I have a filesystem and there seems to be two different folder names for the same folder. On the DOS prompt, I don't see any directories unless I use /a.
What is going on here and how may I implement this kind of GUID/Friendly names scheme on my own?
In Windows Explorer, the folder name looks like E:\Mediadatabase\Storage\ but if I click in the address field, I see E:\MediaDatabase\1f9b78f5-0dcd-452a-9404-a45d0775b12f\
Dos prompt
DOS prompt
Related
I want to create generic shortcuts in Windows 10 using a target path
extension of the shell path, something like
%windir%\explorer.exe shell:AppData ..\Local\Temp
%windir%\explorer.exe shell:AppData works by itself, takes me to roaming userfiles.
I could use
%windir%\explorer.exe shell:UsersFilesFolder
which would take me to %UserProfile% and append from there (if I could find out how) only it would be handy to be able to go up a level if possible as well.
I can't work out
How to append a further couple directories into the shortcut target path
How to go up one directory first (..?)
What is the syntax to make this work?
First of all, %Temp% might not be the same as %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp!
The way to create a perfect shortcut to %Temp% is not that easy, ideally the .lnk should only contain a EXP_SZ_LINK:EXP_SZ_LINK_SIG block with the %Temp% string. You have to manually delete the ItemIdList block to get a .lnk file like that. %Temp% is extra complicated because it does not have a special folder canonical name you can use with the shell: protocol.
I don't believe the shell: protocol supports .. nor . path components.
shell:AppData ..\Local is also wrong because the local appdata folder might be somewhere else (< Windows Vista used different names) and a better command would be %windir%\explorer.exe "shell:LocalAppData" (and in turn %windir%\explorer.exe "shell:Local AppData\Temp") but all of those commands have other issues.
First of all, Explorer might not be the users shell and you risk not obeying the users preferences.
Another problem is that a .lnk file contains the attributes of its target and because the link actually points to a .exe file your .lnk file will not have the FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY bit set for its target attribute and the shell will not understand that it points to a folder. A .lnk that points to a folder will sometimes open in the same window when navigating the shell instead of opening a new file browser window.
The .lnk binary format is documented and by breaking the rules a little bit I have been able to create a link that points to a file/folder inside a special shell folder by combining a EXP_SPECIAL_FOLDER block with a manipulated ItemIdList but for whatever reason this trick does not work for deeper paths.
A EXP_SPECIAL_FOLDER block and a empty ItemIdList is the only way to create shortcuts to special folders that is guaranteed to work on all systems but you have to create it manually, the IShellLink implementation adds system specific blocks that might break things if you try to use the link on another system.
The .lnk format has not changed much since Windows 95 and there is simply no easy way to create shortcuts relative to special folders that also work when they are copied to other systems. The relative path string in a .lnk is relative to the .lnk file itself and is not helpful in this case.
I would recommend that you simply create the .lnk on the target system in your installer/application and let IShellLink fill in as much information as possible behind your back.
I am trying to use Jedit as an external editor to 7zip.
7zip opens Jedit as external editor however edits are only saved back if Jedit was not running previously. I probably should pass -noserver or -newview command line arguments to Jedit as an external editor, but when I do that 7zip gives an error: 'Cannot start editor'.
How could I use Jedit as an external editor to 7zip so that edits are saved back?
You cannot give arguments to the programs you configure in 7-Zip.
What you need to do is to create a batch file that you call from 7-Zip that sets the options you want to have and that forwards all other arguments.
What you do NOT want to do is to use the -noserver option without a -settings option if a jEdit instance is already running. Currently jEdit does not behave nice if you start two really separated instances in the same settings directory, as the first that writes a specific settings file after the second instance is started "owns" it and the other just does not save it anymore, so your positions, recent files, changed settings etc. will not be persisted and there is no prominent warning about this.
What you DO want to do is to use the -wait option, that is present for exactly those cases.
So create a file jedit-wait.bat (e. g. in the jEdit installation directory) with content #jedit -wait %* and then configure that batch file as 7-Zip editor. That is also how I have set it up and it works exactly like expected. The only slightly unnice thing is, that you will have a black command line window sitting there as long as you edit the file, but that is not as disturbing as it sounds, at least to me.
Is there anyway to search command prompt parameters in a general sense. Or are we hostage to the documentation of such programs? For example in the command prompt I type explorer or notepad... but if I put the first parameter as a file path it will open that file path for me... how am I supposed to know this parameter input exists and perhaps there is a bunch of other parameter fields I am unaware of. Is there anyway to search program parameters systematically?
