What syntax combines 2 commands into a single shortcut TARGET line?

UPDATE:

Today we solved the problem of adding modified windows icons
to shortcut files which targeted multiple Windows commands.

Usenet is a wonderful public web-searchable archive of useful tutorials.
o As always, please improve so all benefit from every thread.

o *Tutorial for modifying icons inside common Windows system DLLs*
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.photo.digital/lAJV8OZdZjg
o https://i.postimg.cc/hPTCzbtc/icon08.jpg
o https://i.postimg.cc/HnrdTvww/icon07.jpg
o https://i.postimg.cc/SNJgdfKB/icon05.jpg
o https://i.postimg.cc/NFhjn4cd/icon04.jpg
o https://i.postimg.cc/76ZvXJdf/icon03.jpg
o https://i.postimg.cc/X7VKMQGM/icon02.jpg
o https://i.postimg.cc/43GKMY2Z/icon01.jpg

o *Tutorial for creating custom Windows icons from screenshots*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/xm6aHzaC-D8/uD1PLfk6DAAJ
o https://i.postimg.cc/cHVqvPPb/icon03.jpg
o https://i.postimg.cc/3N7ZdRSb/icon02.jpg
o https://i.postimg.cc/vHc2THz3/icon01.jpg

o *Tutorial with details to properly set {batch,shortcut,target} icons*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.msdos.batch/ndNW-4oDewY/iQzDf15OBQAJ

o *Tutorial to find all icons hidden inside common Windows executables & DLLs*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/-1nQdP8E_Yc/VILrouTSBAAJ

o *Where to find thousands of free open source mobile device related icons*
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.comp.freeware/0lQELGmVc0U

o *Examples of custom icons used for various Windows shutdown shortcuts*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.msdos.batch/ndNW-4oDewY/siPvrsBVBQAJ

o *Tutorial to get batch command shortcuts working perfectly on Windows*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/1PzeGP4KMTU/tTbcd9zxAAAJ

o *Here are over 250 Win+R Run commands to set your shortcut TARGET to*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/cc1lGn3ty0E/DH_FxVCjAAAJ

o *The unintuitive syntax to set a shortcut TARGET line to multiple commands*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.msdos.batch/azQbz6D_v0Y/zwvOqeCmEAAJ

o *What useful Windows shortcuts would you like to share with users?*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/80ZHKKFom0c/RN3V0Av6BQAJ

o *Quick tutorial for creating easy (Start Run) access to lookup files on Windows*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/5LxGOixwwWs/q8wVoJ3mBAAJ

o *Tutorial for setting up a well-organized consistent efficient Windows menu system*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/eWU-jOkFRtU/lkVU8yolBQAJ

o *Shortcuts with special icons to shutdown & reboot Windows on command*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.msdos.batch/ndNW-4oDewY/siPvrsBVBQAJ
etc.
--
Every thread to Usenet archives should help someone now & in the future.

In article ,
Arlen Holder wrote:
UPDATE:

Today we solved the problem of adding modified windows icons
to shortcut files which targeted multiple Windows commands.

It'd be nice if ot were possible to tell at a glance what the hell your
posts are about. Instead, they just look like screenful after screenful of
spammy URLs.

It should not be this hard.

--
Conservatives want smaller government for the same reason criminals want fewer cops.

Kenny,

It'd be nice if ot were possible to tell at a glance what
the hell your posts are about.

Well, /mostly/ about the part after the "o *Tutorial for", but thats not
always a given/true. Most of his tuts are a hodge-podge of marginaly
related subjects, which makes it rather hard to figure out what he's trying
to accomplish. And often rather dangerous if followed.

Instead, they just look like screenful after screenful of
spammy URLs.

The "google groups" ones are ment as a perma-link to his
(never-disappearing, 'cause Google) "usenet" posts.

The other ones are just the images he refers to in those posts. To bad that
those free image hosters tend to remove content a few months after they have
last been viewed, which would render his tuts worthless - exactly whay he
tried to forgo by going for those google-group permalinks. Lets see how
long it takes him to figure that out. :-)

And by the way, I just took a look at his first tutorial, "modifying icons
inside common Windows system DLLs". But nonwithstanding its boast, it
stops short of actually changing the contents of such DLLs.

