Disappearing Authors
You mentioned Plannet Crafters in your latest Windows Daily. I've been
using one of their tools, “Flywheel,” for years! It's a little tool that
gives extra features to mice with scroll wheels. Even with the latest
version of MS IntelliPoint software installed, Flywheel still adds
enhancements that the IntelliPoint software doesn't provide – it's
indispensible! I find it funny that even though Plannet Crafters have
disappeared and obviously long stopped developing this program, it's still a
very valid and useful tool and has yet to be made redundant by the
IntelliPoint software. It's been constantly installed on my PC as my PC has
migrated from Win95 to Win98 to Win2k and now to WinXP – and it [still] works fine!
I seem to remember when the Plannet Crafters website announced that they
were no longer developing or supporting Flywheel, and they actually offered
a free registration code on their site for users to grab, so that Flywheel
could then be used as freeware instead of shareware (without the nag
screen) – very decent of them! It's a shame they did disappear and weren't
able to keep developing it further and adding even more features – although
having said that, I'd consider the software to be pretty much 100% complete
as it is – it's not buggy and has all the necessary features to make it
useful. I've yet to find an alternative mouse utility that is comparible! [Jeremy Fairbrass]









10 Comments
Anonymous
March 13th, 2002
at 6:36pm
I too have found flywheel to be a terrific program and
also lament the disappearance of Plannet Crafters. In fact, I still use Plugin (for Windows 3.1, even though I now use Windows 98 and gasp ME) I would appreciate it if Jeremy Fairbrass, who wrote the last message could give me the registration key since I am still plagued with the Flywheel “nag screen”
TIA
Joel Krumerman
Anonymous
March 13th, 2002
at 6:58pm
Found a source for it if anyone is interested:
http://www.filelibrary.com/Contents/Windows/126/30.html
(flywhl.exe, 3rd from the top)
And, thanks to the Wayback machine, here's the registration code:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000302034353/http://www.plannetarium.com/index.html
Cheers
Anonymous
March 13th, 2002
at 7:26pm
I tried to install that “Flywheel” on my XP home edition. Keeps telling me the Zipped file is corrupted. I've downloaded and tried several times. The file is an .exe thou and should run. What am I doing wrong ? Do you have another URL for this program ?
Thanks
Anonymous
March 14th, 2002
at 4:24am
I got that error under Windows 2000. What worked for me is using WinZip to open the file instead of running it as a self-extracting application. That did the trick.
Robert
August 31st, 2006
at 11:18pm
The Wayback archive link is locked due to the robots.txt preventing access to the archived file. So it looks like you’ll have to go underground for it.
Here. I trashed my PC with spyware and popup hells to get it, so be grateful! Excuse me while I reformat my computer…
Free code for Flywheel 3.35: Name:CoKeBoTtLe99 s/n: 13812800
Do yourself a favor, and attach it to the Comments of the Winzip extractor file. Oh, yeh, you’ll need to convert the extractor to a plain zip.
Robert
August 31st, 2006
at 11:38pm
Another disappearing author: Alex Kaufman, he created the über-cool Kaufman Mail Warrior. Its current final home is some Russian security site, and that is ultra-bad for the program. I still use it because it is the only e-mail program that works exclusively in its own directory – no registry or %Sysdir%/Application Data fragments, which makes it perfect to run off of USB flash drives. It’s buggy, yes, but it works great, beautifully, until the memory leak overflows after 1000 mails or 130 MBs of email. It even automatically extracts file attachments. While this poses a risk with certain viruses, it is great for files recieved by Yahoo Groups. However, it does not decode file attachments encoded directly into the text stream, a method few e-mail programs use rarely.
Besides all that Kaufman Mail Warrior rocks!
Gads! It’s hard to find- I’ll fix that… I’ll upload my archive and hook it up to the search engines.
Joseph
November 14th, 2006
at 8:48am
This looks to be an active link to the file where it can be obtained:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,117821-page,1/article.html
Scroll down to the bottom to find the registration code and link to download
Maarten
April 17th, 2007
at 7:47am
I just read someone writing about a “free registration code” for Flywheel from Plannet Crafters.
I still use another program from Plannet Crafters:
Plugin for Windows260.
I lost my registration code. Does anyone know about a free code for this program.
I would very much appreciate if anyone could mail this code to me:
mbvsdr1940@fastmail.net
Thanks in advance
Mason
August 22nd, 2007
at 11:50am
Yeah, I’m going to miss Plannet Crafters too – there’s so many great ‘old’ programs, utils and enhancements out there that will fade into oblivion.
As posted before, Flywheel’s info is:
Free code for Flywheel 3.35:
Name:CoKeBoTtLe99
s/n: 13812800
Plannet Crafter’s
Plug-in for Windows
Enter a name: Plannet Crafters
Registration #: 51377576
Finding Plug-In for Windows and/or Flywheel on the Internet
1. Google or Yahoo for plug260.zip or flywhl.exe
2. Run antivirus and an updated spyware blocker or 2 (like SpywareBlaster and Spybot Search & Destroy) – you’re likely to run into some scumware or Active X plagued sites.
3. Download plug260.zip and/or flywhl.exe.
Installing Plug-In on Windows XP
1. Make a folder (AKA directory!) under c: named plugin.
2. Unzip plugin260.zip into it.
3. Double-click plugin.exe (Geez, if you haven’t yet, setup explorer to show (”and/or not
hide” (Comcast Slowsky turtle reference)) file extensions and all files, etc in Tools>Folder Options>View) As if we all need Microsoft’s “protection” from ourselves.
You’ll get a warning popup:
Plug-In for Windows (dialog)
An application has attempted to directly access the hard disk, which cannot be supported. This may cause the application to function incorrectly. Choose ‘Close’ to terminate the application.
CLICK IGNORE. I love to allow ‘illegal’ operations like this. LOL, Vista will probably crash on this one – I’ll post a ‘how-to’ for Vista here when the time comes.
Plugin will install and bring up a dialog – click on the registration button and enter the name & reg # shown above. you’re registered now.
Tips
General Options
Check ‘Hide Plug-In Icon’ (it will still show in the system tray)
Run Plug-In when Windows starts – adds a ‘c:\plugin\plugin.exe’ entry in the registry at HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows:Load (msconfig will confirm that)
Quick Run Menu
Remove or edit the File Manager item (it will open My Documents in Explorer if left alone)
Resource Alerts (if you want to use them)
Drives – max them out at 99999 KB (funny to see 100MB as critical – how will I *ever* use up so much space?)
If you have more Plug-In tips or trick, please post them here.
PS – If someone’s got the .SAY and .DAT files for the talking clock function, could you zip them and mail them? please?
filenotfound01@gmail.com
‘TIA’
Luis R
August 26th, 2007
at 8:41pm
Just found this place while googleing for Plannet Crafter’s Plug-In for Windows. I have been using this little program continuosuly since the times of Windows 3.1 back in 1993. I later continued using it with Windows 95 and later Windows XP until last week when some update from Microsoft on August 21 caused the program to break at startup. PLUGIN.EXE causes a general protection fault. The Plug-in assistant part loads properly as can be seen in the Windows task list but not the main program. The tray icon does nothing.
Anyone else having the same problem?