using a link there, lets ac'tivAid think it is located there. In General the setting "Start in" inside links define where the settings are located. In single-user mode for Vista the settings are saved in the directory C:\ProgramData\ac'tivAid\settings because saving inside the program files directory is not permitted. To copy the settings from one user to another, only the settings directory has to be copied to the corresponding directory of this user. The corresponding menu entry in the ac'tivAid menu can also be used. When using Portable ac'tivAid on an USB device, the behavior changes, and the multi-user mode switches to a multi-computer mode. The settings are stored dependent on the computer in the subdirectory "UserSettings\Computername" inside the ac'tivAid directory. Using the setting "Working directory:" in the ac'tivAid configuration, the location of the settings can explicitly be set. More information in chapter 5. When ac'tivAid is started using a manually created link, the link has to be modified for the multi user mode, so "Start in" has to contain the directory the settings are stored in. The automatically created link in the Autoruns folder in the start menu is created correctly. The following paragraph does not apply to the portable version. To allow updates, ac'tivAid has to be run with administrator rights. To be able to update ac'tivAid with limited user rights, it can be started as another user, using the entry in the ac'tivAid menu. Remark: This does not always work correctly, especially when other users are logged in using fast user switching. In this case only the current user should be logged in. In some cases only a restart helps. Please note, that ac'tivAid in admin-mode is running in the context of the administrative user. It does not provide administrative rights to the current user, like the c't-project MachMichAdmin does.2.2. ac'tivAid uninstall
At the first launch of ac'tivAid the user is asked whether an uninstallation routine should be added to Control Panel/Software. ac'tivAid does not change the registry without a remark, so ac'tivAid can be uninstalled by simply deleting it manually, when no entry is available in the Windows Software dialog. The uninstaller entry is placed in : HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ac'tivAid By deleting the line CreateUninstaller=0 in the file settings\ac'tivAid.ini ac'tivAid asks again to add the ac'tivAid uninstaller into the installed software on the next reload.2.3. ac'tivAid on an USB-Stick (Portable ac'tivAid)
There are two possibilities to launch ac'tivAid on an USB-stick. One is to use the extension PackAndGo (explained in extensions part) to create a independent executable file of ac'tivAid that can be placed in any folder of the stick. The recommended variant is to use the portable version of ac'tivAid that is available at http://www.heise.de/ct/activaid/. This version is prepared for external devices and can be installed directly on the USB-Stick. There it is launched using "Portable_ac'tivAid.exe". When ac'tivAid displays "Portable ac'tivAid" in the title bar, the portable version was recognized correctly. In this case the multi-user mode is not available. It is replaces by a multi-computer mode. In this mode the settings are stored in a subdirectory "UserSetting\ComputerName". This allows to configure ac'tivAid differently depending on which computer the USB stick is plugged in. To copy the settings from single-user mode into the multi-computer profiles, the settings directory has to be copied to the corresponding directory. Many extensions allow to use the drive letter of ac'tivAid.ahk (%Drive%) or AutoHotkey.exe (%A_AutoHotkeyDrive%), which is useful when absolute paths should be provided, that depend on the drive ac'tivAid or AutoHotkey is located on. Examples: %Drive%\PortableApps\Firefox\FirefoxPortable.exe %A_AutoHotkeyDrive%\PortableApps\Firefox\FirefoxPortable.exe2.4. Tolerance of own scripts
In general, ac'tivAid should not cause problems with other scripts. The only problems can occur, when functions overlap, e.g. when two scripts use the same hotkeys. It is recommended to check the "Overview of all hotkeys" to find overlapping hotkeys. By deleting the hotkey or uninstallation of the extension, most problems can be solved. Slightly more complex are mouse capturing events. Possibly the extensions ComfortDrag, ComfortResize or MiddleButton has to be uninstalled to solve eventual problems.3. Usability
To be able to use ac'tivAid, AutoHotkey has to be available. If AutoHotkey is installed, ac'tivAid is run by starting "ac'tivAid.ahk". The portable version of ac'tivAid is run by starting Portable_ac'tivAid.exe. After the start, a red c't icon is displayed in the system tray. A right click opens a context menu. By selecting the menu entry or by double click on the icon, the configuration dialog can be opened, where extensions can be installed, uninstalled and configured. Also own hotkeys can be assigned and ac'tivAid can be added to the auto run applications. When settings are modified manually in the file ac'tivAid.ini (inside the settings directory), ac'tivAid has to be reloaded in order to apply the modifications. ac'tivAid can be updated via Internet, this should be done occasionally, because new versions always correct some problems. Furthermore often new, useful functions are integrated. When a permanent connection to the internet is available, a weekly check for updates can be set in the configuration. More on this option in chapter 5. It is also possible to assign mouse buttons as hotkeys. Therefor the Alt key or the Shift key has to be pressed while clicking the button. In this case only mouse or joystick buttons and special keys like Alt, Ctrl, Win, ... are captured. The mouse wheel cannot be captured directly, but it can be assigned by cursor up or cursor down.3.1. The search function
Since ac'tivAid 1.1.2 a search function is integrated for all important information areas like the "Help" or the "Overview of all hotkeys". When entering text there, it performs an incremental search. Using F3 or Shift-F3 the next or previous match can be found.3.2. Note for ac'tivAid and Proxy servers
There are some known restrictions when accessing URIs using a proxy server. The download command of AutoHotkey uses the proxy settings of the Internet Explorer when connecting to the internet, but automatic configuration scripts are known to cause problems. The proxy server has to be set manually inside the "Internet options" that ac'tivAid is able to connect to the internet. (see screen shot at: http://activaid.rumborak.de/?getfile=36) When a manual authentication is required, ac'tivAid cannot connect to the internet as far as currently known. Beneath the automatic update, the extensions LeoToolTip and ThesauroToolTip use the download command of AutoHotkey and thereby are subject to the limitations mentioned above. Some users report, that connection problems of ac'tivAid can be solved by activation of the option "Use HTTP 1.1 through proxy connections" in the Internet Explorer settings. (http://activaid.rumborak.de/task/1344?getfile=450) Extensions like WebSearch, that only call a browser are not affected.4. Details on the modules of ac'tivAid
The modular layout has a lot of advantages. Not installed extensions are not just deactivated, but not even loaded together with ac'tivAid. Beneath the advantage that less space is used, also complications with other programs can be avoided. When a problem occurred in early versions of ac'tivAid, it could not be used at all, because an inactive function still was monitoring the hotkey and just did not cause an action. When ac'tivAid is compiled to a single exe file using the extension PackAndGo, only the installed extensions are packed into the file. The modular layout and some limitations of AutoHotkey limit the functionality of the compiled version of ac'tivAid. If possible, the usage of ac'tivAid or Portable ac'tivAid is recommended. Especially because the compilation does not improve the performance, because AutoHotkey compiles every AHK-Script in front of compilation inside the memory.5. activAid - Configuration and Updating
