Wizmo and Gravitonomy

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Wizmo?
   • Lets let its author, Steve Gibson, describe it. Wizmo home.


2. What is Gravitonomy?
   • The free Wizmo Graviton Interface. It allows you to easily create and tweak Wizmo's Graviton screensaver feature. If you have version 1.x, make sure you download version 2. Main improvement: It creates Wizmo shortcuts and batch files for you!


3. Where can I get Gravitonomy?
   • Just go to my download page.


4. Can I control Wizmo on another computer on my network or the Internet from my computer?
   • Yes, just download my SimpleServer program. Set up Wizmo and SimpleServer on the computer you want to control, then run SimpleClient, which comes with SimpleServer, on your local computer. You could even set up a web page to communicate with SimpleServer instead of using SimpleClient. See the SimpleServer help file and the answer to the next question for details.


5. I set up Wizmo and SimpleServer on the remote computer. It runs Wizmo fine, but it won't stop Wizmo at the set time?
   • SimpleServer is designed to launch a program and then terminate that program after a user-defined number of minutes. In order for SimpleServer to stop Wizmo after launching it, it needs to know Wizmo's window caption, what you normally see a on a window's title bar or the text of its taskbar button. When Wizmo is running, it is at full screen. It has no title bar to identify its window and no taskbar button, but that doesn't mean it has no window caption. When Wizmo is running full screen, it has an unseen window caption of "WizmoCoverageWindow". Type"WizmoCoverageWindow", without the quotes, into SimpleServer's config dialog's "Window caption" field. This will allow SimpleServer to stop Wizmo after the set number of minutes. If you just want to restart the other computer, I would skip using Wizmo altogether. Just have SimpleServer run a batch file or a ".vbs" script as described in the SimpleServer help file. There is another way to run Wizmo for a pre-determined time and cause it to stop. Lets say you want to turn off the other computer's monitor for 10 minutes, then back on. Create a text file, in the same directory as Wizmo, named "monoff.vbs" with the below contents:

     	Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
     	Set oExec = WshShell.Exec("wizmo.exe monoff")
     	WScript.Sleep 600000
     	WshShell.AppActivate oExec.ProcessID
     	WshShell.SendKeys "%{F4}"
     

     Set SimpleServer to run this ".vbs" script. See the SimpleServer help file for instructions on running ".vbs" files. The other computer's monitor will turn off for 10 minutes, then back on. Lets say you want to make the person at the other computer think their computer is haunted. Use the below ".vbs" script to open their CD tray, then close it after 5 seconds:

     	Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
     	
     	Set oExec = WshShell.Exec("wizmo.exe open")
     	WScript.Sleep 5000
     	
     	Set oExec = WshShell.Exec("wizmo.exe close")
     

6. The buttons at the bottom of Gravitonomy's window, can I change what do?
   • New for version 2, click on the little wrench next to the buttons. No need to edit the "gravitonomy.ini" file.
   • Yes, for pre version 2, you will have to edit the "gravitonomy.ini" file. Lets look at the default ".ini" file below:

     	[Data]
     	Path=wizmo.exe
     	Command=grid=4,4 gravity=1000 trails=150 stop graviton
     	Button1=Turn off monitor|monoff
     	Button2=Start screensaver|blank
     	Button3=Turn screen black|blackout
     	Button4=Shutdown computer|shutdown		
     

     The buttons, from left to right, are defined by the "Button1", "Button2", "Button3" and "Button4" lines. The leftmost button corresponds to "Button1" and the rightmost button corresponds to "Button4". To change the leftmost button to put your computer in standby mode, change the "Button1" line to: Button1=Standby Mode|standby. Where "Button1=" determines which button to define, "Standby Mode" is the button's label and "standby" is the Wizmo command to execute. The "pipe" or the "|" character separates the button's label from its action.


7. Sometimes Wizmo interferes with scheduled tasks that run in the background. Is there a way to fix this?
   • Wizmo runs with a "Normal" priority. Sometimes this interferes with background processes. I wrote a program that will start another program with a "low" priority. Just create a batch file with the line below. Adjust the paths and the Wizmo command line accordingly:

   	nice.exe wizmo.exe
   

   You can get it here: nice.exe
   If you are just using "wizmo monoff", you might just use my Monoff 4 program instead. It doesn't interfere with background processes that might start up.


8. I have Wizmo run as a scheduled task several times a day. This causes problems because multiple instances of Wizmo are running at the same time. Is there a way around this?
   • Wizmo allows multiple instances of itself to be running at the same time. This can produce unpredictable results. To solve this, I wrote a program to close all instances of Wizmo. Run this program to make sure there are no instances of Wizmo running. Then it's safe to run Wizmo. You might run this in a batch file. Adjust the paths and the Wizmo command line accordingly:

   	killallwizmo.exe
   	start wizmo.exe
   

   • You can use this technique to toggle Wizmo's "monoff" by running the below batch file. Adjust the paths and the Wizmo command line accordingly:

   	@echo off
   	
   	killallwizmo.exe
   	if errorlevel 1 exit
   	
   	start wizmo monoff
   

   Or better yet, run Wizmo at low priority with the above nice.exe program. Adjust the paths and the Wizmo command line accordingly:

   	@echo off
   	
   	killallwizmo
   	if errorlevel 1 exit
   	
   	nice wizmo monoff
   

   You can get it here: killallwizmo.exe Updated!
   If you are just using "wizmo monoff", you might just use my Monoff 4 program instead. It doesn't have these problems.
   

9. Is there a way to run Wizmo as a "real" screensaver?
   • Sort of, just go to my download page.