Re: Script for Folder View Customization - Beta

Tech-Archive recommends: Speed Up your PC by fixing your registry

From: Brian Wolven (brian.wolven_at_domain.invalid)
Date: 03/14/05 

Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:59:03 -0500

Keith Miller wrote:
> Hmmm....
>
> Are you still using explorer to view folders?

Yep. Occasionally Xplorer2 or ExplorerXP, but 99% of the time it's plain
vanilla explorer.

> If so, then I would guess views are still saved in the registry under:
> "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags"
>
> with the index to the bags under:
> "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU"

Yes to that, too. I have no problem running wsh scripts that modify the
registry - in general. There's just a specific problem that occurs owing
to the method in which your modifications are implemented. When (if?) I
have some free time, I'll see if there is a shell-independent workaround.

> There's nothing remarkable about my script, it's just that I discovered that if an 'AllFolders' subkey was in the Bags, it would be applied to any folder that did not already have a view saved.

Interesting discovery. Maybe I can put that to use in another way, by
*removing* view information from a set of folders and then tweaking the
allfolders view setting to match a certain style. This would effectively
change the views for the entire folder hierarchy, would it not -
assuming I deleted saved views for all such folders? Then another script
or two to switch between different allfolders views, and I'm good to go.
I only have three view types that get any use, generally. One for music
files, one for photos, and the other "Standard" view I use for all the
normal documents, source code, etc. I've already got mouse gestures or
hotkeys to do all my other window manipulation tasks, so this is the
"final frontier". =)

> I see there are scripting modules for litestep, so maybe if you take this info to their forums, someone there can write a script to do the following
>
> 1) delete "HKCU\...\BagMRU" and "HKCU\...\Bags"
> 2) open an explorer window to a particular folder - pause while the user sets the view options - close the window
> 3) create the key "HKCU\...\Bags\AllFolders" based on the info from the last number bag created
> 4) recursively open and then close all subfolders of the folder to save their new view
> 5) delete "HKCU\...\Bags\AllFolders"
> 6) goto 2

None of them are well suited for making registry modifications, I'm
afraid. For the most part, the shell's scripting modules are just used
to handle dynamic variables, toggling components on and off, modifying
their position or visibility, etc. I also use some of the shell
scripting in conjunction with a vbscript to parse XML weather feeds and
display the data on my desktop or in a popup menu. Scripting abilities
are one of the things that the developers will probably look to address
in future revisions. Since it's an open source effort, it all depends on
when they feel like it, when they get around to it, and who "they" are
at any moment in time. (Several ex-developers are now employed by
microsoft, BTW - shell coding is good training apparently!)

The shell installer makes some changes and additions to permit easy
swapping between the default explorer shell and Litestep, but that's an
EXE. If the scripting changes get too involved, or seem to be too slow,
I might consider asking someone to write a module (a supplementary DLL
loaded by the shell core) that would provide this capability. Maybe I'd
even try it myself - after additional research and some thorough
registry backups, of course!

Relevant Pages

  • backup shell tasks for *.mdf
    ... in shell and pane (Tasks for files and folders) of explorer? ...
    (borland.public.delphi.database.ado)
  • "Shell Folders" vs. "User Shell Folders"
    ... Ich habe hier per Richtlinie alle Verzeichnisse, die in User Shell ... ein Teil der Eintraege in "User Shell Folders" ...
    (microsoft.public.de.german.win2000.gruppen_richtlinien)
  • Re: Imaging Drivers Slowing Explore/My Computer & Net Explorer Address
    ... Go to your folders where you have photo's and video's stored (sub folders ... Close explorer. ... it had something to do with a conflict with the Scanner Drivers. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: IE runs at 99%
    ... have used all the utilities in normal mode, Safe Mode, etc but no luck. ... What you see as the desktop *is* Explorer. ... but to disable the malware that's running. ... temp folders and the content.ie5 folders. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Creating Multiple FTP Users and Containers (2000 Server + IIS)
    ... > IIS Administrator for an FTP site. ... > complete Windows Scripting novice so I'm hoping that I can get some help ... > What I am even more unsure of is scripting the creation of Virtual Folders ... The permissions will need to be set to ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.scripting)