changing root target in shortcut?

[ryanagler]

The crap job MS did with Explorer in Vista led me to XY, and im loving it so far! The one thing I cant quite figure out is how I can specify the root target in a shortcut like I can for Explorer.

Example, I have over seven mapped network drives. I hate seeing them all in the left pane. So as an example for drive T: I have a shortcut on my desktop that has in "Target"

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, /root, t:\

I was hoping all i needed to do was replace "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe" with "C:\Program Files\XYplorer\XYplorer.exe" but that didnt seem to work.

How do I get XYplorer to work the same way?

[admin]

Hi!

You want to limit the tree to just one drive? That's not possible in XY.

[ryanagler]

Hi!
You want to limit the tree to just one drive? That's not possible in XY.

Yes, that is EXACTLY what I want to do, and have done for years in Explorer.

Additionally not just a drive, also specific folders. Example, another shortcut I have contains the Target: "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, /root, c:\inetpub\wwwroot"

Having the tree root a specific folder (or drive) makes it way easier to focus on the folders which contain the files I am going to be working with for the entire workday.

I have 18 things under "Computer" including "Desktop", "Floppy Drive", "CD Drive", network drives, and a bunch of other irrelavent stuff. That clutter = loss of screen space which could be better used for navigating a tree of interest, increases need for scrolling around, and adds a small but noticible delay in the time it takes to mentally absorb the tree, all of which equal a loss of productivity.

I am absolutely shocked that XY has things like RegExp Rename, but cant do this most basic of features provided by Explorer.

All that needs to be done is for XY to take a custom root drive or folder as a command-line argument, and, just like Explorer, then show just that and hide the rest, yes?

[j_c_hallgren]

Yes, that is EXACTLY what I want to do, and have done for years in Explorer.

Having the tree root a specific folder (or drive) makes it way easier to focus on the folders which contain the files I am going to be working with for the entire workday.

I am absolutely shocked that XY has things like RegExp Rename, but cant do this most basic of features provided by Explorer.

I've been using Windows Explorer for a LONG time...like since before the days of Win 95...and this is the first that I've heard of this feature in WE...so it seems like a obscure and little used feature, IMO...thus having XY not do it thus far would not appear to be that big of an issue to me...but some people (including myself) have gotten used to working in particular ways, so maybe that's what is happening here.

[ryanagler]

I've been using Windows Explorer for a LONG time...like since before the days of Win 95...and this is the first that I've heard of this feature in WE...so it seems like a obscure and little used feature, IMO...thus having XY not do it thus far would not appear to be that big of an issue to me...but some people (including myself) have gotten used to working in particular ways, so maybe that's what is happening here.

Hahah, I'll agree, I cant say that I ever used this in Win 3.1 when I was in high school

By no means would it be a mainstream thing an average everyday person would bother to do.

But its ceratainly something Im sure "power users" such as programmers whose days are spent with a single tree of source code use quite often. Which leads to the fact that "Power Users" are most likely the ones who would be inclined to purchase XY, so it would make sense to include this feature

As a developer yourself, Im sure you know as well as I do that every ounce of attention-span is precious. Maybe try it out one day when working with the XY source tree, i promise you'll like it!

[jacky]

Having the tree root a specific folder (or drive) makes it way easier to focus on the folders which contain the files I am going to be working with for the entire workday.

Honestly, I didn't know about this, but I don't know much about the crappy Explorer
I do know that such a feature would not suit me, because I would hate not to see everything, or not be able to go somehwere I might want/need because of such a user-defined root.

I am absolutely shocked that XY has things like RegExp Rename, but cant do this most basic of features provided by Explorer.

Well, I don't know about "most basic", I'd have my vote on "hidden", and "not used by many" first


What i do know though is, I agree, having a way to easilly ident parts of your Tree, etc is pretty cool. Helps you locate things/know where you are faster, etc and to do this I think XY has some pretty awesome features, to which I'm totally addicted now & couldn't live without : The Tree's highlighting features.

Specificly, to what we're talking about here, the Boxed Branches. Maybe you should give those a try.
For example, try setting a Boxed Color to c:\inetpub\wwwroot as you mentionned, you'll see how it highlights the whole branch in Tree, that way not only can you only focus on that part of the Tree when that's where you need to be working, but also locate in on Tree much faster than ever before (when scrolling during drag&drop operations for example).

[ryanagler]

I do know that such a feature would not suit me, because I would hate not to see everything, or not be able to go somehwere I might want/need because of such a user-defined root.

Oh, of course I always have a second instance of "normal" explorer open that shows everything for when i want to go somewhere else. All the custom-root one is is an extra shortcut i created on my desktop to open an instance of the tree (as root) i use most.

Specificly, to what we're talking about here, the Boxed Branches. Maybe you should give those a try.
For example, try setting a Boxed Color to c:\inetpub\wwwroot as you mentionned, you'll see how it highlights the whole branch in Tree, that way not only can you only focus on that part of the Tree when that's where you need to be working, but also locate in on Tree much faster than ever before (when scrolling during drag&drop operations for example).

Thank you for the tip, the Boxed Branches is certainly very nice! Unfortunately though there remains the too-much-stuff-everywhere-i-dont-want-to-see issue. The above example I gave was simplfied a bit. the source tree i work with most is five levels deep, with many other folders (and drives) both above it and below it. This not only forces the tree pane to have to be resized much wider than it should have to be, it also makes the vertical buffer huge. The ability to make that folder the root folder solves all of that.

