Crutch
Well-known member
BeHierarchic 3.1 is a great CDEV by Fabien Octave that organizes the Apple menu more neatly than is possible under standard System 7, with folders up at the top and optional “recently used” groupings. I would gladly pay a ShareWare fee to Mr. Octave, but I’m not sure how to get in touch with him and unfortunately after 20 days, BeHierarchic pops up an alert box once the Finder loads - every single time - asking for registration. Yesterday I decided to find a way to turn this off. If anyone else wants to do the same thing, here’s how:
And you’re done.
Explanation: A05E is the trap word for _NMInstall, which INITs use to ask the Notification Manager to pop up an alert box once the Finder loads. By using the ResEdit CODE resource disassembler add-in, I was able to ascertain that the invocation of _NMInstall at A05E occurs right after a JSR to a subroutine that calls _GetResource to load a particular STR# (string list). In this instance, that subroutine is passed a 9 on the stack, which is then handed to _GetResource inside the subroutine. The 9th entry in the relevant STR# resource is the ShareWare alert string, so I deduced that this particular _NMInstall was used to ask the Finder to display the ShareWare popup. Removing it has no side effects other than skipping that Notification Manager request. (NOP’ing out the other _NMInstalls would certainly be harmless most of the time, but could prevent you from getting an alert if BeHierarchic has trouble loading for some reason.)
Anyway - silly hack of the weekend, maybe someone will find it useful. And if you’re Fabien Octave - I would be delighted to send that ShareWare fee if you tell me how!
- Open the BeHierarchic 3.1 control panel with ResEdit
- Open the INIT resources
- Open the one INIT resource listed (there will be only one) with the hex editor by double-clicking
- At offset 038E, you will find trap code A05E (you can use Command-F to search for A05E, but be careful - there are three - you only want to change the one at 038E)
- Replace this A05E (_NMInstall) with 4E71 (NOP) by typing carefully, being sure not to add too many or too few digits, of course
And you’re done.
Explanation: A05E is the trap word for _NMInstall, which INITs use to ask the Notification Manager to pop up an alert box once the Finder loads. By using the ResEdit CODE resource disassembler add-in, I was able to ascertain that the invocation of _NMInstall at A05E occurs right after a JSR to a subroutine that calls _GetResource to load a particular STR# (string list). In this instance, that subroutine is passed a 9 on the stack, which is then handed to _GetResource inside the subroutine. The 9th entry in the relevant STR# resource is the ShareWare alert string, so I deduced that this particular _NMInstall was used to ask the Finder to display the ShareWare popup. Removing it has no side effects other than skipping that Notification Manager request. (NOP’ing out the other _NMInstalls would certainly be harmless most of the time, but could prevent you from getting an alert if BeHierarchic has trouble loading for some reason.)
Anyway - silly hack of the weekend, maybe someone will find it useful. And if you’re Fabien Octave - I would be delighted to send that ShareWare fee if you tell me how!
