Disk-o-Matic 1.0 review

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by rbytes.net on

Disk-o-Matic lets you automatically open an item when its disk is inserted or mounted.

License: Freeware
OS: Mac OS X
File size: 165K
Developer: Alessandro Levi Montalcini
Price: $0.00
Updated: 19 Dec 2005
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Disk-o-Matic lets you automatically open an item when its disk is inserted or mounted.

After a disk has been configured, the Disk-o-Matic application itself is no longer required to make the auto-launch feature work.

You can take the modified disk to any other Mac without Disk-o-Matic and still have the chosen item automatically launched, as long as QuickTime is properly installed and configured (see below).

Disk-o-Matic takes advantage of a new QuickTime feature that allows you to automatically launch a specified item as soon as a disk is mounted. This feature is called “Enable CD-ROM AutoPlay” and must be turned ON in the QuickTime control panel.

Despite its name, it actually works with all kinds of disks, not just with CD-ROMs; you can set an auto-launching item for floppy disks, Zip disks, disk images, and any other removable or fixed disks except your startup disk. The startup disk can’t use this feature because it is mounted before QuickTime is loaded, but then you can use the “Startup Items” folder instead.

To make this feature work, the item to launch must be in the disk’s root directory and its name must be no longer than 11 characters. The root directory is the base level of the disk, which is what you see in the window that’s opened when you double-click the disk’s icon in the Finder. The item to launch has to be there, so it can’t be located in a folder or on the desktop. Both these limitations are part of the QuickTime AutoPlay implementation, so I can’t change them.

Also note that only one item can be set as the auto-launch item for a given disk.

Here are some key features of "Disk o Matic":
display text or picture clippings with specific information about your disks.
create multimedia CD-ROMs that automatically start up when inserted.
open the document you’re working on as soon as its disk is mounted.
have your Mac play a different sound for each of your Zip disks.
automatically run an antivirus or repair utility from an emergency disk.
run a complex AppleScript or macro when a backup disk is mounted.

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