Updated QuickSwitch [AutoHotkey]

[Raf]

QuickSwitch v1.8

This big update is aimed at changing the appearance of the Menu and it was prepared thanks to the @noticz and @eddablin! There are new Menu path sections, new customization options, and new settings tabs. The changelog only briefly describes the main changes. If you want to know the details of each change, open the drop-down list with details or click on the words highlighted in blue (hyperlinks).

I really need your feedback! If something is not working for you, please let me know. If you think that some features can be improved, write to me.


New appearance options

• Settings > Menu tab
  
  • Blacklist by processes: you can add windows to the blacklist by their process names. This option is useful for turning off child windows or for windows with a changing title.
  • Delete duplicate paths: if some paths are repeated, this option will leave only one of each path. Deletion goes from top to bottom: the first duplicate path will remain, the rest starting from this position in the menu will be removed. This is useful if you do not want the pinned paths to overlap with the paths from the file managers (see below)

• Settings > Theme tab
  
  • Apply dark theme: enables dark mode in Settings and Menu. If dark colors are enabled in the system or a dark system theme is selected, option will be enabled automatically. I don't recommend using Windows default dark theme. Use the BigSur or CakeOS themes from Niivu.
  • Show icons: shows icons from specified local directory. Size and directory can be changed in the input fields next to the option (the variables will be expanded). You can replace any icon in the selected directory, the main thing to remember is that the icon name must remain the same. Only ICO files are supported, you can convert any image to ICO here or here. If you want to use other extensions, see below. You can open a request to add alternative ICO files to the releases.
  • Active tab only: will only show the active tab in the active pane.
  • Locked tabs: will show all tabs, including blocked ones. If this option is turned off and the option above is turned on and the current tab is locked, nothing will show up in the Menu. Currently, this option is only supported for Total Commander and Xyplorer.

• Enforce menu: press Ctrl+Shift+Win+0 and select the path to change the current path in the active file manager. This is useful if you want to duplicate paths between different file managers or their windows. If a non-file manager is open, the active window process will be started with the selected path as an argument. Let's reverse QuickSwitch!
  
  

  WARNING
  The Menu sends a request to open a directory in the target application which can open all the files in the directory without warning!

• Variables in paths: added support for variables in all path input fields: environment variables; built-in AutoHotkey variables; declared QuickSwitch variables. Enclose the variables in percent signs %.

Menu sections

In addition to the paths from the file managers, you can add additional paths to the Menu on Settings > Theme tab. The details of each section are described here. If you want to improve the logic of the sections or add a new one, please let me know.

• Pinned paths: select the key / mouse button in Settings > App > Pin path... and left click on any path. Now it is pinned and it will be stored in the configuration. You will see this path on every restart.
  

  
  If you turn this option off, the paths will no longer be displayed. If you turn it on, all pinned paths will be displayed again. If you want to delete all pinned paths, check Settings > Reset > Delete pinned paths and press Enter.

• Clipboard paths: copy one or more paths and they will appear in the Menu. They will disappear only when you open the file dialog from another application.
  

  This option works in the background and analyzes the clipboard for the presence of a path when changing it. If several paths separated by line breaks (multi-line text) have been copied, they will be added to the Menu individually.Background analysis is temporarily disabled when requesting paths from other file managers.

• Favorite paths: select a directory (the variables will be expanded) with shortcuts to the files or directories and they will appear in the Menu. You can customize how they are displayed in the Menu.
  
  Create a shortcut to any directory or file in it (in this case the directory it is in will be used). Open the shortcut's "properties" and click on the "shortcut" tab.
  
  The "target" field is the main path you will see. You can change the displayed path and give it any name you want in the "comment" field. This field takes precedence over displaying the full or short path (Settings > Short path). All fields support environment variables.
  
  You can click on "change icon" button and put the path to any resource that contains icons (ICO, DLL and so on). The selected icon will be shown in the menu. The default icons (just after shortcut creation) are not shown after the shortcut is created and will be replaced with the "Favorite.ico" icon from the "Icons" folder.
  structure.png
  recusrsive favorites.png

These options work well with Flow Launcher: it allows you to search for files using Everything, copy their paths and drag them to other windows.


Better hotkeys: Settings > App

• Mouse buttons support: now you can choose mouse buttons and their keyboard modifiers.
• All hotkeys and mouse buttons can be completely disabled. Press Space to clear input field or select the appropriate option on the Reset tab.
• You can even select special keys, like CapsLock, Space, Win and so on in drop-down list after pressing mouse button. There are few keys, so there is no separate list for them.
  

