Automatic opening document stored inside archive

The BCArchive program stores documents inside its encrypted archive in encrypted form. If the user wants to edit the document, he/she should extract it from the archive, edit the document and then place it to the archive again. BCArchive allows complete automation of the process. The following ways are possible:

1. The user opens the archive file and gets main BCArchive window, where he/she can browse the document to edit. The user double-clicks on the document by mouse and BCArchive makes all the needed actions automatically:
   • extracts the document to temporary directory;
   • runs an appropriate program to edit the document;
   • makes the program open the document;
   • will wait while the user is working on the document;
   • as soon as the user closes the file, BCArchive will overwrite it in the archive and securely delete (wipe) temporary copy of the document.
   The procedure will look for the user like the document was simply opened from the archive and then saved directly to the archive.
2. It is also possible that the user always works with some concrete document inside the archive, for example, with Microsoft Word document Certificate.doc, stored inside the Documents folder inside the archive. In this case the user can automate browsing of the Certificate.doc file inside the archive and automate the process of running Microsoft Word just after opening the archive. The functionality is close to standard Autorun function of Windows: when the user inserts CD disk with music files to CD-ROM device, Windows can automatically run Media Player to play the music. BCArchive behaviour is the same: the user enters password for his/her archive and Microsoft Word runs automatically and opens the Certificate.doc document.

To make BCArchive work in Autorun mode, open the archive and browse the Certificate.doc document as it shown on the following picture.

After selecting the Certificate.doc file, set the Use Auto Run option in the Archive menu. BCArchve automatically creates new Autorun.inf file in root directory of the archive and shows it. That’s all, then, when the user will open the archive, BCArchive will run Microsoft word and it will open Certificate.doc automatically. Note, if you used Autorun feature before, please check off the Use Auto Run option and remove old Autorun.inf file in root directory of the archive.

By default, BCArchive will close the archive as soon as the user finishes editing the document. The user can change the default behavior of the program. All the Autorun instructions BCArchive uses are stored in the root of the archive. In our case contents of the AutoRun.inf file looks like:

If the user wants BCArchive to keep the archive opened after the user closes Certificate.doc document, the last string in the AutoRun.inf file should be the following:

To turn off the Autorun functionality, run BCArchive and reset Use Auto Run option just before opening the archive.