(...however, we recommend that you read the information below as well!)

Blackbox supports the following commandline options (switches):

-help
Displays command line options and version information in a message box, then exits.
-nostartup
Starts Blackbox without running the items in your startup folder
(-nostartup is used automatically if running on top of Explorer).
-rc path
Lets you specify a new blackbox.rc path.
-searchmenu
This will open up a file requester to let you search for a menu file to use.
-searchstyle
This will open up a file requester to let you search for a style file to use.
-install
Lets you install Blackbox as your default shell.
-uninstall
This will let you uninstall Blackbox, changing back to Explorer as default shell (you won't need this... <g>)

Blackbox can be run on top of almost any other shell. However, this will usually result in certain features of the underlying shell being de-activated. Blackbox is designed to be run as the single shell on your system, but it will not *automatically* install itself as the default shell. However, we recommend that you run it this way.

To set Blackbox as your default shell, you could either use the built in -install functionality, or use a shell installer application such as galois' excellent Installer. We also recommend that you consult online resources such as lsdocs.shellfront.org (replace the word "LiteStep" with "Blackbox" everywhere, and you will be fine! <g>).

On exit or restart, Blackbox will save the running configuration to the file blackbox.rc (or "blackboxrc", depending on which one it finds first) in the Blackbox root directory. This includes all options from the [config] submenu, the currently selected style file, your workspace names etc. Usually the blackbox.rc resource file is created and maintained by Blackbox itself. There are, however, a few settings in it that you might want to edit yourself, such as:

session.menuFile:
This tells Blackbox where to look for its menu file.
session.screen0.toolbar.widthPercent:
This determines the width (in % of screen width) of the toolbar. The default value is 66%.
session.screen0.strftimeFormat:
This string configures the toolbar date/time display (the default string is %H:%M | %a %#d %b):

%a = Abbreviated weekday name, %A = Full weekday name
%b = Abbreviated month name, %B = Full month name
%c = Date and time representation appropriate for locale
%d = Day of month as decimal number (01 – 31)
%H = Hour in 24-hour format (00 – 23)
%I = Hour in 12-hour format (01 – 12)
%j = Day of year as decimal number (001 – 366)
%m = Month as decimal number (01 – 12)
%M = Minute as decimal number (00 – 59)
%p = Current locale's A.M./P.M. indicator for 12-hour clock
%U = Week of year as decimal number, with Sunday as first day of week (00 – 53)
%w = Weekday as decimal number (0 – 6; Sunday is 0)
%W = Week of year as decimal number, with Monday as first day of week (00 – 53)
%x = Date representation for current locale
%X = Time representation for current locale
%y = Year without century, as decimal number (00 – 99)
%Y = Year with century, as decimal number
%z, %Z = Time-zone name or abbreviation; no characters if time zone is unknown
%#d, %#H, %#I, %#j, %#m, %#M, %#S, %#U, %#w, %#W, %#y, %#Y -> Remove leading zeros (if any)

Characters that do not "begin" with % are copied unchanged to the output buffer.

Addition configuration can be done via extensions.rc:

blackbox.appearance.bullet.unix:
true/false - sets BB4Win to use Blackbox for Unix type bullets
blackbox.appearance.metrics.unix:
true/false - sets BB4win to use Blackbox for Unix sizing and spacing
blackbox.desktop.marginBottom: (optional)
integer - sets the bottom margin of the desktop area
blackbox.desktop.marginLeft: (optional)
integer - sets the left margin of the desktop area
blackbox.desktop.marginRight: (optional)
integer - sets the right margin of the desktop area
blackbox.desktop.marginTop: (optional)
integer - sets the top margin of the desktop area
blackbox.editor:
Path and file name for the default BB4Win editor.
(Note: if the the path contains spaces, it must be in quotes)
blackbox.menu.alpha:
0 (transparent) - 255 (opaque), sets menu visibility setting
blackbox.menu.scrollSpeed:
integer - sets long menu scroll speed
blackbox.menu.transparency:
true/false - enable/disable menu transparency
blackbox.slit.alpha:
integer - 0 (transparent) - 255 (opaque), sets slit transparency amount
blackbox.slit.toggle:
true/false - toggle slit with other plugins?
blackbox.slit.transparency:
true/false - enable/disable slit transparency
blackbox.submenu.openDelay:
integer - submenu open delay in milliseconds
blackbox.tasks.currentOnly:
true/flase - tasks that are on the current workspace only show, including Alt-Tab
blackbox.tasks.followActive:
true/false - sets BB4Win to switch workspaces when the active task is on another workspace (i.e Alt-Tab)
blackbox.toolbar.alpha:
0 (transparent) - 255 (opaque), sets toolbar transparency amount
blackbox.toolbar.transparency:
true/false - enable/disable toolbar transparency
blackbox.windowHooks:
true/false - enable/disable the window hooks (makes for easier use of WindowBlinds, ShellWM, etc.)
blackbox.workspace.wheeling:
true/false - sets changing workspace with mouse wheel)

Bro@ms:

As of Blackbox for Windows 0.0.60, plugins have the option to support broadcast messages (we refer to them as bro@ms ) to communicate with other plugins and Blackbox itself (naturally, Blackbox can also communicate with these plugins). A bro@m command can be sent by using an external plugin such as BBKeys, or using the Blackbox menu, and is recognized by the first letter of the command: @.

If you have tried out LiteStep in the past, you may at first find bro@ms similar to LiteStep !bangs. However, although they share some similarities, the way they are handled is quite different. While !bangs are registered by a LiteStep module at startup and unregistered at exit, bro@ms are just that - broadcast messages. What this means is that *any* plugin can listen to *any* message sent by *any* source (Blackbox or other plugins/tools). The upside of this is a much simplified handling and the possibility for two plugins to listen to (ie. "share") the same bro@m. The downside is a very small extra overhead (= a few extra strcmp's for you coders out there). In our opinion, this was a small price to pay to get basic (yet powerful) message handling into Blackbox for Windows.

As pointed out above, each plugin can have its own set of bro@ms, but several plugins can also listen to (ie. "share") the same bro@m. As an example, there are two "global" bro@ms that should/must be supported by all plugins: @BBShowPlugins and @BBHidePlugins. These are used by Blackbox to enable easy access to plugins, while at the same time making it possible to hide them to get that good old Blackbox "clean desktop" feeling (please note that these two bro@ms are meant only for Blackbox internal use; end users (that's you btw! ) should use the [toggleplugins] menu command or TogglePlugins BBKeys command instead).

Default Bro@ms (without plugins)

Available mouse commands in Blackbox for Windows:

Desktop / Menu

Oh, btw, there is also a single hotkey: Ctrl+Alt+F1 can be used to quit Blackbox for Windows... (you need to use a plugin if you want to be able to configure your own hotkeys).