  The standard special keys functionality will be disabled while the file dialog is in focus . Changing the focus (opening settings or any other window) enables normal key operation.
  
  For example , you will not be able to open the Start menu if you have selected the Win key in the settings. It will open the QuickSwitch menu.

Improved Menu settings and debug UI

• Improved button alignment.
• Now all UIs closes after pressing the Esc button.
• The dark theme applies to all elements.
• Added the Reset tab to partially delete config sections, reset internal variables and completely delete the config.

Refactored building system

• The version number has been removed from the name of the release .exe and .ahk. After extracting new update, old files will be replaced with new ones. Configuration (settings) will never be replaced or deleted.
• The application building system has been changed to a more versatile. It automatically selects the Autohotkey interpreter and Ahk2Exe from your system. The building script is independent of changes in the source code, so you can configure it once and run it after each update.
  

  The script can be configured to build / archive any file, including your own scripts and projects.

Fixed

• Empty paths from Total Commander.
• Repeated attempts to create user command for Total Commander in usercmd.ini. Now, if the user command already exists and QuickSwitch fails to retrieve the list of tabs, an error is displayed.
• Repeated warnings about file overwriting after enabling (Always) Auto Switch.
• Impossibility to change the path in the file dialog after the warning about file overwriting.
• Rare freeze of Ctrl or Alt keys after the Menu display.
• Saved options were reset after incorrect input. Some options were mistakenly overwritten after exiting the settings.
• Logging has been reduced (antivirus issue #108.
• Waiting time for rendering the file dialog has been increased (immediate close #77.

Clipboard.png

[Raf]

QuickSwitch βeta with dark theme and mouse support
1.7.1
Fixed

• Logging has been reduced (antivirus issue#108)
• Waiting time for rendering the file dialog has been increased (immediate close#77

1.7.3
Refactored

• Reduced amount of path changing attempts.
• Path numbers with shortcuts now enabled by default.

Fixed

• Issue with changing the path in the "Save As" dialog box, as well as close it due to warnings loop.

1.7.4

Features

• Mouse buttons support: now you can assign mouse buttons in the settings.
• Dark theme support: added option "Enable dark theme". I recommend not use Windows default dark mode. Use the BigSur or CakeOS themes from Niivu.
• Blacklist by processes: now you can add windows to the blacklist by their process names. This option is useful for turning off child windows or for windows with a changing title.
• Enforce menu: press Ctrl+Shift+Win+0 and select the path to change the current path in the active file manager. This is useful if you want to duplicate paths between different file managers or their windows. If a non-file manager is open, the active window process will be started with the selected path as an argument. Let's reverse QuickSwitch!

Refactored

• New libraries have been added.
• Improved the structure of settings and its design.

4

[Raf]

QuickSwitch v1.7

QuickSwitch no longer triggers antiviruses! Now you can be sure that the application is safe because its threat points have been significantly reduced! However, you can always compile the application yourself, as this process is automated.

detection.png

Changelog

Features

• Enforce Menu: you can enforce the Menu in any application using the updated keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Win+0. The menu will display the paths obtained after the last opening of the file dialog and will not change them until the next opening. Details about this feature are described here.

• Limit the displayed paths: in "Menu settings" in the "Menu" tab you can set the maximum number of paths to be shown in the Menu. In this case the menu will show the N most recently opened paths in the file managers.

• Path numbers with shortcuts: this option allows you to select a path using the keyboard and now it works with Numpad keys and additional mouse buttons (some mice have 1-4 numpad). Numbers 10, 11, ... are no longer displayed in the menu as they cannot be physically pressed on the keyboard.

Fixed

• If "Auto switch" was enabled, the file dialog closed immediately #77.
• Broken option "Show menu after leaving settings" #101.
• Internal key Ctrl+Shift+Win+0 errors.
• Alt key freezing in file dialog.
• Rare issue of missing paths from XYplorer.

[Norn]

Can you explain a little bit how you use this code? Does it work all the time or only once when the dialog appears?

I didn't add automatic switching, usually I switch it by clicking a button or Ctrl+G after the dialog appears.

[Raf]

QuickSwitch 1.6 was updated
Enforce Menu: now you can enforce the Menu in any application using the updated keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Win+0. Details about this feature are described here.

Fixed

• If "Auto switch" was enabled, the file dialog closed immediately (#77).
• Broken option "Show menu after leaving settings" (#101).
• Internal key Ctrl+Shift+Win+0 errors.
• Alt key freezing in file dialog.
• Rare issue of missing paths from XYplorer.

[Raf]

I didn't try to lower the delay as it was fast enough.

