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Use "Quick Dir" if you have a lot of folders that you open on a
regular basis. Sort of like a Favorites for Explorer.
Download
executable. Instructions for installation
Download source.
Instructions for compiling (right click,
save as and rename extension to .zip).
I found myself opening a lot of explorer windows for
different folders every day. The folders are also somewhat
grouped according to what project I am working on. And then
there are other folders which I also open a lot but these seems
to be independent on what I do. I could just open a folder on
the desktop and put shortcuts to these folders here but the
desktop is normally hidden behind applications so...
I decided to make my own little program to open my "favorite"
folders. Next to Explorer and IExplorer it is the program I use
the most. It is basically a window with tabs where every tab is
for one project or type of work I do. In each tab there is a
list with folder names, or alias names which are easier to
recognize. The names are actually commandline switches and
arguments for explorer. The commandline switches and the program
to open can be replaced which means that any program can be
started.
Tabs can be added, removed or hidden. Folders can be dragged
to the tab lists to add them to the current tab.
There is also one menu for common folders. This is a menu
item instead of a tab since it should be accessible without
changing to another tab. Another menu lets you select any drive
in the system. A third menu displays all "special folders" such
as Windows, System, Control panel, My Documents, My Pictures,
Printers and so on.
The program is written in C++, is very small and as it is
written it is supposed to be started from the aquickstart field
in the taskbar (the one just to the right of the Start button)
since then it only requires one click to start (if one instance
is already running, focus is switched to the already running and
the newly started is terminated). It automatically minimizes
itself after 30 seconds of inactivity (time can be changed).
It is primarily written for XP but does also work under Vista
but the commandline switches for explorer is then different.
These can be changed in the setup file for the program.
The Acc column shows how many times a folder have been
accessed from QDir. The Path column shows the path to the folder
by default but can be changed to a custom text. Finally there is
a column named ">". This column is used to open the path (or the
application) with a single click. The other columns have to be
double clicked to open the path. The list can be sorted by the
Acc or the Path column. The currently used sorting is shown with
a dot in the title.
Folders can be added to a tab, which is also called a
Selection, with File->Add folder, File->Add Special folder or by
dragging a folder (or several folders) from Explorer to the
list. The list also has a context menu that can be used to add
folders to it.
One context menu entry for the list is Properties. This opens
the properties for an item in the list. This gives a possibility
to change the text, the alias, for an item. The original path
can also be displayed together with the alias. The Advanced...
button opens the advanced properties where both the path,
command switches and application used for the list item can be
changed.
Here is the advanced properties dialog for a normal folder
opened with explorer:
And here is an example that opens the textfile "userenv.log"
with notepad.
The selections or tabs can be accessed through
File->Selections... which opens a dialog where selections can be
added, renamed, deleted or hidden.
The Change button is used to rename or hide a selection.
All settings for the application, the selections and items in
the selections are in a file called QDIR2.CFG. This is a
textfile with sections for each group of settings, much like an
INI file. The first section named [Inställningar] ("settings" in
Swedish) contains basic settings:
[Inställningar]
MinimizeTimeout 30,1
Default_arg "/e,,"
Default_exe "explorer.exe"
Selection "TMS Setup"
Lista 0
FönsterPos 0,750,373,421,0
The interesting settings here are:
MinimizeTimeout: The first argument is number of
seconds until the QDir window minimizes itself and the second
argument is 0 if the feature is disabled and 1 if it is enabled.
Default_arg: This is the default commandline switches
that will be added to the application when a folder is added.
Default_exe: This is the default application to start
a newly added folder with.
The other settings should not be touched and are used
internally by QDIR to remember application variables through
sessions.
Note that Default_arg and Default_exe only changes new items
added to the lists. Existing items has to be changed through the
Advanced properties dialog or directly in the QDIR2.CFG file.
Installation instructions
Download the executable here.
Extract it to a folder of your preference. Create a shortcut to
QDIR2.EXE and drag the shortcut to the quickstart field in the
taskbar directly to the right of the start button.
Note to vista users: Change the Default_arg to "/e," (only
one comma) and put the executable in a folder with write
permissions for the application (C:\Program files is not a good
location for this) since QDIR2.CFG needs to be changed by the
application.
Compiling the code
The source code is
compiled with Microsoft Visual C++, using MFC. The project is
set up to put all output files under the folder mvs_output in
the root of the drive where the source is compiled from. The bin
folder contains the executable. If compiled for debug, the name
is appended with _d. Download by right click and save as.
Rename extension to .zip (problems with downloading zip files). |
