First thing is to understand the Plugin and the process which Zeppo's Configuration Manager uses to install them.

A plugin file is nothing more than a zip file containing updated files to your Close Combat game, an install file, an uninstall file, and most times a readme file. You can view these files in a few ways, the easiest being to rename the file extension to .ZIP rather than the current extension it has of .PLN 

example; you have a plugin named "soundmod.pln" right click on the file, select rename, and rename the file "soundmod.zip"

Now you can open the file with WinZip or your default utility for using archives, and browse the files contained in the plugin.

How Zeppo's Configuration manager works

The configuration manager uses simple batch processing commands to copy, rename, and delete files from the plugin to your Close Combat game.

One example of this is again the "soundmod.pln" file.
Zeppo's configuration manager when asked to install the plugin, depending on how the plugin installation is written by the author, would first, make a backup copy of your current sound file, then copy the new sound file to the appropriate directory.

When asked to uninstall the plugin, again, depending on how the plugin uninstall is written by the author, will copy the backup it made of the sound file back to the original location, overwriting the current sound file. Then it will delete the backup copy.

Simple eh?

Another way the author can write the uninstall is to have it copy the original files from the Close Combat CD to your installation directory, thus setting it back to its original form.

However the author decides to write the Install/Uninstall you can be sure of one thing, that when you install a plugin it will be installed perfectly, and when you uninstall the plugin the game will go back to its previous state.

That's what makes The configuration manager such a useful utility. It makes installing/uninstalling Mods easy and painless, while setting you back to original form when you decide to.

The interface is simple to use, and has a feature to view the readme file included in the plug in at anytime. More about that in the section on "Installing new plugins to Close Combat using Configuration Manager".

Back to the start page

On to the Installation Process