Inside the configuration dialog there is the possibility to set basic settings and to check for available updates on the page "activAid". ac'tivAid can be updated via Internet, this should be done occasionally, because new versions always correct some problems. Furthermore often new, useful functions are integrated. When a permanent connection to the internet is available, a weekly check for updates can be set in the configuration. When updating ac'tivAid all settings and the own new extensions are kept. Manual changes inside the ac'tivAid script or in the provided extensions will be overwritten. When provided extensions are changed and the settings should be kept, the file has to be renamed to prevent overwriting. Modifications on these scripts should be reported to us, so we could adapt the original scripts in order to give the profit to all users. In cases where the automatic update does not work (e.g. because of a proxy server or a firewall, see 3.2), the most recent version can be downloaded and installed manually. The button "Manual update" opens the download page and closes ac'tivAid (this is recommended for a correct installation). The semiautomatic update of earlier versions had been removed because of various problems. - resolve keyboard and mouse-problems Tools based on AutoHotkey, carry all bugs of AutoHotkey itself. Because of this it can possibly happen, that the left mouse button looks like pressed for the system, although it is already released, e.g. after excessive use of ComfortDrag. This for example causes problems with double clicks. In that case this function of ac'tivAid tries to resolve the problems. Default-Hotkey: Win + Shift + # - resolve keyboard and mouse-problems - Temporary disable hotkeys For many hotkeys it may happen, that a hotkey is set, that is required inside a program. To be able to use it anyway, this function can be used to deactivate all hotkeys of ac'tivAid as long as the key set here is pressed. During the key is pressed, a hint is shown. The hotkey is implemented in a way that the original function is still available when pressing the key only a short time. Unfortunately on some systems there is a problem that does not allow the original function when pressing the key for a short time. - Context menu with all functions Calls a menu at the current cursor position that lists all extensions with all containing functions. By choosing a menu entry, the function is executed. Some functions like HotStrings don't work correctly in all cases. Default-Hotkey: Win + < - Context menu with all functions - Working directory The working directory can only be changed by users that have write rights in the ac'tivAid directory. This setting applies to all users, but it can be configured using variables so every user can have its own settings. The following variables can be of interest: %A_ScriptDir% - The settings are saved in the settings folder inside the ac'tivAid directory. %A_AppData%\ac'tivAid - The settings are saved in the ac'tivAid folder inside the application data folder of the user (this equals the multi-user mode). D:\ac'tivAid\%A_UserName% - The settings are saved in a folder with the name of the user inside of D:\ac'tivAid. %A_MyDocuments%\ac'tivAid - The settings are saved in a subfolder ac'tivAid inside the user specific "My documents" folder. More information on the working directory can be found in chapter 2.1. More variables can be found in the AutoHotkey help at http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Variables.htm#BuiltIn5.1. activAid - Further configuration in settings file
There are some hidden options, that only can be modified by manually editing the settings file ac'tivAid.ini in the settings folder. The ini file is divided into different sections. Each extension has its own section, that is started by the name of the extension in square brackets. The main settings of ac'tivAid are below the row [activAid]. The following hidden settings are available for ac'tivAid: DelayedUpdateCheck = 30 ; Delays the check for updates at the start of ac'tivAid by 30 seconds. That is useful when no connection to the internet is available at system start, or if it always is available some time later. ReloadOnWakeUp = 1 ; Automatically reloads ac'tivAid when the computer wakes up after hibernation or standby. This option helps, when ac'tivAid behaves in a strange way after the system wakes up. DebugToFile = file.txt ; The debug information are stored in the logfile given here, instead of being sent to DebugView. (additionally DebugLevel = ALL and Debug = 1 has to be set) Silentupdate = 1 ; The automatic update is done without security check. WinModifierFirst = 1 ; Defines that hotkeys are not displayed Ctrl + Win + ... but instead Win + Ctrl + ...6. The extensions
Extensions are small AutoHotkey scripts, that are located in the subdirectory "extensions" inside the ac'tivAid installation. ac'tivAid scans this folder for matching extensions and provides them for installation in the "Extensions" section of the configuration dialog. ac'tivAid only loads installed extensions. All extensions listed at "available Extensions" are ignored and thereby only need little space on the hard disk. There has to be a special format of the extension file that it is recognized by ac'tivAid. Further information on this can be found in chapter 7.6.1. ComfortDrag - Switching and hiding windows while drag & drop operations
This is a main function of ac'tivAid that is somehow responsible for the name ac'tivAid. ComfortDrag simplifies the copying and moving of files, especially when there are lots of windows opened. A short time after you drag a file with you mouse over a window, it will be activated. Additionally windows can be minimized by clicking with the right mouse button while keeping the left button pressed. When the left mouse button is released, the windows are restored. Because of compatibility reasons regarding to mouse Gestures, this only works on the title bar for browser windows (configurable). Applications that have problems working together with ComfortDrag can be excluded in the configuration dialog. This exclusion only refers to the recognition of a Drag&Drop action. When ComfortDrag is initiated in another window the excluded applications still work fine. Furthermore ComfortDrag gives access to other directories by showing the folders bar when the mouse waits on the left side of an Explorer window. By releasing the mouse button the bar is hidden again. Similar to Expos� of Apple OS X it is possible to activate the function "temporary desktop" where all visible windows are slided away and release the view on the Desktop. This functionality is configurable for fast computers to animate the sliding. Unfortunately on Windows machines it is not as elegant as the OS X variant. On some systems it is possible, that maximized windows cannot be adjusted by ComfortDrag. In this case there is the option "resolve problems with maximized windows" in the configuration. With the checkbox marked gray/green ComfortDrag tries to avoid flickering of these windows, but the original size of the restored (non maximized) window is not kept. The following hotkeys are available while the left mouse button is pressed. ESC - Restores the windows and aborts the action. right mouse button - Minimizes the window below the mouse cursor. Also works page-up key when clicking on window titles with left and right mouse button. On release of the left mouse button the window is restored. CapsLock - When holding the CapsLock key pressed while releasing the mouse button, the window below the mouse cursor stays activated. Doing this a window can be chosen. middle mouse button- Restores windows that have been minimized by the right page-down key mouse button one by one. When no windows had been minimized, the window below the mouse cursor is activated if the window has already been active the window below is activated. This makes it possible to switch between two overlapping windows. F10 - Shows the desktop by moving all visible windows to the (configurable) left and right screen edges, which also works during a drag&drop action. By pressing the hotkey again, the windows reappear. This also happens by clicking on the left or right screen edge. Space - Immediately activates the window below the mouse cursor. The timeout is skipped.6.2. MouseClip - copy and paste with the middle mouse button
