blog: ultimate folder association

Post by **nikos** » 2011 Jan 02, 12:19

here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://www.zabkat.com/blog/02Jan11-open ... u-verb.htm

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Jan 02, 13:02

For those feteshistas who like to keep things pretty, you can change it to include the "old boring" x2 icon next to the new context menu entry by adding the line:

Code: Select all

"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\zabkat\\xplorer2\\xplorer2_UC.exe\", 0"

...directly after @="Open with xplorer²"

(Vista and Win7 only, boys and girls, as discovered below.)

And contrary to Nikos' contention that "there is no easy way to add extra actions to folders", he's omitting the free utilities (that "everyone else" seems to know about) like FileTypesMan, or (the recently updated) DefaultProgramsEditor, or for beginners, the equally powerful yet far less dangerous FileMenuTools.

Exactly why their authors are afraid of putting spaces in the titles of their utilities, I have no idea, but so it goes.

I should add that a downside of adding these things (passive shell entries) directly to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\ is that they also redundantly show up in the folder context menu within x2 itself, so you can blink twice, thrice, and you still can't get away from it. Such things haunt the souls of mortal men throughout the fields of Elysium.

wperkins99 · Post by **wperkins99** » 2011 Jan 02, 19:32

OK, I am suffering from dullard-itis or something, because I can't seem to put your string into Nikos' .reg file in any way that will make it show the icon. I know our paths are the same (C:\Program Files\zabkat\xplorer2\xplorer2_UC.exe). Can you help a simpleton out and show me what the composite .reg file should look like?

Or, is this something that only works in Windows 7 (no DLL required)? I'm still with XP...

And, Nikos, please don't change the beloved xplorer² icon - it is a classic.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Jan 02, 19:41

The composite is exactly as I described:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\open_x2]
@="Open with xplorer²"
"Icon"="\"C:\\Program Files\\zabkat\\xplorer2\\xplorer2_UC.exe\", 0"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\open_x2\command]
@="C:\\Program Files\\zabkat\\xplorer2\\xplorer2_UC.exe \"%1\""

I don't see why it wouldn't work under XP. The change should be immediate, no rebooting or any of that malarkey.

WimdeLange · Post by **WimdeLange** » 2011 Jan 02, 20:08

And for the 64 bit users, change xplorer2_UC.exe in the file in xplorer2_64.exe. Do it twice if you want to show the icon.

And I'm thinking to add a /1 to open a single window and /T to not automatically add all the defaults tabs.

wperkins99 · Post by **wperkins99** » 2011 Jan 02, 20:10

Well, I tried your composite (thanks, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something somewhere), with same result; it makes the "Icon" entry in the Registry, but no icon shows in the Context Menu.

The reason why I made the DLL reference in the previous post was because of the 1st paragraph of this link (http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/add-i ... windows-7/) that I found when I was trying to find out what I was doing wrong - not because I actually know anything...:>)

But, is it possible that XP needs to reference a DLL file, that it can't extract the icon from an EXE file?

(You know, they are going to drag me kicking and screaming into Windows 7 - I finally have XP, with the help of a slew of 3rd-party utilities that will probably barf in Win7, running pretty much the way I like it to.)

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Jan 02, 20:22

Ah, that would explain it - XP is banjaxed as usual. Sorry about that.

DLL handlers are considered "active" extensions (as opposed to mere reg entries which are effectively "passive"). The benefit of a DLL is that it can do more things depending on circumstances (such as NOT add the icon if an x2 process is active!) - but the fewer DLL's running the better, and Nikos is not likely to write one just for this.

Yeah Wim, that's the problem with Nikos' putting this in the x2 installer itself, as it can never know how a user might personalise his usual call-style in the shortcut. Can one put .LNK references into the registry instead for the x2 shortcut, just so a user only needs to change these things once? I never tried that.

Single window? You're wasting the whole benefit of dual-pane! (To each his own.)

And you're still woefully short of Gold my man - you've been lax recently.

WimdeLange · Post by **WimdeLange** » 2011 Jan 02, 20:42

I was considering single window. I'm not sure. I just added the entry. And I added the /1 and /T because I was changing the REG file and started thinking about options who could enhance this usage.

But I have so much places where I can start xplorer2, that I don't know if I use this one. Not sure if I use this one. And I don't replace the Windows Explorer. I tried it once, but that gave problems when I want to use Windows Explorer.

And indeed I did not spend much time in the forums the last weeks. So I'm indeed lacking gold. I use xplorer2 every day, but I spend less time in the forum. Just minimizing my email usage to be more efficient. But I'm climbing slowly in the ranks......

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Jan 02, 21:00

Yeah, I agree, "replacing" explorer causes more harm than good - never understood why Nikos added that (except for all the people who kept asking for it). Especially that bit about how it keeps the process running as well... bad idea. Best avoided.

(Incidentally, and completely off topic more or less, I just discovered today that if x2 is running and the user calls a "second instance" of it from within a VBS script it will cause massive problems with shell Run commands that "wait" until the x2 process is closed before continuing - unless you call x2 with the extra /P the "wait" command is ignored. Bloody weird. Remember that kids, VBS is more confusing than booze and girls.)

WimdeLange · Post by **WimdeLange** » 2011 Jan 02, 21:12

Calling programs like xplorer2 in any script language is a strange action in my opinion. Scripts are for tasks that can be run automatically, without user actions (simple questions can be asked).

Anything complexer must use a real GUI (in a language of choice, but not scripting languages).

Ok, this is a risky statement. Hopefully this is not a start of a language discussion. If that happens, I don't participate. Everyone can use is own language of choice, even I don't like the language.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Jan 02, 21:30

AutoIt allows for (surprisingly) quite complex GUI's to be designed (more or less full use of the MFC-controls nightmare stuff), and that's only a scripting language - VBS is significantly more limited. AutoIt seems to be a quirky mix of VBS and HTA.

For example, I just whipped this one up in about 5 minutes (I've yet to write the handling code yet, but that's my task for the week

)

In any event, I was using it to get x2 to open up and browse Image backup files, which ordinarily open only with Explorer. My experiment worked fine - no need of a GUI at all - just took me forever to figure out why the script wouldn't "wait" like it was supposed to. A small victory.