The delay only makes sense until the file dialog is fully rendered. If it is visible, a delay of 10-20 ms between commands is sufficient. Now I'm trying to figure out why Autohotkey is receiving incorrect Information about the visibility status of the Edit control.

Can you explain a little bit how you use this code? Does it work all the time or only once when the dialog appears?

[Raf]

Noted, thank you. The problem is being discussed here, I'm looking for a solution. Simply adding a delay kills performance.

From the ctrl+alt+shift+0 shortcut Alt will be removed, as the QuickSwitch sets the Alt key to be held down, which makes it impossible to work in the system.

[Norn]

As I've never had this issue with the original, I believe this has something to do with the fact that your version is navigating using the input field rather than the breadcrumbs bar.

Yes.
This is part of my code with some delay added, it works fine on my PC, I didn't try to lower the delay as it was fast enough.

Code: Select all

            		SetControlDelay 10
			setKeyDelay 110
			ControlHide("Edit1", winHwnd)
			loop 3
			{
				ControlSetText btnScript, "Edit1", winHwnd
				if (isDialogType = "tabControl") {
					Send "!d"
					hwnd := ControlGetHwnd("Edit1", winHwnd)
					SendMessage(0x00B1, 0, -1, hWnd)
					ControlShow("Edit1", winHwnd)
					return
				} else
				{
					ControlFocus "Edit1", winHwnd
					ControlSend("{enter}", "Edit1", winHwnd)
					sleep 300

[WirlyWirly]

An issue I've encountered is that when AutoSwitch is enabled, it breaks some of the "Save As" dialogs.

For example, in Affinity Photo, if I open the SaveAs menu, rather than just switch directories, it will instead confirm the save into the current directory without waiting for me to set a filename.

If I re-open the SaveAs window, it does it again, which results in the "File already Exists" prompt. This becomes a loop that I have to smash <Esc> to get out of.

As I've never had this issue with the original, I believe this has something to do with the fact that your version is navigating using the input field rather than the breadcrumbs bar.

P.S
I use the ctrl+alt+shift+0 shortcut a lot in XY, so when it stopped working and gave me what looked like a broken menu I got confused. I was about to report an XY bug

[Raf]

QuickSwitch v1.6

Changelog
Features

• Enforce Menu: now you can enforce the Menu in any application using the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+0.
  • You can use this feature to test whether QuickSwitch is working correctly in the (target) app in which Menu appears. If it really works, click "Settings > Debug > Export" to export the app info file. Open a suggestion to add this app to QuickSwitch, attach exported file.
  • You can use this feature to try changing the path in any app, but it probably won't work if there are no visible input field (e.g. Filename, Edit) or the target application is running as an administrator. If it works, see the paragraph above.

• Better error display: QuickSwitch now shows significantly fewer notifications if it's not launched as administrator and can't get paths from file managers or can't change file dialog path. The "permission error" appears once and will not spam you with notifications.
  
  • In this case, it is better to restart QuickSwitch as admin or restart other applications with reduced permissions. You can see their names in the notification or find all their names in Errors.log. The error will tell you when this is really necessary. Otherwise, you don't have to worry about it.

Refactored

• The TotalCmd configuration is no longer recreated if TotalCmd is elevated.
• Now any file manager is checked for "elevated" status and paths from it aren't requested if the status is "true".
• Apps aren't checked for elevated if QuickSwitch is running as an administrator. In this case, any errors are always displayed. However, in this case, no errors usually occur.
• Reduced code size.
• Improved comments.
• Improved errors logging.
• Improved file dialog type detection. Errors now interrupt app execution.
• Removed redundant ByRefs.

Fixed

• Various syntax errors pop-ups.
• Opening multiple Explorer windows caused a system error.
• The tray icon did not reset after pressing "Reset".
• Entered empty string values in the settings were not saved.
• Menu residue display and Menu re-linking to non-file-dialog (#88, #94).
• The menu only displayed one path if "Auto Switch" was enabled.
• Selecting paths no longer shows an error if the file dialog owner application has an "elevated" status.

[Raf]

QuickSwitch 1.5 was updated

Fixed

• Opening multiple Explorer windows caused a system error.
• The menu only displayed one path if "Auto Switch" was enabled.

[Raf]

Menu may not be displayed if the target app with file dialog is launched as an administrator. To fix these problem, you should run QuickSwitch as admin or restart the target application without admin permission. This is also true for file managers. The details are explained here and here.

I won't add additional checks: is the QuickSwitch, file dialog or any file manager is running as administrator? I also won't add a check to see if the path is valid or virtual. The check must be performed anew each time for each application that QuickSwitch interacts with. It kills performance. If you know a fast algorithm without adding hwnds to the array of checked windows, please open the PR or "code review" issue.