MouseClip assigns three functions to the middle mouse button. 1. Marking text using the middle mouse button copies it to clipboard. 2. Clicking with middle mouse button while text is marked inserts this text on the position where the click took place. 3. Clicking with nothing marked inserts the content of the clipboard. The option two and three can be deactivated separately. Especially option 3 should be deactivated when using a mouse with a wheel that can be clicked by mistake. In this case the content of the clipboard would be unwillingly inserted which can be bad because it is often not recognized. By default MouseClip is not active if the standard mouse cursor (white arrow) is shown. By this it is still possible to use the middle mouse button with different software. In Firefox for example, the scroll function can still be activated by using the middle mouse button as long as the pointer is not located above text. Only with the text cursor visible, MouseClip catches the middle mouse button. For the ability to mark text using the middle mouse button it simulates the left mouse button pressed. That means the middle mouse button equals the left mouse button during MouseClip is active. In the configuration window- or element classes can be given where MouseClip is also active although the white mouse cursor is displayed. An element class is a part of a application window, for example the address bar in a browser or the text field in a mail application. The entry "MozillaWindowClass5" allows to select text in Thunderbird without the need of the pointer positioned above text. As mentioned above MouseClip only performs a click of the left mouse button, what cases a lack of the option to open links in a new window or Tab using the middle button. In cases where this option is preferred before marking text, the entry should be removed from the list. For class names also * is allowed as wild-card, whereby complete groups of element classes can be defined (e.g. MozillaWindowClass*).6.3. WebSearch - Fast web-search with hotkeys
WebSearch allows quick access to often used search engines providing freely assignable Hotkeys and a search dialog. The base of the search is the selected text. There is one Hotkey (default: Win+W) that calls a dialog where search engines can be selected. Additionally hotkeys can be assigned to each single search engine, to perform the search operation for the selected word immediately. When no text is selected and the hotkey is pressed the dialog is displayed where the search term can be entered. In the configuration dialog any number of search engines can be added and hotkeys can be assigned to them. Also for each search engine the browser that is called can be defined. To be able to quickly identify the search engine the corresponding favicon can be downloaded and displayed in the dialog. If a page does not provide a favicon, ac'tivAid could pause for a while due to limitations of AutoHotkey. After a short while ac'tivAid should work properly again. When the search dialog is used often, it is recommended to provide ALT shortcuts by typing an ampersand (&) in front of the favored character. For example G&oogle means that ALT+o performs the search action in the dialog. The option to encode the search term is useful when problems occur during submission of umlauts or other special characters. The URL of the search engine has to include a placeholder (###), which is replaced by the selected text when calling the search engine. It is possible to provide multiple placeholders (##1##, ##2##, ...) where each one represents one word. In this case terms containing spaces has to be surround by quotes. Advice for Firefox: To be able to simultaneously look up a term in multiple search engines, the option "current tab" for new pages should not be active. Advice for Internet Explorer: To be able to simultaneously look up a term in multiple search engines, the option "Reuse windows for launching shortcuts" has to be disabled. Beside the settings in the configuration dialog there is a hidden setting that can be done in the file ac'tivAid.ini. They have to be provided below section [WebSearch]. MultipleOpenDelay = 500 : When multiple search engines are called at the same time, this value defines the waiting time between two requests in milliseconds. If Firefox or IE open everything in the same window, increasing of this value can help to solve the problem. Default-Hotkeys: Win+W - Starts WebSearch dialog Win+Shift+L - Directly search with Leo Win+Shift+G - Directly search with Google Win+Shift+W - Directly search with Wikipedia Win+Shift+T - Directly search with Wortschatz-Lexikon6.3.1. WebSearchOnMButton
With MouseClip activated, the text selected with middle mouse button is looked up using WebSearch immediately.6.4. LikeDirkey - Change directory using number pad
LikeDirkey owes his name to the small Freeware-Tool Dirkey (http://www.protonfx.com/dirkey/). Using LikeDirkey one can assign keys Win+0 to Win+9 respectively Ctrl+0 to Ctrl+9 to directories. This allows to quickly jump to the corresponding directory. Using the Win hotkey a new Explorer window is opened always, Using the Ctrl hotkey LikeDirkey tries to change the directory of the current window. To allow this, the address bar has to be visible inside the Explorer window. In order to work together with NiftyWindows, LikeDirkey has to use the numbers of the numpad. This is the standard setting and can be set in the configuration dialog. Beside directories also system variables like %APPDATA% can be used. Even Paths of the Registry can be opened. For these the Syntax looks like the following: HKEY_CURRENT_USER,Keypath\...,Name Prepending a hash character (#HKEY_CURRENT_USER,Keypath\...,Name) it is possible to write the current directory to Registry using Ctrl+Win+0-9 instead of changing the Entry in LikeDirkey. To be able to use special directories of Windows, their class ID has to be provided. http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Variables.htm#BuiltIn Default-Hotkeys: Win + 0-9 - Open Explorer with the directory saved in configuration. Ctrl + 0-9 - Switch to saved directory in current Explorer window Ctrl+Win + 0-9 - Save current directory to shortcut (only inside Explorer) Win + NumPlus - List all saved directories in a context menu. (only together with the extension LikeDirkeyMenu, see below)6.4.1. LikeDirkeyMenu
Expands LikeDirkey by providing a hotkey that displays a context menu showing all directory shortcuts. This extension is integrated into the configuration page of LikeDirkey. The extension RecentDirs mentioned below also provides the option to display the hotkeys in a menu.6.5. FilePaste - Pastes copied files as plain text filenames or paths
After copying a file in Explorer using Ctrl+C the filename can be pasted into any application as text using the defined hotkey. There are multiple options to define the format of the filename. More precise descriptions can be found in the ToolTips when waiting with the mouse cursor above the corresponding option. Default-Hotkeys: Ctrl+Win+V - paste the textual content of the clipboard, e.g. file paths or filenames of files copied in Explorer6.6. NewFolder - Create new folders
Inside Explorer, file dialogs and on the Desktop it is possible to create folders directly, using the configurable hotkey. The long way round the menu can be skipped. Using the additional hotkeys it is also possible to create a new folder that already contains predefined subfolders. It is also possible to create complete directory structures like: images images\RGB images\RGB\web images\RGB\rawdata images\CMYK The creation of folders only works when the complete path is displayed in the title bar or in the address bar of the Explorer window. In some cases the address bar has to be visible too. In the folder options, the setting where to display the path can be set. The option "Ask for the folder name in a dialog" shows a dialog instead of creating the folder and marking it for renaming. In the dialog the name is asked and also subfolders can be created directly by providing the path (new folder\subfolder\subsubfolder). The dialog is only available for explorer windows and not in file dialogs. Using the dialog it is also possible to change directly to the created folder. Inside folder names also AutoHotkey variables are supported. %A_YYYY%-%A_MM%-%A_DD% for example results in the current date in ISO format. More information on the variables can be found here: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Variables.htm#BuiltIn Default-Hotkeys: Ctrl+N - Create new folder in Explorer Ctrl+Shift+N - Create new folder with subfolders in Explorer Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N - Directly create subfolders in Explorer6.7. CommandLine - The address bar of explorer as a command-line
