Use Dropbox to share everything but paths?

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kunkel321
Posts: 664
Joined: 10 Jun 2012 03:45
Location: Near Seattle

Use Dropbox to share everything but paths?

Post by kunkel321 »

Has anyone out there tried pointing the Startup.ini to Dropbox (so that it uses Dropbox\XYplorer rather than %appdata%\XYplorer) as a way to have custom keyboard shortcuts, color-coding, etc show up on their main computer and laptop?

The second half of the question is
-if this is even possible,
Can it be done, given that the folders are different on my to different computers? I.e. don't share bookmarks and path related settings, but do share everything else?
ste(phen|ve) kunkel
Scaling: Main monitor 125%, Secondary monitor on the right 100%
OS: Win 10. XYplorer version: Latest beta, unless specified.

nas8e9
Posts: 2232
Joined: 21 Jun 2008 14:50

Re: Use Dropbox to share everything but paths?

Post by nas8e9 »

kunkel321 wrote:Has anyone out there tried pointing the Startup.ini to Dropbox (so that it uses Dropbox\XYplorer rather than %appdata%\XYplorer) as a way to have custom keyboard shortcuts, color-coding, etc show up on their main computer and laptop?
I don't, but...
kunkel321 wrote:The second half of the question is
-if this is even possible,
Can it be done, given that the folders are different on my to different computers? I.e. don't share bookmarks and path related settings, but do share everything else?
...there was a question recently, about using sync in general to use the same XYplorer config on several computers. Are the differences between your two computers confined to different user names (with all or most of your working folders below C:\Users\%UserName%)?

As for partial sync, XYplorer.ini unfortunately contains the bulk of XYplorer's settings including at least the Favorites, so that seems a bit of a non-starter to me.

serendipity
Posts: 3360
Joined: 07 May 2007 18:14
Location: NJ/NY

Re: Use Dropbox to share everything but paths?

Post by serendipity »

kunkel321 wrote:Has anyone out there tried pointing the Startup.ini to Dropbox (so that it uses Dropbox\XYplorer rather than %appdata%\XYplorer) as a way to have custom keyboard shortcuts, color-coding, etc show up on their main computer and laptop?

The second half of the question is
-if this is even possible,
Can it be done, given that the folders are different on my to different computers? I.e. don't share bookmarks and path related settings, but do share everything else?
I use dropbox on a daily basis on 2 pcs and 1 laptop this way. I have 3 ini files; Work, Home and Laptop with their own settings. I have suffixed respective ini paths to my xy shortcut, so right ones load.
Best thing is, if I update on one pc and all others are updated. :)
But that will work only if you close your XY instance before opening another one in another place.

For the catalog (which will not change automatically with your ini) i have a /script switch included at XY startup to make sure it opens the right one for the right system:
Example script:

Code: Select all

  IF (%COMPUTERNAME% == "Home-PC"){
  catalogload "home.dat";
  }
  ELSEIF (%COMPUTERNAME% == "Work-PC"){
  catalogload "work.dat";
  }
  ELSEIF (%COMPUTERNAME% == "Laptop"){
  catalogload "laptop.dat";
  }
Hope this helps.

kunkel321
Posts: 664
Joined: 10 Jun 2012 03:45
Location: Near Seattle

Re: Use Dropbox to share everything but paths?

Post by kunkel321 »

Thanks All, for the replies.

@nas8e9: There are some annoying differences between my two set ups. My home computer runs Vista and the setup is pretty straight-forward. My work computer, though, is a laptop with Win 7 Pro that connects to the server at my work place. The My Documents folder is at location "\\rsfp\BlahUsers\Staff\Blah\MyNameBlah" It drives me nuts that things are only available if I'm on line, so I just made myself a folder off of the C: drive, and I put all my stuff there. (I've tried the "Make available off line" feature, and that is a no go). Anyway... Fortunately my Program Files and AppData folders are both off the C:. Win 7 is forever giving me problems, which I'm going to post about--but that's a different topic :)

@seren: I will look into the command line for different INIs thing...
Are you saying you have 3 different INIs as in "XYplorer(1).ini, XYplorer(2).ini, XYplorer(3).ini" Then just point your shortcut to the correct one? How do you get the customizations (color filters, visual filters, etc.) to migrate from one version of the INI to another?
ste(phen|ve) kunkel
Scaling: Main monitor 125%, Secondary monitor on the right 100%
OS: Win 10. XYplorer version: Latest beta, unless specified.

nas8e9
Posts: 2232
Joined: 21 Jun 2008 14:50

Re: Use Dropbox to share everything but paths?

Post by nas8e9 »

Personally, I could see merit in moving all path information out of XYplorer.ini and into something like paths.ini, especially since XYplorer was designed for portability and multi-device use (Dropbox is just a more recent way to do it... :)).

However, do you also have computer-specific paths in other files in your <xydata>-folder? (A content search for something like "C:\" is probably the fastest way to find out.)

If all else fails, manually syncing (I'm guessing that as a relatively new user, you make more config changes now than you will after some time) with WinMerge or Beyond Compare (both content and file compare), may become feasible?

grindax

Re: Use Dropbox to share everything but paths?

Post by grindax »

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Last edited by grindax on 22 Jan 2016 23:47, edited 1 time in total.

serendipity
Posts: 3360
Joined: 07 May 2007 18:14
Location: NJ/NY

Re: Use Dropbox to share everything but paths?

Post by serendipity »

kunkel321 wrote:@seren: I will look into the command line for different INIs thing...
Are you saying you have 3 different INIs as in "XYplorer(1).ini, XYplorer(2).ini, XYplorer(3).ini" Then just point your shortcut to the correct one? How do you get the customizations (color filters, visual filters, etc.) to migrate from one version of the INI to another?
Yeah, I've set up Laptop.ini, Work.ini and Home.ini and all settings like color filters, visual filters, tabs etc are unique to each of them. This is already very useful.
However the .dat files are common between configs, but this is no big deal for me.
For example i use a Tagswitch script to switch between tags.

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