[Raf]

QuickSwitch v1.5

This amazing update is aimed at improving performance and it was prepared thanks to the incredibly valuable testing by Arsiendle and CennoxX! Some settings have been changed, please set them again in "Menu settings".

I really need your feedback! If something is not working for you, please let me know. If you think that app can be improved, write to me.
Changelog
Menu options

• Black list option: if a menu appears where you don't want it to, you can add that window to the black list. The Menu can still be opened with the main key which can be changed in "Menu settings" > "App".
• Only Auto Switch: removed "not now", "never here" options. Now there is a single "auto switch" option.
• Keyboard support: now you need fewer keys to interact with the Menu:
  • Path: 0-9.
  • Auto switch: A
  • Black list: B
  • Settings: S
  • Hide menu: Esc / click anywhere
    Each option and button in the settings has a corresponding key. Press the u̲n̲d̲e̲r̲l̲i̲n̲e̲d̲ l̲e̲t̲t̲e̲r̲ on the keyboard for quick focus:
    C̲ancel – C; Path s̲eparator – S.
    
    menu.gif

Menu settings

• Always Auto Switch: always changes the path. But you can disable this mode for specific windows using "auto switch" Menu option (#64).
  
  autoswitch.gif
• Close old-style file dialog: enable this option if you want to close old-style file dialogs immediately after selecting a path a don't want to wait (#78).
• Nuke button: sets the default settings and puts the current configuration in the Recycle Bin. Use this option to remove all window settings and force "always Auto Switch" mode. The button is hidden for safety reasons. It can be found after clicking "Reset" or "Debug" buttons.
• Show menu:
  • If all Menu options disabled (e.g. disable "Auto Switch" to show, enable to hide).
  • After selecting path.
  • Always hide only after losing focus
  settings.gif

Features

• Empty menu: if no paths could be found or supported file managers are closed, the menu will display "no available paths".
• More file dialogs: added support for old-style TreeView dialog with Edit field and simple tree (XY forum); added support for some archivers dialogs including BandiZip, PeaZip, 7-zip and WinRar (#43).
• Performance: the speed of the following actions has been improved:
  • Auto switch.
  • Navigating the selected path.
  • Determining the type of dialog.
  • Getting paths from file managers.
  • Getting the Directory Opus active tab.
  • Saving and reading the configuration.

Refactored

• All dialogs now uses same fast function which uses the Edit field instead of the address bar (XY forum).
• Reduced disk usage (reduced amount of I/O operations).
• Improved Menu settings and ini options readability (#84).
• Added retries to fill the path in the dialog (#81).
• Added check for buttons in the dialog.
• Added arrows in "Menu settings" numeric fields and added validation of integers on input.
• Added dialog name to the "Debug" window. Also you can export dialog info and read internal and visible dialog name in the exported file.
• Reduced the number of iterations when parsing the dialog controls, file manager classes, xyplorer child windows.
• 0/1 values replaced with true/false (ini still uses integers for reliability).
• Improved documentation of code and libraries including comments and readme.
• Complex files are organized into separate libraries.
• Improved display of notifications and errors.
• Added logging about files QuickSwitch couldn't access (including main configuration ini and TotalCmd tabbs file.)

Fixed

• The Menu:
  • Remained permanently open after opening the settings.
  • Didn't disappear after closing the dailog.
  • Showed the various XYplorer variables (XY forum).
• Slowdown if child window is open in XYplorer.
• Auto Switch didn't work the first time the dialog was opened.
• The colour field did not allow a HEX number to be entered in free format: #111111, 0x111111 . . .
• Errors appeared when the dialog was immediately closed after opening (#82).
• Rare system error appeared after opening many Explorer windows; added the ability to restart Explorer (#82).

[Filehero]

I'm already running 1.4.12. So for, so good. And a nice new icon. :-)

[Raf]

Many thanks, Raf!

Its wonderful! If you can, please try the βeta v1.4.11
I've added ability to restart all Explorer windows on system error and improved performance by reducing disk access.

Improved

• Read / Write operations to reduce disk usage and improve performance.
• Values validation performance.
• Performance if the main ini configuration could not be accessed.
• Speed of changing path in file dialog.
• Logging about files QuickSwitch couldn't access (including ini and TotalCmd tabbs file.)
• Logging for specific actions like deleting configuration.
• "Menu" tab options naming in "Menu settings".
• Code readability.

Fixed regressions

• Turning off "close old dialog" option after opening General dialog.
• Instant file dialog closing if Auto Switch is enabled.
• Usage of wrong values entered by user in settings.