Typing < followed by a DOS-command, the command will be executed. When typing it two times << the command is executed without console window. < - in the address bar of Explorer window: induces command line commands6.8. UserHotkeys - User defined hotkeys
Vista restrictions: No restrictions are known, but because of the complexity, it is possible that some restrictions are not observed. UserHotkeys allows to assign as many hotkeys as available to any program, function, URL or directory. That is especially useful for external AutoHotkey scripts, which are not included in ac'tivAid. As an example the script 320Mph by Rajat is included and the Hotkey Ctrl+Shift+Space is assigned. This script allows a fast access to the start menu entries similar to the extension AppLauncher which is included since ac'tivAid 1.1. The hotkeys can be sorted in categories for a better overview. Above the list of the hotkeys the display can be limited to one category. In addition a hotkey can be assigned to a category, that displays a menu with all included hotkeys. This is helpful to create quick start menus. Using Alt+Up/Down and Alt+Home/End or dragging by mouse or using the context menu the entries can be assorted manually. Some special commands are supported. They have to be placed at the beginning of the command line. <PasteFile> The content of a file is inserted at the cursor position. Using the button "Save clipboard as file for <PasteFile>" in the creation dialog the content of the clipboard is stored in the subdirectory settings/Clipboards. <Send> The text following <Send> is written as simulated keyboard input. Modifiers like the ones listed at the HotStrings section. (+, ^, etc.) The complete list of modifiers can be found in the AutoHotkey help for the Send command: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/Send.htm To write modifiers to the output they have to be put into curly braces. {+}{^} The character ` is a special case (escape character of AutoHotkey) and has to be duplicated to be recognized correctly. `` <SendRaw> Similar to <Send>, but modifiers are not considered. <Send Delay:X> Works for <Send> and <SendRaw> and causes a delay between the output of two characters. The X stands for the number of milliseconds between the output. <ControlSend> Similar to the ControlSend command of AutoHotkey. It allows the sending of keyboard input to hidden and minimized programs. It is possible to send input to a specific GUI element using <ControlSend>Edit1,ABC or to send input to ahk_parent using <ControlSend>ABC where ahk_parent is the main window. For ControlSend "Only for the following applications" needs to be set. <ControlClick> Similar to the ControlClick command of AutoHotkey. Allows the sending of mouse clicks on buttons inside hidden or minimized programs. It is possible to send a click to a button directly <ControlClick>Button1 or to send a click to coordinates relatively to the upper left corner of the window using <ControlClick>X10 Y20 For ControlClick "Only for the following applications" needs to be set. Additional parameters can be provided after the following pattern: <ControlSend>Control/Pos,WhichButton,ClickCnt,Options Control/Pos = Control-Name or Position (Xn Yn) WhichButton = LEFT, RIGHT, MIDDLE, X1 or X2 Options = See AutoHotkey documentation: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/ControlClick.htm <ChDir> Change of directory in current Explorer window (like LikeDirkey) <Reload> Reload ac'tivAid. <ListHotkeys> Display a list of all hotkeys in a window. <ListLines> Display a list of recently executed script commands. <ListVars> Display a list of all variables. <KeyHistory> Display a list of recently pressed keys. <ExitApp> Exit ac'tivAid. <getControl> Write the name of the window element below the mouse pointer to clipboard. <getColour> Write the color code of the pixel below the mouse pointer to clipboard. When adding #<RGB> or 0x<RGB> the color code is formatted like desired. On some systems <RGB> leads to a inaccurate display. <getControlText> The content of the window element below the mouse pointer is written to clipboard. This is a way to copy the label of a button. For ListViews, ListBoxes or DropDown lists, the selected text can be copied, too. When the command is sent again, the complete text of the list is copied. Also window titles are captured. <SingleInstance> When this command is written in front of a program path, the program will be started only once. When pressing the hotkey multiple times, the window of the program is restored or minimized. Limitations: This only works for programs that are executed directly. A lot of Java software (like FreeMind) and also some portable applications use a special executable for loading purposes which is terminated directly after execution. If a document should be opened, the executable to open this document has to be provided, because otherwise ac'tivAid can not recognize the program that opened the document. <Single> Similar to <SingleInstance>, but the window is not minimized on pressing the hotkey again. Limitations are the same as for <SingleInstance>. <SingleInstanceClose> Adding this command the program is opened once. When pressing the hotkey again the program is closed. Limitations are the same as for <SingleInstance>. <SingleInstanceKill> Similar to <SingleInstanceClose>, but the process is killed after half a second if it does not terminate. Please use careful because unsaved data can be lost! Limitations are the same as for <SingleInstance>. <AOT> This command opens the window in always on top mode. <AOT> can be combined with <SingleInstance>. When AOTModifyTitle=1 is set in ac'tivAid.ini in section [UserHotkey], <AOT> modifies the window title to make the mode visible. <Min>,<Max>,<Hide> The window of the program is opened minimized, maximized or hidden. <WheelUp>,<WheelDown> Sends mouse wheel up/down command to the current window. This allows to scroll using the keyboard. <MouseMoveTo>x,y Moves the mouse cursor to the specific position x,y on the monitor. (The parameter s of previous versions is not supported any longer.) <MouseMoveBy>x,y,s Moves the mouse cursor by the specific values x,y on the monitor. Can be used to create a keyboard mouse, together with "<send>{Click}" which performs a mouse click. (The parameter s of previous versions is not supported any longer.) <CategoryMenu> Display a category menu. This command is created automatically, when a category shortcut is assigned. To create separators an entry with neither shortcut nor command but the corresponding category has to be added. If the command does not provide a category, a menu with all categories is shown. The commands are displayed as submenus. <CategoryLaunchAll> Executes all commands of the category the hotkey is created for. The category is not given as command, but as category. <AltTab>, <ShiftAltTab> These commands allow to assign the Alt-Tab menu <AltTabAndMenu> (Task-Switcher) to a hotkey like Shift+MouseWheel. <AltTabMenuDismiss> <WorkingDir:"..."> Defines the working directory. For example %ComSpec%<WorkingDir:"C:\"> calls the command line interpreter (cmd.exe) in a way that the starting directory is set to C:\. <PostMessage> Realization of the AutoHotkey command which uses the following syntax: <PostMessage>Msg, wParam, lParam, Control, WinTitle... Example: Toggle shuffle for winamp <PostMessage>0x111,40023,,,ahk_class Winamp v1.x <activAid> Calls the declared subroutine of the ac'tivAid source. This function has to be used very careful, because it can cause damages. The new option of AppLauncher to display instructions of ac'tivAid can be used to determine the correct subroutines. Some interesting subroutines: sub_Statistics - Statistic window sub_VarDumpGUI - Check values of variables sub_OpenSettingsDir - Open settings directory sub_ShowDuplicates - Show window of duplicate hotkeys <ShowExtensionMenu> Directly calls the context menu of an extension, that otherwise is displayed as submenu in the context menu in the menu of all functions. Example: <ShowExtensionMenu>HotStrings <Config> Calls the simple configuration of a single extension. Example: <Config>HotStrings <OnShutDown> The provided command is executed automatically before the shutdown of the machine using PowerControl or AutoShutDown. This for example allows to execute a backup script before shutting down the machine. AutoShutDown and PowerControl look up all entries of UserHotkeys and execute all where <OnShutDown> is present. That means the entries can still be called using a hotkey, if one is added. Environment variables are supported as well as all variables provided by AutoHotkey. Variables has to be enclosed by % characters (e.g. %USERNAME%). If the % character has to be used itself, the ` sign has to be prepended. Example: <send>100 `% The available variables can be found in the documentation of AutoHotkey: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Variables.htm#BuiltIn UserHotkeys also provides a special variable named %Selection%. It is replaced by the currently selected text when the hotkey is pressed. For the command <Send> there is the special variable %SelectionPaste% which is only available for <Send>. At the position the variable is placed it is replaced by Ctrl+V and before the command is executed the selection is put into the clipboard. To be able to use special directories of Windows, their class ID has to be provided. The most important IDs for Windows XP are: ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} - My Computer ::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} - Recycle bin ::{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} - Network neighborhood ::{A4D92740-67CD-11CF-96F2-00AA00A11DD9} - Dial-up Network ::{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} - Printers ::{FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000} - History ::{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF} - Scheduled Tasks Control - Control Panel Control Appwiz.cpl - Control Panel/Software System directories can be provided using the corresponding AutoHotkey variable %A_WinDir% - Windows directory %A_ProgramFiles% - Program Files directory (most times C:\Program Files) %A_AppData% - Current user's application-specific data %A_AppDataCommon% - All-users application-specific data %A_Desktop% - Current user's desktop files %A_DesktopCommon% - All user's desktop files %A_StartMenu% - Current user's Start Menu folder %A_StartMenuCommon% - All user's Start Menu folder %A_Startup% - Startup folder in the current user's Start Menu %A_StartupCommon% - Startup folder in the all-users Start Menu %A_MyDocuments% - Current user's "My Documents" folder %A_ScriptDir% - Directory where ac'tivAid is located Hotkeys can be limited to single programs. For indication a part of the window title, the window class with prefix "ahk_class " or as special case the text "ExplorerAndDialogs" can be given. ExplorerAndDialogs is valid for all Explorer windows and file dialogs. This makes it possible to replace LikeDirkey together with <ChDir>. To invert the behavior the statement has to begin with [not]. This allows to exclude programs. Multiple window names can be divided by comma but this is not possible for multiple window classes (ahk_class). For the special commands <ControlSend> or <ControlClick> ahk_class defines the remotely controlled program which even does not have to be active. When the file settings\custom-variables.ini is created it is possible to define own variables that are available using %VARIABLE%. The file has to have the following format: VARIABLE = Value (Characters allowed for variable names: A-Z 0-9 # _ @ $ ? [ ])6.9. HotStrings - Automatic HotStrings
Often used text snippets can be called via abbreviations using "HotStings". If ac'tivAid is compiled using the extension PackAndGo, HotStrings cannot be changed any longer. If you need HotStrings in a compiled version, you have to configure them before you use PackAndGo to create the executable. It's best to explain the options on the basis of an example. The abbreviation "Sy" is set to "Sincerely yours". The options have the following results: � default (no options) Sy is replaced after a space or a punctuation mark is typed before and after the abbreviation Sy. blah Sy blah = blah Sincerely yours blah blah sy blah = blah Sincerely yours blah blahsy blah = blahsy blah blah syblah = blah syblah "Sy" = "Sincerely yours" sy, = Sincerely yours, � replace immediately (otherwise after Space, Enter ...) Sy is replaced directly after typing the letter y by the text module so it's not waited for space or punctuation mark. This option is useful to specify a chosen character for replacement. If all abbreviations and with < it is more unlikely to replace text unwillingly (for example "Sy<", "DSoM<", ...) � ignore the character which causes the replacement This option causes the character that induces the replacement not to be typed. If you type a space after Sy it is not typed after "Sincerely yours". blah Sy blah = blah Sincerely yoursblah "Sy" = "Sincerely yours Sy, = Sincerely yours � replace inside words The abbreviation is also replaced when typed inside a word. blasybla = blaSincerely yoursbla � don't replace abbreviation but append the text sy = sySincerely yours � case sensitivity � yes Sy = Sincerely yours sy = sy SY = SY � ignore case Sy = Sincerely yours sy = Sincerely yours SY = SINCERELY YOURS � ignore case and don't transpose case Sy = Sincerely yours sy = Sincerely yours SY = Sincerely yours � output control-commands like {Enter}{Left} as plain text Normally control-commands like {Enter} are executed during replacement so {Enter} produces a new line. With this option active the text is typed as it is written. � substitute !, +, ^, and # with Alt, Ctrl, Strg or Windows If checked, special single-character control-commands in the text are transformed to keyboard input that means ^a results in Ctrl+A, what results in the whole text marked in most applications. Here you get a small overview of the available control-commands. A complete list can be found in the documentation at: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/Send.htm Remark: ac'tivAid does not re-recognize controls it sends on its own! {F1} - {F24} function key {!} ! 0.4 also small AutoHotkey scripts can be provided. The option "AutoHotkey-commands" has to be activated. Because an error in these scripts cause ac'tivAid not to start any longer the scripts has to undergo a "syntax-check" before "Apply" can be pressed. Later Errors can only be corrected by manually correcting them in the file settings/Hotstrings.ini. Since ac'tivAid 1.0.5 it is possible to limit HotStrings to single programs. The limitation refers to parts of the title of the window. To limit a HotString to OpenOffice, "- OpenOffice.org" has to be written as window title. Important remark: The comparison is case sensitive! With "Not for this Appl." checked, HotStrings can be excluded from programs. When the file settings\custom-variables.ini is created it is possible to define own variables that are available using %VARIABLE%. The file has to have the following format: VARIABLE = Value (Characters allowed for variable names: A-Z 0-9 # _ @ $ ? [ ]) To insert formatted HotStrings there are two possibilities. 1. Shortcuts can be sent to the application to activate formatting. Example for OpenOffice ("substitute !, +, ^, and #..." has to be active): normal text ^+fbold text^+f nomal text Alternative: {Ctrl down}{Shift down}f{Ctrl up}{Shift up} instead of ^+f 2. This possibility takes usage of the button "Save clipboard as file" at the right bottom of the configuration. This option saves the current clipboard content to a file and the currently active HotString is filled with a small script that reads the file and paste it to the current application. If the output of HotStrings does not work properly or behaves in an unwanted way (e.g. with Google Desktop), the SendPlay mode can be activated for single HotStrings. It is named SendPlay because it is adapted to work together with games. SendPlay is slower than the normal mode and sends the keys directly to the active program. This also means the start menu cannot be opened by sending {LWin}. Also only Keys can be sent, that are available for the current active keyboard layout. It is possible to provide global HotStrings in a network. Therefor the designated HotStrings should be created on one machine. Afterwards the file HotStrings.ini has to be moved to a network drive. Now on every computer that is supposed to share these HotStrings the HotStrings.ini has to be modified by adding the following line at the top of it: #Include *i N:\path\HotStrings.ini Where N is the drive letter of the network drive. It is important that there are no identical HotStrings on the local machine, because otherwise ac'tivAid will stop with an error message. The *i is given to disable a possible error message when the file is not available for some reason. The external HotStrings are displayed in the configuration but cannot be modified. To avoid displaying comments of manually modified HotSting files inside the configuration, the following comment combinations can be used: ;* ;; ;! ;- ;= ; - ; = More information can be found here: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/Send.htmhttp://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/SendMode.htmhttp://tinyurl.com/43vbda (German) http://www.heise.de/software/download/special/activaid_forte/10_11 (German)6.9.1. HotStringsHotkey - Create HotString from selection
