Get Explorer's children in batch - windows

Question

I created folder shortcuts for my taskbar and I would like them to stop launching a new explorer every time
So I decided to create a batch script, howover I can not get the kids from explorer.exe
#echo off
pushd
tasklist /nh /fi "imagename eq explorer.exe C:\Users\danil\Desktop\ISO" | find /i "explorer.exe C:\Users\danil\Desktop\ISO" > nul ||(start explorer.exe C:\Users\danil\Desktop\ISO)

Answer 1

The issue with your attempt is that tasklist will list only one instance of explorer.exe but not the titles of each window openned.
With some edits over this I've created listWindows.bat - it will list all visible windows names and their coresponding executable. So you can try this:
call listWindows.bat|findstr /i /b /e "explorer::Downloads" >nul 2>nul || (
start "" explorer.exe "C:\Users\%username%\Downloads"
)
To check the windows you need to start you can just try this:
call listWindows.bat|findstr /i /b "explorer::"

Answer 2

You cannot check the opening folders by checking the command line options, because the arguments stay the same across the whole lifetime of the process even after you changed to some other folders in that window. You need to use scriptable shell objects to get the current address.
Here's a PowerShell script to open a folder if it's not already opened in explorer
$folder = 'C:\Users\danil\Desktop\ISO'
$folderOpened = $false
foreach ($w in (New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Windows()) {
if ($w.LocationURL -ieq ([uri]$folder).AbsoluteUri) {
$folderOpened = $true; break
}
}
if (-not $folderOpened) { Invoke-Item $folder } # or start $folder
Below is an equivalent hybrid batch-jscript snippet
#if (#CodeSection == #Batch) #then
#echo off
cscript //e:jscript //nologo "%~f0" %*
exit /b
#end
// JScript Section
var objShell = new ActiveXObject("shell.application");
var objShellWindows;
objShellWindows = objShell.Windows();
if (objShellWindows != null)
{
// the folder you want to open
var folder = "file:///C:/Users/danil/Desktop/ISO";
var folderOpened = 0;
for (var objEnum = new Enumerator(objShellWindows);
!objEnum.atEnd(); objEnum.moveNext())
{
if (folder == objEnum.item().LocationUrl)
{
folderOpened = 1;
break;
}
}
if (!folderOpened) // open the folder if it's not already opened
objShell.Explore(folder); // or objshell.Open(folder)
}
Each explorer window is represented by an InternetExplorer object that can be retrieved from the Shell.Windows() collection. You need to use a file URI scheme instead of a normal Windows path, but it works. Of course you can even further change it to switch to the folder window if it's being opened. You can also use VBS or any other languages that support scriptable shell objects
Update:
You can avoid the file URI scheme by changing objEnum.item().LocationUrl to objEnum.item().Document.Folder.Self.Path
In the PowerShell version above it means changing
if ($w.LocationURL -ieq ([uri]$folder).AbsoluteUri) {
to
if ($w.Document.Folder.Self.Path -ieq $folder) {