A few bugs and suggestions.

A.B.Ames · Post by **A.B.Ames** » 2005 Jan 12, 09:05

Hi all,
Been off the net a bit fighting the weather here, but since have ran into a few things with Xplorer2 that are a bit awkward working with.

1-Bug Searching:
If the path I'm searching from contains a comma (one of the folder names) then all i get is the error
'The "Look in" specification is invalid'.
Now it will recurse sub-folders with a comma in the name but not start in any in it's initial path. sample:
start in D:\Files\folders\trains,planes,automobiles\types\ this will error;
start in D:\Files\folders\ this will work and look in any folder that has comma's but it also searches many folders i don't need aswell.
It maybe because of this feature -"If you want to search multiple paths, enter them all in the Look in field (separate them with commas). "- which is great but could the comma be changed to a colon/semi-colon so folders with commas (I have a lot) can be searched and as folders cannot have colons it would never be an issue later.

2-Memory hog when previewing photos:
I gather & sort many photos (no, not porn) I started using the preview mode Xplorer2 offers (very handy!, thx) to compare individual shots to a index sheet I view with ACDSee Classic. Unfortunately after a lot of sorting/previewing Xplorer2 stopped showing new previews (could still see previous views though) and my machine got slow. I checked taskmanager and 2.5gigs memory was in use, Xplorer2 only showed 7.5mb though and no program sayed it was using it yet total was showing that amount. I started shutting down programs and once i closed Xplorer2 2gigs free'd up. I did some experimenting then and found that with each pic previewed Xplorer2 adds aprox 4.25mb more memory used, after the listed amount gets to aprox 750,000K the listed amount for Xplorer2 jumps down to apros 7.5mb and stays around there but the total usage never goes down and still increases 4+MB each if you preview more pics. This is on Windows 2000 sp4, Dual Pentium 1.13ghz, 1gig Ram, Dual montor. Anyone else notice this? As it always does this for me.

3-Problem Renaming Extentions (mentioned before):
After renaming registered extention(ie. .txt to .nfo) and click on a blank are to deselect you get a popup warning window and after clearing it you are stuck in lasso select mode until you click somewhere again.
If you press enter or space to deselect after changing extention it is ok when window disappears. Seems to be needing a pause after mouse click before allowing Windows popup as it prevents mouse button from releasing.

4-Focus not full on next file after moving or deleting previous one:
After moving or deleting a file from the active pane the next file is semi-selected (say this because you can't do anything wth it yet) has a square box dotted around it but is not highlighted. It will preview and i can press enter to activate it but i can't do anything else to it until I press up arrow and then back down arrow to actually get it highlighted. Then I can delete, rename, move or what ever. I'm trying to use the keyboard more for working with files but this is awkward that each time i go through a list and move one that I have to up then down just to get the next one to highlight fully before i can move it. Any Idea's?

5-Suggestion of making/allowing gray out of tree pane when not active:
I like the fact that when a pane is inactive it is grayed out so you know, but the folder tree pane isn't and this can be a problem.
When I'm using many programs Xplorer2 goes in the background, then when i bring it up front and 'Think' that I'm on the active pane (as it is white) I click the forward button to get to a previous position, but sometimes I am actually on the tree pane (it'swhite too) then i have to wait for a long long time as it expands all the folder paths on whatever drive it is on.

6-Suggestion that active pane becomes default when going from Dual Pane to Single Pane:
I Often switch back and forth depending on what i'm doing, normally i thought that the active pane would be the one to take the singe pane view but Xplorer2 always opens the left pane regardless of which is active. Oddly this doesn't seem to fit in as Xplorer2 functions all seem to only work with the active pane except this (Turning Dual Pane Off).

7-Feature Wish:
Ability to change default drag-n-drop setting from copying files to moving files to other drives. As I rarely copy anything I keep forgetting if I'm moving to another drive and have to hold shift or if its local and I don't. I know this Is an annoying windows issue but IF it's easy to implement it would be great as it would also stop windws from creating shortcuts when trying to move a exe too. I do use cut and paste aswell as right click too but after alot of files all over i find drag-n-drop without holding keys easier.

Now I am sorry for the horrible length of this but hopefull it helps.
Thx for your patients
A.B.Ames

Post by **nikos** » 2005 Jan 12, 09:31

1. (I was wondering when would one come and hit me with this...) Commas in such fields stand for separators. In some (e.g. when you search for text) you can "escape" them so they are not considered special, but not for the "Look in" field. The workaround would be to start the search from one folder up until i think of something better

ps now i remember that you can escape a comma using two commas in a row, e.g. "c:\files,,icons" will search "c:\files,icons". I forgot what code I wrote...

2. x2 caches the previews. If your preview window is big and you have many files in the folder the system gets stretched (but 4.25M per picture sounds too much unless you are using very high resolution). To flush the cache just do a refresh <ctrl+R>. I guess i could avoid caching big pictures (or are you talking about thumbnail view mode?)

3. i can't find a solution for this, tried all i could think of

4. pressing the spacebar selects the current item

6. Ctrl+U before doing a single pane will fix it

7. that change would confuse many users. Try dragging with the right mouse button so that you don't need the keyboard

A.B.Ames · Post by **A.B.Ames** » 2005 Jan 12, 10:24

1. thx just tried now and double comma works great, should have thought of that myself as in my script program i have to do the same thing but with quotes. May be good addition to add in manual where it talks about using comma's as separators as i find commas are becoming increasingly more popular in folder names.

2.Must be my resolution (1600x1200 and 1280x1024 2nd mon) as the pics are only 50k to 150k. Don't know if it occurs with thumbnails as i never use that view, always detailed list. Thx for the <ctrl+R> tip I'll try to remember that. Figured it was caching, is there anyway to limit amount (like in my browser, Opera)?

3.No prob, was just curious. Wish i knew programming as i'd love to help for i know how to prevent this in my scripting program as it can be an issue there too when Windows reacts faster than the mouse can release.

4.Thx for the tip. BTW Is this an intentional thing or a workaround for something that may be corrected?

6.Been doing that and /or using force button, just thought it was odd behaviour.

7. Thx, been doing that too no prob though just was wondering as i've heard of a few apps that allow this feature, maybe i can locate a seperate utility.

Thx again for your help
Take Care
A.B.Ames

Post by **nikos** » 2005 Jan 12, 12:19

2. regardless of the file size, the previewer converts them to bitmaps so the memory requirements are quite big. You can't limit the cache size other than manually with ctrl+R as i mentioned

4. after refresh x2 doesn't select anything for you. Perhaps you can consider working with many files at a time whenever you move or delete? If you want to check files individually one possibility would be, instead of moving each file on its own, send it to a scrap window with ctrl+S and in the end deal with them en masse.