HotStringsHotkey is a simple extension that provides a hotkey for creating HotStrings out of the currently selected Text. The new HotString is not saved immediately, but the configuration window is displayed with the new HotString to allow changing the options.6.10. ReadingRuler - Attach a line or a cross hair to the mouse cursor
This extension provides a line across the monitor that can be used as a ruler to simplify reading. This line follows the mouse cursor and can be toggled by pressing the hotkey. There is the possibility to display a vertical line or both lines optionally. The color, transparency and thickness is freely configurable. The additional options to display the window class or the element class are mainly only interesting for developers. If the start position is displayed, ReadingRuler also works together with ScreenShots and passes the spanned area to ScreenShots. By pressing the Ctrl key twice with short time between, the start position can be repositioned. Default-Hotkeys: Win + Plus Toggle reading ruler6.11. QuickChangeDir - Quickly change the directory
Using QuickChangeDir it is possible to change to a directory, without knowing exactly where it is located. After a part of the directory name is given, QuickChangeDir lists all considerable directories. To allow a quick search, there is a previously created index for the drives. The folder is not looked up on the drives itself. Using the configuration dialog the directories and drives that should be indexed can be defined. Less folders make the list more simple and speed up the indexing process. So only the required folders should be included. (see "schedule indexing ..." below) For long result lists, the search results in the result window can be further narrowed down. Using Ctrl+Up/Down entries that contain the input can be selected directly. Using the arrow menu in the search dialog or the check-button in the configuration dialog single drives or directories can be re-indexed. The address bar has to be visible in explorer windows to allow directory changes. In general typing the drive letter limits the search to this drive (Example: C:search item) and thereby speeds up the process. This can be useful as a "default search item". When putting "C:" there, the search dialog is initialized with this value, so the search is limited to drive C by default. To look up a folder in all drives, the "C:" can be deleted. Using a wildcard (*) allows to omit substrings. Additionally not only the name of the folder is looked up, but the complete path. When a wildcard is present, the search operation slows down. Examples for wildcards: *Explorer (the path has to end with "Explorer") *Explorer* (the path contains "Explorer" somewhere inside) Explorer* (the directory has to begin with "Explorer") C:*Explorer (like the first one, but limited to drive C) Program*Explorer* (finds "Explorer*" only as a subfolder of "Program*") schedule indexing ...: The scheduled indexing keeps the index of directories up to date. Because the indexing slows down the system because of a lot of disk accesses, scheduled indexing at special times or special events is recommended. A real time index is not possible with AutoHotkey. That means newly created directories can only be found after re-indexing. There are multiple types of schedules for indexing that can be combined. - Indexing if the drive-space changed This is only recommended, when few directories are indexed and the index has to be actualized quite often. When the free drive-space changes by the given amount, the indexing is directly done. - Indexing at a appointed time This setting is useful for servers or other computers that are permanently working. It allows indexing at night time or at noon. - Indexing every X hours Mostly suitable for servers to keep shared drives up to date. - Indexing at shutdown/poweroff (only with AutoShutdown or PowerControl) This is recommended for single user computers. When the computer is shut down using AutoShutdown or PowerControl, the indexing is done before the computer shuts down. When shutting down using the start menu the indexing is not initiated. Beside the settings in the configuration there is a hidden setting that can be set in the file QuickChangeDir.ini: [History] HistoryLength = xxx ; Defines how many entries are recorded in the history Default-Hotkeys: Win + Minus Dialog for the directory change6.12. QuickNote - Simple note window with direct saving
QuickNote is a very simple, but quickly accessible note window. It can be toggled by Hotkey and saves every change directly to hard disk, that means on a crash no data is lost. QuickNote is especially useful for notices during a phone call. Below the note there is the possibility to activate a timer. The note is then displayed at the specified date and time automatically and a sound is played. Using the compact view hides the title bar and the timer options. In this view the note is only movable and scalable using ComfortResize, but this view is useful because all the space it uses is available for displaying the note. Another option allows to hide the scroll bars to have more space for the note. The acoustic signal of the timer can be changed in a hidden setting inside the file ac'tivAid.ini in the settings directors. Below [QuichNoteX] the following line has to be added: SoundFile = C:\pfad\datei.wav QuickNote only supports one note. If more notes are required, the script can be duplicated using the button "Duplicate QuickNote script". The duplicated scripts work completely independent and can be configured freely. Duplicated QuickNote scripts are numbered serially (QuickNote1, QuickNote2, ...). The duplication of the script is not possible for the PackAndGo version. If a wildcard (*) is set in front of the path, QuickNote first tries to find the file in the folder of the currently active Explorer window. If it is not found, the global file is opened. This setting is useful for notes in folders of a project. The colors of background and text can be changed by inserting the hexadecimal value or by selecting it by mouse (double click on the color field). In addition to the hidden setting SoundFile, there are these additional ones: UndoFile = xxx ; Defines the path of the undo file. MaxUndos = 50 ; Defines the maximum number of stored UNDO steps TimerMenu = xxx ; Allows to manually modify the timer menu. Default setting: TimerMenu = 1m, 2m, 3m, 4m, 5m, 6m, 7m, 8m, 9m, 10m, 12m, 15m, 20m, 25m, 30m, 40m, 45m, 50m, 55m, -, 1h, 1�h, 2h, 3h, 4h, 5h, 10h, -, 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 7d ShutdownDelaySeconds = xxx ; Number of seconds for "Show note window for X seconds at shutdown" The following shortcuts are available when editing a note: Ctrl+Del: Delete word behind cursor Ctrl+Backspace: Delete word before cursor Ctrl+A: Select all Ctrl+D: Insert date Ctrl+L: Insert line Ctrl+R: Execute selection (URL, path, ...) Ctrl+Z: Undo Ctrl+Y: Redo Ctrl+S oder Escape: Close note Ctrl+E: Export selection Ctrl+P: Print note Ctrl+K: Toggle compact mode Ctrl+F: Search text F3: Search next Shift+F3: Search previous Drag&Drop: Insert file path Ctrl+Up/Down: Scroll Default-Hotkeys: F12: Toggle note window6.13. Eject - Ejects CDs or other media
