MozillaZine takes no responsibility for any system problems resulting from attempting this demonstration. Although we think it's a pretty benign test, the code is pre-alpha, so we can't guarantee that problems won't arise. If you're concerned about system issues from attempting this demonstration, you should not continue.

1. Download Cyberbit

First you need a font that can handle all these characters. You can download Cyberbit from Netscape, and install it like you install other TrueType fonts. It's a 6M file, but it is a huge font set...

2. Install M5

Grab the Win32 M5 release and unzip it in a directory off the root of a drive. For example:

c:moz-m5

3. Create Directories

Create a Users50 director off the root of the drive you put M5 in. Following the example above, it would be:

c:Users50

Now create a Default directory in the Users50 directory.

c:Users50Default

Also create a test directory under Users50, and a Mail directory under that

c:Users50testMail

4. Create a Prefs File

Here's where you have the possibility of running into problems. Visit the mailnews SmokeTest page. Grab the sample prefs for Win32 systems, and paste them into a blank document. Be sure to strip off *all* leading and trailing spaces from lines. If you don't do this, it won't work. Also, strip off the newline at the end, if it is there. Be sure to grab all the info (comments as well). Now, following the instructions on the smoketest page, replace all the red-highlighted information with your proper info. You won't need to get mail for this test to work, but the fields need to be filled out. The important line is the mail.server.server1.directory line. Following the instructions given above, the value for that would be:

c:\Users50\test\Mail

Save the prefs50.js file in your Users50Default directory. If you can convert it from DOS format to UNIX format (if your text editor allows it), do that as well before saving.

If you already have a Users50/Default directory (from running a current nightly build), you'll need to completely replace the prefs in the prefs50.js file with the ones above. Don't append (that didn't work for me).

5. Grab the Demo Folder

The final step is to grab the demo folder zip file, and unzip the contents into your Users50testMail directory.

Now, go into your moz-m5/bin directory and start up apprunner.exe. Visit messenger from either the menu or the taskbar at the bottom. You should see a folder for your mailserver in the folder pane. Double click it, and a demo folder should appear below it. Click that once, and you should see the messages in your message pane. That's it!

If you have problems, first try this: close apprunner, go to your Windows directory (or WinNT directory), and delete mozregistry.dat. Then, restart apprunner. If that doesn't work, be sure to check that the prefs50.js file is in the proper place, and that there are no trailing spaces on any lines and no newline at the end of the file. Also make sure the comments are at the top.