In Windows programs are responsible for processing their own command line parameters, and they can do so in any way they please. (It is common to hand off tokenization to the C runtime library, but not mandatory.)
This gives the programmer maximum flexibility, but does mean that if the programmer has not documented the command line there is no straightforward way to reverse engineer it after the fact.
(UNIX isn't very much different; the tokenization is handled by the shell, but the rest of the processing is the applications responsibility. In VMS, by contrast, the entire command-line processing is handled by the shell, based on syntax information that must be embedded in the application.)
It is conventional for an application to provide a command-line syntax summary in response to one or more of the following options:
application /?
application -?
application /help
application -help
application --?
application --help
(Arranged approximately from most-common to least-common; the variants with two hyphens are usually only found in software that has been ported from UNIX.)
I haven't looked for actual statistics, but my impression is that the majority of command-line applications (perhaps 80% or more) do provide such a summary. It is less common for GUI applications.
Failing that, you can sometimes find command-line options by looking for strings in the executable file. Microsoft provides a utility that does this, strings.exe, downloadable from their web site. (Of course, knowing the existence of a possible command-line option doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to figure out what it does!)
If you have access to the source code, or are skilled at disassembly, that may provide another option if you are desperate enough.
No. Though you can always try programname /?.
Notepad takes a single filename only OR takes /p filename ... (you can see the command in txtfiles print entry in the registry).
Here's something from Windows 98 Explorer's it still the same.
Explorer
explorer [/n] [/e][,/root,object][[,/select],subobject]
None Explorer rooted at the Desktop
/n Opens a new window.
/e Explorer View (default if nothing else is on the command line.)
/root,object Starts Explorer with object the top item (normally Desktop is the top item). Eg: explorer /e,/root,c:\Starts Explorer with the C drive as the only drive available.
/select,subobject Selects the specified subobject.
Replaceable parameters are %1 (one) which is the short file or folder name and %l (L) which is the long file name.
/IDLIST
This is an additional parameter that means a Windows internal structure is being passed. eg:
Explorer.exe /e,/idlist,%I
The %I is a replacable parameter representing an IDLIST.
Rooted Views
To open an explorer item that starts with a special folder as the top folder use the following syntax.
Where the special folder is a sub folder of the desktop
explorer /e,root,::{CLSID of special folder}
Where the special folder is a sub folder of another special folder (usually, if not always My Computer)
explorer /e,root,::{CLSID of parent}/::{CLSID of special folder}
Where the special folder is part of the file system
explorer /e,root,path to folder
See Namespaces on the Icons Page for a list of CLSIDs for special folders.
Examples
Note that /select is inconsistent. Sometime the / is required, sometimes it should be left out, and sometimes it doesn't matter.
Starts explorer with the Windows folder opened and selected.
explorer /e,select,c:\windows
Starts explorer with Windows the top level folder and command opened and selected.
explorer /e,/root,c:\windows,select,c:\windows\command
Starts explorer with Windows the top level folder and Tips.txt showing instead of the file listing.
explorer /e,/root,c:\windows,select,c:\windows\tips.txt
Starts explorer with My Computer the top level folder and all branches except for drives collapsed.
explorer /e,/root,::{20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d}
Starts explorer with C:\ the top level folder.
explorer /e,/root,c:\
Starts the Dial Up Networking folder in folder view.
explorer.exe ::{20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d}\::{992cffa0-f557-101a-88ec-00dd010ccc48}
(Not sure if this belongs on superusers, but it seems there is a cmd.exe tag here, so here goes...)
As background, I'm working on a Firefox add-on (This question does not require knowledge of Firefox, btw, as Firefox add-ons can call the command line.) The add-on aims to build different kinds of shortcuts to cmd.exe (especially for the sake of my project https://github.com/brettz9/webappfind which allows files to be opened directly from the desktop into web apps).
Anyways, I'd like to give users the option to associate these shortcuts:
As the default handler for specific file extensions or file types.
To show up within the Open With list of applications (even if the user opts not to make the apps as default handlers)
As far as the default handling, I have found the ftype and assoc (and associate) commands, but I have read that user selections will override their behavior. Is there some way to ensure that I can get priority from the command line in associating file extensions to types and specific executables (until the user changes it again), or if it is not possible, then at least through C++ or the like?