Eject can be used to define 11 hotkeys for opening and closing the CD trays. Using DevEject (from c't 16/03) also memory cards can be ejected from multi card readers. In combination with the tool RemoveDrive (by Uwe Sieber) it also allows to perform a safe remove of USB sticks. For all operations a transparent on screen display similar to the one of OS X can be displayed. Since version 0.6 the wildcard (*) can be used as a special drive symbol. This allows to remove the currently selected drive. This option recognizes a selected link on the Desktop as well as an active Explorer window or a selected drive in "My Computer". It is also possible to eject multiple drives by writing them in a comma separated list. "AllCD" is a keyword to eject all CD drives. To eject drives using DecEject, a drive name has to be created by using the button "Custom devicenames". In the dialog a device can be connected with a drive name. In the left column the name has to be given (e.g. USB-Stick). The right column can be filled in multiple ways. If the name is a drive letter, the device ID pressing the arrow button (->) tries to find the drive ID. In the drop down list all device IDs are listed. Remark that in this list also non drives like external WLAN-devices or keyboards are listed. The selected device ID is used as parameter -EjectID for DevEject. Alternatively this parameter for DevEject can be entered manually (no ' or \ is allowed in this name). Also the drive letter can be entered, if the device ID does not work or if it looks to risky for you. The tool RemoveDrive by Uwe Sieber can be called by typing "RemoveDrive X:" in the field "assigned device", where X is the drive letter. This tool is always able to remove external USB drives if no open handle is left. With the additional option "RemoveDrive X: -l" (loop) RemoveDrive keeps trying to remove the drive continuously. This improves the reliability, but can cause the Eject display to stay on screen if RemoveDrive is not successful. The user defines devices can be selected in the drive drop down list inside the configuration of Eject. Default-Hotkeys: ScrollLock Eject first optical device Ctrl+Shift+E Eject selected device (*)6.14. MusicPlayerControl - Hotkeys for Media-Player
This script allows to control WinAmp, iTunes, FooBar 2000 and Windows Media Player with global hotkeys. If MusicPlayerControl does not work together with iTunes, a re-installation of iTunes most times can solve the problem. MusicPlayerControl can also simulate the media keys of an extended keyboard. This is only done if the option is active and none of the supported players had been available. Because there are no media keys for the special Controls, they do only work for the supported applications that are supported. When no supported application is found, a BalloonTip with a message is displayed. For support of programs that do not have an entry in the Registry, the file ac'tivAid.ini has to be edited and the corresponding setting has to be inserted below [MusicPlayerControl]. The corresponding name is shown in an InfoScreen if the program is activated, but no executable is found. <Programmname>Path = <Pfad> Default-Hotkeys: Win + Cursor left: Previous title Win + Cursor right: Next title Win + Del: Pause Win + Shift + Cursor left: Rewind (Not working for all player software) Win + Shift + Cursor right: fast-forward Win + Shift + Cursor up: WinAmp/iTunes volume up Win + Shift + Cursor down: WinAmp/iTunes volume down Win + End: Stop Win + Home: Play6.15. MiddleButton - Assign actions to the middle mouse button (wheel)
Offers a selection of actions that can be assigned to the middle mouse button. Single window- or element classes can be defined as exceptions, where the middle mouse button keeps the original function. For class names also wildcard (*) is allowed to allow groups of element classes to be caught. Example: MozillaWindowClass* When problems with menus of Firefox occur, the adding of element class MozillaDropShadowWindowClass helps, which is added by default since ac'tivAid version 1.1.7.32.6.16. FreeSpace - Shows the free disk space in the title bar of explorer
Vista restrictions: Displaying of the free space in the title bar only works with classic XP Design. FreeSpace changes the title bar of all Explorer windows and displays the amount of free space of the current drive.6.17. WindowsControl - Minimizing, maximizing and closing windows
WindowsControl allows to define hotkeys for essential window operations as minimizing, maximizing, closing and changing the size to special formats. Additionally there is an option to kill a program without waiting for a response. This is useful for hanging applications. The option "Window always on top" toggles the always on top mode for a window, that means it cannot be covered by other windows. Default-Hotkeys: Win + Space: Minimize window Win + Alt + Ctrl + Space: Maximize window Win + Alt + Ctrl + left: Maximize window on left half of the screen Win + Alt + Ctrl + right: Maximize window on right half of the screen Win + Alt + Ctrl + up: Maximize window on upper half of the screen Win + Alt + Ctrl + down: Maximize window on lower half of the screen Win + H: Maximize window only in vertical range Win + W: Maximize window only in horizontal range Win + X: Close program/window Win + Shift + Home: Toggle always on top mode (AOT) Win + Shift + Del: Kill process (Remind: not saved data is lost)6.18. RecentDirs - A menu with recently used folders
Vista restrictions: works fine, but not yet tested wit Office. In most file dialogs Windows provides access to the recently used files and folders. Most times the files listed here are not required and slow down the process. RecentDirs provides a context menu that only reads the links to directories listed in the "Recent" directory and sorts them chronological. The last used directory is found at the top of the menu. Because Microsoft Office has its own directory to store recent files, both directories are read and the results are sorted chronological. Selecting a directory activates this directory in the active dialog or Explorer window. If no Dialog or Explorer window is active, a new Explorer is opened. By pressing Ctrl, Shift or Windows during selection this behavior can be forced. Additionally RecentDirs allows to tidy up the "Recent" directories of Windows and Microsoft Office. This speeds up RecentDirs as well as the internal Windows function. The tidying up is done on every call of RecentDirs and can additionally be scheduled every 5 minutes in background. Using "alternative presentation" affects the layout of the menu. Further details are shown in the ToolTip of the option. Default-Hotkeys: Win + Del: List recently visited directories6.19. PackAndGo - Compile ac'tivAid for distribution
This extension allows the creation of a compiled EXE version of ac'tivAid. It takes care of compiling the additional scripts like QuickChangeDir Indexer and the UserHotkey scripts and creates a single EXE file where all scripts are embedded. So only the EXE file has to be distributed. All required files, like this ReadMe and the icon files are extracted during the first launch. All settings that are set at compiling time are stored, too. For the extension HotStrings remark that HotStrings cannot be modified in the compiled version. After compilation the EXE file can be moved automatically or an application or script can be called. This is useful for administrators that only pass the EXE version and make them available in a commonly available directory. Using a script would allow to automatically spread the new file via Mail. The option "Enable uninstall of the exe-file" configures whether the EXE version writes uninstall information to the registry on first launch. This would allow users to uninstall ac'tivAid like other software.6.20. LeoToolTip - Translate selected word
