Discussion of XYplorer's Customization Abilities

[Jeff Bellune]

Being able to adjust XY's settings in such detail and specificity using the .ini files is one of XY's real strengths. But it's also a weakness from a "user-friendly" perspective. I don't know how to complain about that without whining (or whinging for my friends in the UK and Down Under). I have to take a deep breath every time I want to change something about the program's operation or appearance because I know I'm going to spend several minutes trying to remember where and how to make the changes. But even worse than that is trying to remember what needs to be saved before I exit, and what other things in the program will change when I do save.

"Let's see...do I need to save the layout before I exit? What about this tabset? Will the "Save Settings" command save everything I've tweaked this time, or will I have to do it again next session because I've forgotten to save the catalog, or the layout, or the tabset, or the style, or the search, or the whatever-it-is? And what changes aren't really saved, they're just persisting across sessions? And what changes that I don't want saved are going to be saved anyway?"

Every time I go to close the program I have to think about those things. Every time. That's an added stress that I don't need. (See? I told you I would sound like I'm whining!)

Save On Exit is not really a good option for me. I like XY to open the same way every time -- a known starting position. I like (and need) locked search results. A default tab is a must. I have every tab except the default locked to a home zone. These things anchor my workflow and make it easy to get started on today's tasks. I don't like to be surprised when I open XY. But I often am, either because things have changed and I didn't want them to, or I changed them and the changes didn't stick. More than once I've lost work on scripts because I forgot to save my Configuration and the text in the Run Script window reverted to its saved value when I reopened XY. Yes, these errors are my fault. But avoiding them involves more work and thought and care than any other program on my system.

On the other hand, I can do more things with XY than with any other program on my system. How many programs let you change their operation and appearance as much as XY? None. Think about it -- we can change the appearance of the icon for expanding tree branches for crying out loud! I absolutely *love* the AutoOptimizeTreeRadical option -- I don't think I'd have a tree in my layout at all without that feature and the Mini Tree. I have scripts in the Catalog that would be awkward in a toolbar button, and scripts in toolbar buttons that are more convenient than they would be in the Catalog. Those are just a few examples.

So I love the extensive customization abilities, but I hate the feeling of never being quite sure what I'm going to find the next time I open XY.

Finally, I have a question: the tab locations in the current tabset seem to be saved when I perform a Save Settings operation, but they also appear to be saved when I save a tabset. If that's correct, is there an option to turn off the save of tab locations (and the corresponding tree display) when I Save Settings?

Cheers,
Jeff

[Quaraxkad]

One quick tip, what I do is when I want to intentionally change any settings, I launch a fresh instance (using my autohotkey win+e to replace the default Explorer shortcut). It opens in the right screen location, with all the correct default settings. Then I change whatever option I want and save settings manually. Now I can be certain that the only things that saved are what I wanted. If you can't remember where to find a setting, don't forget to use the "Jump to Setting..." search/filter!

On the other hand, I can do more things with XY than with any other program on my system. How many programs let you change their operation and appearance as much as XY? None.

Opera 12. But you're right, customization on this level is very rare.

[bdeshi]

Jeff, if you mark tabset ini files as readonly, they won't be saved. Same goes for other settings files.
But this solution [citation needed] also introduces nasty "access denied"-s...

[Jeff Bellune]

Thank you for the tips.

I think I like the new instance method better than the read-only/"access denied" method. But either one is fine in the absence of a UI setting (or in the absence of this user knowing what UI setting to use.)

I do use the Jump To Setting button a lot, as well as the search filter in the Help>List Of Commands dialog box!

Cheers,
Jeff