[jacky]

Oh, of course I always have a second instance of "normal" explorer open that shows everything for when i want to go somewhere else. All the custom-root one is is an extra shortcut i created on my desktop to open the tree i use most.

Yeah I bet, but I know I personnaly would still not like that I think. I only want one instance running, and that's not only to save ressources... to each its own way

Thank you for the tip, the Boxed Branches is certainly very nice! Unfortunately though there remains the too-much-stuff-everywhere-i-dont-want-to-see issue. The above example I gave was simplfied a bit. the source tree i work with most is five levels deep, with many other folders (and drives) both above it and below it. This not only forces the tree pane to have to be resized much wider than it should have to be, it also makes the vertical buffer huge. The ability to make that folder the root folder solves all of that.

Well, you'll see how Don feels about it, who knows!
Another tip, what you could also do, not really the same but might help a little, is use junctions. That way you can have your folder not so deeply nested, reducing the space needed to show it.

[admin]

Having the tree root a specific folder (or drive) makes it way easier to focus on the folders which contain the files I am going to be working with for the entire workday.

Well okay, productivity is XYplorer main goal, so you grabbed my attention.

What happens in Explorer when you go to a folder (via address bar, for example) that's outside the current tree?

Have you already tried the Catalog? In XY you don't need the tree at all since the Catalog can be your own personal working tree(s).

IF I add this feature, wouldn't it be much easier to have a command in the folders' context menu "Make Root" resp. "Show Whole Tree"?

[ryanagler]

What happens in Explorer when you go to a folder (via address bar, for example) that's outside the current tree?

I dont ever do this. The custom-root instance of Explorer that is open is used for the sole purpose of efficiently working with that tree. If I want to do other things, I use the normal instance of Explorer that I have open. But for fun i just typed in C: via address bar, and what happened was the left pane did nothing, and the right pane showed the contents of C:

Have you already tried the Catalog? In XY you don't need the tree at all since the Catalog can be your own personal working tree(s).

not yet, but I certainly will give it a whirl.

IF I add this feature, wouldn't it be much easier to have a command in the folders' context menu "Make Root" resp. "Show Whole Tree"?

Absolutely! "Make Root" would be more than perfect!!! Then you could switch back and forth without having multiple instances.

[admin]

IF I add this feature, wouldn't it be much easier to have a command in the folders' context menu "Make Root" resp. "Show Whole Tree"?

Absolutely! "Make Root" would be more than perfect!!! Then you could switch back and forth without having multiple instances.

Okay, but don't get too excited. I kind of hardcoded the tree to assume he's complete because I never expected anything else. Changing this is not a simple switch. Other things are on the road first!

Maybe you fall in love with the Catalog in the meantime...

[ryanagler]

Okay, but don't get too excited. I kind of hardcoded the tree to assume he's complete because I never expected anything else. Changing this is not a simple switch. Other things are on the road first!

Maybe you fall in love with the Catalog in the meantime...

I did get excited when first trying out the catalog just now, but then I realized the 1-level grouping doesnt let you navigate it like a tree. Also when i clicked a folder and "Import Current List" the full (not relative) (really long) paths of each file/folder showed, which I understand why, but visually made it hard to tell what was in there when the paths scrunched to fit the horizontal space. Although the catalog is a sweet XY feature that I can definitely see myself using.

I understand it might not be easy for you to do, but I do appreciate your considering it:)

[admin]

Also when i clicked a folder and "Import Current List" the full (not relative) (really long) paths of each file/folder showed, which I understand why, but visually made it hard to tell what was in there when the paths scrunched to fit the horizontal space.

Renaming them is a one-time-job (that cannot be automated, else XY would do it for you). If you work with those file the whole day long, it should be worth while.
Note that you can also drop stuff on catalog items, even on ZIPs.

[ryanagler]

Renaming them is a one-time-job (that cannot be automated, else XY would do it for you). If you work with those file the whole day long, it should be worth while.
Note that you can also drop stuff on catalog items, even on ZIPs.

Ahhh, I see very nice. The catalog is well suited to help with particular files used often, but still the tree i am working with is large containing many nested levels itself -- if i click a folder in the catalog then I have to go back up to click the plus to expand it, etc.

[j_c_hallgren]

The problem with using Catalog on this case is that an entry is only for that branch level, right? So how would you be able to expand/collapse folders within that entry? Hummm...

Thus, as I now understand it, what ryanangler is wanting to do is sorta a variant of the "My Documents" scheme, where what shows as 'root' for My Doc's is actually a folder that is some levels deep...
Or making it look like, for example, "C:\WINNT\system32" to be equiv to "C:\" so any folder within that can be exploded but one could never go back 'up' to WINNT or higher...and if the desired 'root' folder is even further down the tree, having that unneeded overhead showing could actually be a visual issue...

So...if I follow this scheme correctly, I now can see a use for this myself! As I have this folder ("C:\Inetpub\PRODUCTION\public_html") as entry in Catalog, but having IT show as a 'root' would isolate that as my only entry in tree...now...would I have a second XY running to do this? That part, maybe not...would I like to see it as such on a tab? Yes, that makes more sense...ok, so I know the tree is shared, but since we keep moving focus around in tree based on tab, view could be adjusted as well.