LeoToolTip is able to look up the selected word on "http://dict.leo.org". The translation is shown in a ToolTip or in a menu that can either be called by a hotkey or by selecting text with the middle mouse button. The latter has to be activated in the configuration and is only available when MouseClip is active. To display the ToolTip for a longer time, the mouse cursor has to be moved on the ToolTip. When the ToolTip is left, or it is clicked on the ToolTip it disappears. Clicking with the right mouse button on the ToolTip opens the corresponding page at leo.org in the default browser. In the configuration, also the server that should be used for the requests can be chosen. "dict.leo.org" and "pda.leo.org" are available. "dict.leo.org" is the regular website that submits more data than "pda.leo.org" which is a page optimized for PDAs and gives equal results more quickly especially for slow internet connections. This advantage comes together with the disadvantage that using it for many requests in a short time can cause a ban of 2 Minutes from leo.org. In this case a ToolTip with this information is shown. Another disadvantage is that new languages are added later. This is why German-Italian is only available over dict.leo.org. LeoToolTip only supports translations for languages that use ASCII letters, because AutoHotkey presently does not support Unicode-Text, which would be required for German-Chinese translation. An alternative to the ToolTip is displaying the results in a menu, where a translation can be chosen to directly replace the selected text with. As an option the text can also be copied to the clipboard. In general the display is limited to the first 5 hits. This limitation is the result of an agreement with Leo.org, to have the permission to continue offering LeoToolTip. By default an input dialog is shown, when nothing is selected. At "Additional settings..." it can be changed and ac'tivAid tries to select the word under the cursor and look this one up. Please note chapter 3.2., when problems with the internet connection appear. Beside the settings in the configuration dialog there is a hidden setting that can be done in the file ac'tivAid.ini. It has to be provided below section [LeoToolTip]. HistoryFile = file.txt ; all found and chosen selections are written to the file provided HistoryFileOnMenuCall = 1 ; Additional settings for the history file 1: only write to the file when the entry in the context menu is selected 2: only "search item=translation" is added 3: the selected menu entry is added formatted and always with the foreign language at first Default-Hotkeys: Ctrl + Shift + L translate selected word using German-English dictionary6.21. ThesauroToolTip - Synonyms for German words
ThesauroToolTip looks up the selected word at http://www.openthesaurus.de. The result is shown in a ToolTip or in a menu that can either be called by a hotkey or by selecting text with the middle mouse button. The latter has to be activated in the configuration and is only available when MouseClip is active. To display the ToolTip for a longer time, the mouse cursor has to be moved on the ToolTip. When the ToolTip is left, or it is clicked on the ToolTip it disappears. Clicking with the right mouse button on the ToolTip opens the corresponding page at openthesaurus.de in the default browser. Older versions of ThesauroToolTip had used the more comprehensive "Wortschatz- Projekt" of the University of Leipzig. Unfortunately the websites had been modified in a way that AutoHotkey is not able to access them in the moment. Please note chapter 3.2., when problems with the internet connection appear. Default-Hotkeys: Ctrl + Shift + T show Synonyms for the selected German word6.22. AutoShutdown - Dialog to shutdown or logoff the system
AutoShutdown can be used to specifically shut down the computer. In difference to PowerControl a security dialog is shown, that is automatically confirmed after a configurable time. This allows to abort an accidental activation of the shutdown. Another option is to automatize the shutdown completely. Either a schedule can be created (e.g.: every working day at 7 pm and on weekends at 10 pm) or the shutdown can be initiated dependent on program windows. The last option can be interesting for backup software or other time consuming processes, that are not able to shut down the computer by themselves. The dialog for "Program and window controlled shutdown" multiple rules can be combined. Example: the disappearing window "Copy ..." only initiates the shutdown, if a window "Backup" is present. The + button can be used to capture the data of an currently active window and inserts this information into the text fields of the dialog. To have the ability to test the behavior without accidentally shutting down the computer, there is a test mode which only displays what would happen. To execute one or more commands before shutting down, there can be created entries as UserHotkeys using the special command <OnShutDown>. More information can be found at UserHotkeys. Default-Hotkeys: Win + Q: Shutdown computer with security dialog Win + Ctrl + Shift + Q: Shutdown computer directly6.23. ComfortResize - Change the size of all windows and move them
To resize or move windows more comfortable, ComfortResize allows to perform these actions within the complete window. Therefor the window is virtually divided into nine parts. When clicking in the eight parts at the border of the window it can be resized, inside the one in the middle it can be moved. Optionally it is possible to limit the resize and move operations by the screen borders. Additionally six hotkeys can be selected to scale the window to a user defined size. This for example is useful for web developers in combination with browser windows to simulate different screen resolutions. Depending on the graphics card and the system artifacts may occur on the screen, but the will disappear when the mouse button is released or the mouse does not move. Optionally the speed of the movement can be slowed down, which prevent or at least reduces the artifacts. Beside the settings in the configuration dialog there is a hidden setting that can be done in the file ac'tivAid.ini. It has to be provided below section [ComfortResize]. If you use "Right and left mouse button" and the right mouse button does not work correctly in other programs you could enable an alternative behavior in the additional settings menu. Default-Hotkeys: Win + right mouse button: Resize or move window Win + Shift + right mouse button: Resize or move window using the grid Win + Ctrl + right mouse button: Resize or move window toggle limit on screen Win + Alt + Numpad-6: Resize window to 640x480 Win + Alt + Numpad-8: Resize window to 800x600 Win + Alt + Numpad-1: Resize window to 1024x768 Win + Alt + Numpad-2: Resize window to 1280x1024 Win + Alt + Numpad-4: User defined size Win + Alt + Numpad-5: User defined size6.24. DriveIcons - Create links to drives on mounting
Vista restrictions: Ejecting using the Recycle bin does not work yet. 64-bit systems restriction: It is not possible to arrange the icons on the right side like OS X does it. DriveIcons provides a handy function, known from Linux and MAC systems. When a CD is inserted or an external media is plugged in, a link is created on the desktop. It is even possible to arrange the icons on the right side of the screen (this option is not available for 64-bit systems). Instead of the desktop, the links can also be created in the Quick Launch area or inside a user defined directory. Drives where no link should be created can be excluded by name. Manually created links are recognized by DriveIcons. If there is need for an additional link to a drive the path of the link has to be like "C:". It is not allowed to end with ":\". These links are handled by DriveIcons. Like the original Mac version, it is also possible to eject drives by dropping them on the Recycle bin. This is managed by monitoring the links (which can be disabled). If a link is deleted manually, DriveIcons tries to eject the drive using the extension Eject, which has to be installed. Some CD/DVD burning programs like Nero Burning Rom continuously check the status of CD/DVD drives like DriveIcons does. This causes both programs to react with delay and causes problems with burning media. For this reason a list of programs can be given to disable the status requests when these programs are active. To include a program in the list, it is recommended to disable DriveIcons (by unchecking the checkbox left to the description and applying this setting). After disabling DriveIcons start the program that should be disabled and call the configuration of DriveIcons. Click on the + button, activate the program that caused problems and press enter. Now the exception list should contain the class of the program. To prevent other users having the same problem it would be nice of you to inform us so we can extend the default list of excluded applications. Another problem in combination with DriveIcons can occur using the personal firewall Outpost. In general it is recommended to activate the option "Allow NetBios communication" when using AutoHotkey scripts. Also some special drives (e.g. VPN) can slow down the system. In this case, only excluding these drives in the configuration solves the problem. The entry "SkipIcons = x" in ac'tivAid.ini below [DriveIcons] defines how many spaces for icons are left blank atop, before the drive icons are displayed.6.25. FileRenamer - Rename multiple files or folders
What’s New in the QuickNote2 v1.00 serial key or number?
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