OSD

Description

OSD, short for "on screen display" is a command-line program thataccepts a text string entered by a user at the command-prompt or in a batch-fileand displays this text on top of all windows on the users screen.

Features

The following options can be defined by the user:

• Text string, "Hello World"
• Display time
• Font family, "Courier" etc.
• Font size
• Font style: Regular, Bold, Italic, Underline
• Font color
• Font transparency
• Vertical position
• Horizontal position

Screenshots

Running

First download and extractthe OSD executable and place it in theappropriate location on your computer. Call the program from the command promptwith optional arguments. Example:

          d:\>osd.exe argument1=value1argument2=value2

Possible arguments are:

• help
  Description: Displays the help window.
  Usage: help
• text
  Description: Specifies the string to be displayed on the screen.
  Usage: text="some string"
  Range: limited to 1 line
• time
  Description: Is the time the OSD is displayed on the screen. Time is specified in milliseconds.
  Usage: time=1000
  Default: 5000 (= 5 seconds)
  Range: 0-inf
• link
  Description: Defines a link to be opened when the OSD is clicked.
  Usage: link="http://www.hamans.com/" or link="notepad.exe"
• fface
  Description: This parameter specifies the font to be used.
  Usage: fface="Courier"
  Default: "Arial"
• fsize
  Description: This parameter specifies the font size to be used.
  Usage: fsize=18
  Default: 32
  Range: 8-72
• fstyle
  Description: This parameter specifies the font style to be used. Only one style can be used at a time.
  Usage: fstyle=underline
  Default: bold
  Range: regular, bold, underline, italic
• fcolor
  Description: This parameter specifies the font color to be used. 
  Usage: fcolor=0,128,128
  Default: 0,255,0
  Range: 0-255,0-255,0-254
• ftrans
  Description: This parameter specifies the fonts transparency. 0 = fully visable, 100 = fully transparent.
  Usage: ftrans=50
  Default: 0
  Range: 0-100
• vpos
  Description: Defines vertical postion
  Usage: vpos=top
  Default: bottom
  Range: top, middle, bottom
• hpos
  Description: Defines horizontal postion
  Usage: hpos=left
  Default: center
  Range: left, center, right
• about
  Description: Displays the about window.
  Usage: about

System Requirements

OSD requires the Microsoft .NETFramework.
If you don't already have the Microsoft .NET Framework installed on your systemyou can downloadit from Microsoft. The .NET Framework runs on:

• Microsoft Windows® 98
• Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 (SP 6a required)
• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me)
• Microsoft Windows 2000 (SP2 Recommended)
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Download

You can download OSD from the following locations:

• osd.zip  Location: The Netherlands, Reliability: Good
• osd.zip  Location: USA, Reliability: Medium

Known Issues

As by today none.

Authors

A. Hubbers, A.Hubbers@student.tue.nl
B.C. Hamans, osd@hamans.com

License

OSD is "BEER-WARE"

"BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 43): A. Hubbers and B.C. Hamanswrote this program. As long as you retain this notice you can do whatever youwant with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think this stuff is worth it,you can buy us a beer in return. A. Hubbers and B.C. Hamans, 2002. 

Copyright © 2002 B.C. Hamans.