Folder Marker

[patlange]

I was just trying out Folder Marker Pro (offered today, 12/22/2014, by Bits du Jour). The author claims it works with xplorer2, but I'm having no luck. He says his program will work with any file manager which uses"Windows Explorer core to display folder icons".

Can anybody shed any light on this? The properties dialog for the folders show the icons I've chosen, but xplorer2 only shows the plain default folder.

[Kilmatead]

A quick test shows that it does work with x2, but it requires you to manually refresh x2's display <Ctrl+R> before the icon appears in the shell. It also helps if you restart x2 after you've installed it, else the context menu entry seems a bit wonky.

Exactly how people get away with charging 20 quid for such things is beyond me - you could always just use the one designed specifically for x2 instead, as that one's free, requires no installation, and is just as good, if not better. Plus it includes guaranteed personal service from one of the more annoying regulars around here.

[patlange]

A quick test shows that it does work with x2, but it requires you to manually refresh x2's display <Ctrl+R> before the icon appears in the shell. It also helps if you restart x2 after you've installed it, else the context menu entry seems a bit wonky.

I must be doing SOMETHING very wrong. I've checked all the options that seemed relevant, refreshed, restarted, rebooted ad infinitum. Nothing works. Thank you so much for testing it out.

Exactly how people get away with charging 20 quid for such things is beyond me - you could always just use the one designed specifically for x2 instead, as that one's free, requires no installation, and is just as good, if not better. Plus it includes guaranteed personal service from one of the more annoying regulars around here.

Certainly the most interesting writer in any forum I follow! Thank you so much for the link. I am rushing to try it forthwith.

[RightPaddock]

@patlange - some time back I used the free version for a few weeks, it worked, but as I recall it didn't overcome the perceived shortcomings of what I was already using, Shelltoys, so I went back to it. I have a vague memory of Folder Marker's configuration dialogues being counter intuitive.

My needs are pretty simple, a coat of pastel coloured paint slapped on folders and subfolders, that I can see in any file menagerie thingamabob.

RP

[Kilmatead]

Turns out that ShellToys is now officially defunct, kaput, sleepin' with the fishes - apparently your man just gave up. Interestingly enough, this happened around the exact same time as we last had official dealings with the dev. I guess x2 broke his spirit.

[RightPaddock]

Won't stop me from using it - it's not the only bit of software I use that is 'officially dead'. I think of them being finished

At least cfi wont be asking for more money. £15 for approx 5200 days usage (and still going) is about a farthing a day, in my book that's pretty good value.

In that time the only issues I've had with Shelltoys are with X2s menus and a thing called DialogueMate, Tortoise and others also had problems with DM. The DM issue was short lived because I discovered a gadget from Actual Tools which did what I wanted, and only what I wanted; and it didn't interfere with Shelltoys, Tortoise etc.

None of the software from MS, Adobe, Google, Mozilla, Nils Soper, Mark Russinovich, the Qt & GTK stables, and the dozens of other products I use, or even those from Apple ever had coexistence issues with Shelltoys --- not one, not ever. X2 is singularly unique in this regard, at least as far as several hundreds of programs (including 6 versions of Windows - 2000, XP, Vista, W7, W8, W10) I have had installed alongside Shelltoys over the past 14 years.

I do acknowledge that the dearth of software to provide shell context menu customisation is testament that it may be difficult to do, and may require some tricks to implement. But the fact that there are hundreds of programs that are unaware of Shelltoys tricks is surely evidence that its not doing anything illegitimate or indeed unanticipated.

RP

[nikos]

At least cfi wont be asking for more money. £15 for approx 5200 days usage (and still going) is about a farthing a day, in my book that's pretty good value.

do i detect a gripe there?
you see, all this "cheap" was false economy, because now the guy is bankrupt, and the project is dead. Everybody loses. You cannot have a thriving product without a modicum or return custom, just like any other business (think what you are selling)

[RightPaddock]

Who cares if it's dead - it works, it will continue to work as long as MS continues to protect its user base. I use programs that haven't been updated since at least Win2000, one even longer I think - like NT 3.1. In one instance the author is dead, but his software still works - sure its UI is a bit retro but so <bleep> what.

According to my email history I never asked cfi to change any existing or add any additional features, and I don't use most of it - menu customisation, folder colouring, copy path, zip and batch rename is all I have promoted to the top level. Incidentally menu customisation was why I bought it - there were too many bugs in Moo.

If you wanted to add a 'really unique' runner to the zabkat stable, then you could do worse than create a context menu manager that would work anywhere the standard shell context menu is used. Don't charge for it - give it away with a paypal donate, it could be a good loss leader for X2 sales. Your MR-fu presumably says otherwise, but I doubt a ribbon or yet another mass renamer in X2 will attract that many new users.

Re what you perceive to be a 'gripe', do I detect a feeling of guilt. I was just stating the facts, after 14 years I'm still using a program for which I paid fifteen quid. I contrast that to Babylon, MailWasher, Faststone Maxview, Genie Backup to name but a few, for which I shelled out good money and no longer use.

RP

[nikos]

you'd make a very good devil's advocate but other than that, one of these days a new windows version will come out that will break your dead favorite program completely and there won't be an upgrade because you took the selfish view and didn't help the poor famished author

I'm not saying that it is your fault, humans are inherently selfish and wicked if unchecked, perhaps that author wasn't seeing far enough in the future that this would come if he didn't charge for upgrades. You don't have to worry about that with xplorer2

[drac]

Is it possible that the author of that product was independently wealthy and created the program for fun or for the challenge, but eventually he got bored and moved on to some other adventure? Maybe the demise of the program had nothing to do with money.

While I would agree if you said that people are generally ignorant and self centered, I am not ready to believe that all people are wicked - though certainly some small percentage are.

[RightPaddock]

you'd make a very good devil's advocate but other than that, one of these days a new windows version will come out that will break your dead favorite program completely and there won't be an upgrade because you took the selfish view and didn't help the poor famished author

I'm not saying that it is your fault, humans are inherently selfish and wicked if unchecked, perhaps that author wasn't seeing far enough in the future that this would come if he didn't charge for upgrades. You don't have to worry about that with xplorer2

The 'poor famished author' never asked for any more money, what upgrades there were were free. After 2008 the sales of Shelltoys fell off the cliff, probably because almost everything it does is available from free gadgets - such as File Menu Tools. The stand-out exception is - context menu customisation (cmc), which incidentally is the only shelltoys feature I use for which I don't already have an alternative on standby. So your doomsday scenario hardly applies, besides cmc is hardly a mission critical feature, any more than is a file damager with ribbons - I can put up with the lack of either or both.

It may interest you to know that over the past 5 years my donations to developers of free4you software, exceed the licence fees I've paid to developers of pay4me software by a tad under 6:1. There was a time when a lot of freeware was first order crap. Now I find it relatively easy to find good quality freeware. So either the freeware developers have learnt (or they're developing phone apps) or I am better at finding alternatives and picking winners.

RP

[nikos]

ok so you are a good egg