Make Xplorer2 open in the right folder

swmmng · Post by **swmmng** » 2005 Apr 08, 00:28

How can I make Xplorer2 open in the correct folder when I double-click on a shortcut? For example, if I open the "My Documents" folder, I want one pane (doesn't really matter which, I suppose) to actually go to "My Documents;" that's why I clicked on it, after all!

Post by **nikos** » 2005 Apr 09, 09:03

you can use a command line option (edit the shortcut properties) specifying the path of the folder you are after. See the quickstart guide

swmmng · Post by **swmmng** » 2005 Apr 09, 18:31

Do you mean the shortcut properties for the folder I'm after? And how would I do that, exactly? I read through that section and it didn't seem like quite what I wanted. Then again, I'm not that much for DOS and related stuff.

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2005 Apr 09, 19:32

The quickstart guide section on Optional command line arguments gives complete details,
as does the User Manual: Appendix 9J. Running x2 from commandline

Let me try a simple example --
say you have installed xplorer_UC.exe in the folder:
C:\Program Files\zabkat\xplorer2
and you want to open it in dual pane mode with the
left view pane looking at your My Documents folder and the
right view pane looking at your C:\Downloads folder (assuming you have such a folder),
and you want to specify no other options.

The commandline in the Target: field of Shortcut properties dialog box should look like the following:

Code: Select all

"C:\Program Files\zabkat\xplorer2\xplorer2_UC.exe" /2 "C:\Documents and Settings\<userID>\My Documents" C:\Downloads

You must include the quotation marks for paths/names containing spaces and
substitute your userID where I indicate <userID>
so as to complete the path to ...\My Documents
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

swmmng · Post by **swmmng** » 2005 Apr 09, 22:08

No, I'm saying that if I click on "My Documents," one of the panes will be looking there. But if I click on say "Program Files," one pane will look there, not having a bunch of Xplorer2 shortcuts sitting around; although I suppose I could do that if I really had to. Would the way I want involve something with the folders' shortcuts?

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2005 Apr 09, 23:51

I sounds like we may be talking from different starting point assumptions.

When you say: ... click on "My Documents", I had assumed you had xplorer² open and you do that from within xplorer²,
... or that you were wanting to start xplorer² (from a shortcut) and have it open looking at a specific folder as your default starting condition?

but it sounds like you may be speaking of the windoze taskbar Start Menu,
as in: Start | My Documents (which will normally bring up windoze Explorer ... unless you have made some registry changes)

please clarify :?

swmmng · Post by **swmmng** » 2005 Apr 10, 03:21

No, I mean like a shortcut sitting on the Desktop, or in a dock.

purple-circle · Post by **purple-circle** » 2005 Apr 10, 06:56

I've just installed and started using your application and this is the one problem with it's operation that I would like to change.

Having found the exact problem at the top of the forum list without a solution is a bit troublesome though.

When I double click the My Documents shortcut on the desktop or use the Start | My Documents option, your application opens with the default panes selected which is currently C:\ in the left Pane and G:\Program Files in the right pane. (My OS is installed on G:\).

I'll have a look around the rest of the forum for a solution but I would have thought that this should be highlighted if there is a simple fix.

Post by **nikos** » 2005 Apr 10, 10:36

if you want x2 to hijack all your folders (not recommended) then see the procedure described in registry.txt to make it the default application for filesystem folders

alternatively once you are running x2 you can switch to "my documents" in a multitude of ways, including bookmarks, tab groups, even the direct keyboard shortcut <ctrl+K>

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2005 Apr 10, 10:56

swmmng wrote:No, I mean like a shortcut sitting on the Desktop, or in a dock.

Do you mean a shortcut to start x2, or a shortcut view to a folder?
The latter requires that x2 be made the default application for viewing folders, and is generally not recommended; although it is possible with a registry hack -- see registry.txt for an example. The example settings given there are a simple start, and may not be the behaviour you want. In any event, you should be familiar with registry operation & settings before you try this.

PS - I open x2 and keep it open all the while I am working with files, so I have no need to clutter my desktop with shortcuts to folders. (I found out long ago that file management is best done from within a file manager, not from the desktop.)

purple-circle · Post by **purple-circle** » 2005 Apr 10, 12:22

O.K. after a lot of fiddling and trial and error I've got x2 working as I would have expected by using %PATH% as the default for the left frame and the right frame opens the last frame that was selected previously.

I had set it to take over all folders and obviously this changed too many things. For example, right clicking My Network Places and selecting Properties opened x2 rather than showing the properties of My Network Places.

With an hour or so of tweaking I now have a much more powerful file manager and all of my windows shortcuts etc work as they should. I also have the added advantage of being able to double click any folder to open it and have the last place that I visited open in the other pane. This is excellent, especially if I closed a previous window where I was deep browsing.

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2005 Apr 10, 12:40

purple-circle,

Please share the details of the settings you wound up with after your "... lot of fiddling and trial and error ..." so others can benefit without going through the same thing.

Thanks, -fg-

swmmng · Post by **swmmng** » 2005 Apr 10, 13:57

I want Xplorer2 to open to whatever folder the shortcut to that folder points to - not an Xplorer2 shortcut. I set Xplorer2 to be the default app for folders through the Tools->Folder Options: File Types process, but all that does is make Xplorer2 open whenever I open any folder. And please, purple-circle, share your wisdom!

purple-circle · Post by **purple-circle** » 2005 Apr 10, 17:03

Please share the details of the settings you wound up with after your "... lot of fiddling and trial and error ..." so others can benefit without going through the same thing.

After having a further look at how it was operating, I found that the right click | properties option was opening x2 instead of the item's properties. So at the moment I've got it doing one or the other.

As soon as I figure out how to get exactly what I want, I'll post the tweaks here - Excellent program by the way.

**EDIT:**
After much more fiddling, I've finally got x2 to work exactly the same as windows explorer with all of the other options such as right click etc working as they should. - i.e. double click any file, shortcut, folder and x2 opens with one pane selected with that file, folder or shortcut and the other pane set as either a default manually or dynamically to the last folder closed.

The only way I've been able to get exactly what I wanted is with a combination of AutoIt, PowerPro and some custom scripts. As I've modified so much to get here, I'll post a list of what I've done in total sometime shortly.

For now I have to catch up on all the work I should have been doing getting everything "Just Right". I wish I had found these 3 apps ages ago. Although I've wasted a day setting them up I can already see how beneficial all them working together are going to be.

zabkat support forum

Make Xplorer2 open in the right folder

Make Xplorer2 open in the right folder

Any response yet?

Tweak, Tweak, Tweak

folder opening