As far as the Open With list:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\<file extension>\OpenWithList
...in my testing (with an exe), this command:
reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.svg\OpenWithList /v d /d D:\wamp\www\webappfind\cplusplus\WebAppFinder-view-mode-Firefox.exe
...did cause the exe file to show up in:
reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.svg\OpenWithList
...but it did not show up when I subsequently right-clicked a file with the ".svg" extension.
I would really appreciate any help with these two points.
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\MYFOO.exe\shell\open\command]
#="\"C:\\MYFOO.exe\" \"%1\""
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.myfoo]
"Application"="MYFOO.EXE"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.myfoo\OpenWithList]
"a"="MYFOO.EXE"
"MRUList"="a"
So I got to an investigation what makes those file associations. It appears that you have to create a mapping from the bare EXE name to the full path as shown in the first two long-ish lines. Then you must only use the EXE name in the .extension branch. Setting the .extension's Application value will give you your default app instantly. Remember, only use APP.EXE, its full path must be defined as above. This was your main error. The "%1" part allows you to customize the parameters of your program so that it doesn't have to be just the opened document in quotes, as shown here. The backslashes are just escape characters for Regedit, you may discard them as you see fit.
The OpenWithList is tricky in the sense that there are letters for entries and just a blind write may overwrite some of the user's favorite apps. One approach would be to call your item "z" to lower the probability of overwriting. The right way would be enumerating the key and giving your app the first free letter. The MRUList is not essential, although it should have each used letter once and yours bumped to the start.
Note about user friendliness: Explorer will cache these values until next reboot. Make sure you update the registry and place exe first and create your file later. Although the caching only fully influences the display of the file and when it is run, the registry is read again and it will execute as you want.
TIP: If you decide to use Regedit instead of reg, the /s parameter skips the confirmation message and applies the values right away. Make sure you use double backslashes in the full path as shown. When preparing your temporary .reg file, make sure you append two CRLF's to the end or a glitch may cause your last line of code to be ignored. This sample starts with REGEDIT4 which signifies an ANSI file. If you need support for Unicode in your app path, you'll have to start the file with Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 and store it in UTF16. This is already a superior solution to calling reg because there's no way you could get CMD.EXE to process special UTF stuff through the command line without mangling.
Where is in the registry the path executed when I run the "notepad" command in windows "Start->run command" interface? I want to change it for notepad++ (it is required so, although could look not really good)
If you are like me you use windows run command all the time. I hate using the mouse to point and click a shortcut on the start menu. WIN-R are probably the two most over used keys on my keyboard. After thinking about if awhile I hunted down how the run command works. It turns out that it makes a call to ShellExecute, which I guess is not too surprising. The next thing I wanted to find out was exactly how the commands are resolved. The following is an ordered list of how they are resolved ([1]):
The current working directory
The Windows directory (no subdirectories are searched)
The Windows\System32 directory
Directories listed in the PATH environment variable
The App Paths registry key
Naturally the next thing I wanted to do was customize existing commands or add new commands so I do not have to type as much (standard lazy approach). After examining my options which were to put the executable in one of those paths (since it only locates executables and not shortcuts), modify the path environment variable or add a key to App Paths. The App Paths option seems to be the easiest and most flexible to me. Here is a layout of what you need to do to add an App Paths entry ([1]):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-->
SOFTWARE-->
Microsoft-->
Windows-->
CurrentVersion==>
App Paths-->
file.exe-->
(Default) = The fully-qualified path and file name
Path = A semicolon-separated list of directories
DropTarget = {CLSID}
Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. I cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.
The minimum needed to add a new entry is to add the key file.exe where file is the string you want to type into the run command and to add the Default entry which is the fully-qualified path to the file you want to execute. Note that even it the file you are going to reference isn't an exe file you still need to put the .exe on the key. Here is a sample registry file that I created to add a shorter keyword for Internet Explorer:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\ie.exe] #="C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
After entering that entry into the registry I can simply type “ie” at
the run command to open internet explorer.
Here is a list of some common commands I use at the run command:
cmd – Command prompt winword – Microsoft Word excel – Microsoft Excel
outlook – Microsoft Outlook iexplore – Internet Explorer firefox –
Mozilla Firefox notepad – Notepad compmgmt.msc – Computer Management
Console control appwiz.cpl – Add/Remove programs dialog mstsc –
Microsoft Terminal Service Client regedit – Registry Editor
…
If there is some program that I find myself using all the time I figure out what the run command is for it and if there is not a short easy one I add one to my App Paths as described above. Does anyone else have some other common run commands they use?