Is also funny to see him utter his surprise : "Have you noticed that Windows
_changes_ the icon depending on viewing size", indicatingthat he's blisfully
unaware that an icon holds images of different sizes - with no guarantee
that all those images are the same (in fact, they most never are - removing
or adding details depending on the available width & height).

Its odd though, as his screenshots show such differently-sized images (outof
a single icon) a couple of times ...

I also find it rather odd that he didn't use his icon viewer to look at his
own, just created one. He might have figured it out that way. That, and
that he didn't include his result, the newly create icon in the list of
images - so that we could take a peek at the, no doubt sublime, result.

Odder still are the comments in/on his "icon01.jpg" image. He *screenshots*
the icon as a base for a new one. Yeah, no wonder he needs a gazillion
steps to get that back to something resembling an icon again.

It should not be this hard.

And it isn't. Just a simple resource extractor/inserter & microangelo.
Thats all it takes. Not that I would suggest anyone to replace those DLL
(or other PE file) based icons though. Just extract, edit and put them in
their own directory, from where they can be assigned to almost any file you
want.


I've taken a peek at a few others tutorials too. Alas, the same hodge-poge
of rather unrelated subjects and "do this" steps that I can't put heads or
tails on (no idea why he thinks it has to be done that way - like renaming a
..bat to an .exe ? WTF?)

Still have no idea what all of this has to do with (MS)DOS though. I've
removed the xpost newsgroups accordingly.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

In article , Kenny McCormack
wrote:

In article ,
Arlen Holder wrote:
...


It'd be nice if ot were possible to tell at a glance what the hell your
posts are about. Instead, they just look like screenful after screenful of
spammy URLs.

It should not be this hard.

it's not hard at all.

it's *very* easy to tell at a glance what his posts are about:

trolling.

On Thu, 29 Aug 2019 16:24:14 -0000 (UTC), AG Holder wrote:

SOLVED!

Once I followed your helpful suggestion to give up on wasting time trying
to get the the ampersand syntax to work with the app directly in the TARGET
line, I then immediately figured out a way to incorporate the ampersand
into the TARGET line anyway, which was to utilize the same technique we
used in the past to combine commands to create a rolodex grep using nothing
more than a simple call to a registry key.

This is the simple solution (so far):
o Calling the application directly doesn't allow the ampersand to work
o But calling the app via the comspec _does_ allow the ampersand to work

That is, this doesn't work:
o TARGET = cmd1 & cmd2
But this does work!
o TARGET = %compspec% /k cmd1 & cmd2

I should have remembered this, but my memory was tweaked by my last
response, where we've solved so many Windows problems that we forget all
the tricks - where the trick was that I had already used (long ago) this
comspec /k concept to create a shortcut which spits out system snapshot
information into a file, where, from memory, the TARGET line was something
like the following that I just hacked out for this post:

TARGET = %comspec% /k date /T sys.txt & ipconfig /all sys.txt & route
print sys.txt & netsh int ip show route sys.txt & systeminfo
sys.txt & net start sys.txt & dir /s/a/l/on/b C:\ *.* sys.txt

That same technique, which I had forgotten we used long ago to create
system snapshots, worked fine with Veracrypt just now:

TARGET = %comspec% /k veracrypt.exe [PUT THE FIRST MOUNT HERE] & [PUT THE SECOND MOUNT HERE]

Now we have efficient shortcuts which mount & dismount ALL encrypted
volumes in a single TARGET line.

TARGET = veracrypt.exe /dismount /force
TARGET = %comspec% /k veracrypt.exe /volume C:\tmp\X.hc /letter X /auto /quit /explore & veracrypt.exe /volume C:\tmp\Y.hc /letter Y /auto /quit /explore

In summary, the simple trick was to NOT use the application commands
directly in the shortcut TARGET, but to use the /k comspec switch first,
and _then_ combine the two application commands.

This concept of adding the ampersand to the shortcut TARGET line, of
course, will have general use in the future, so it's great that we were
able to add value to the Usenet potluck to share with the other team
members who care to learn how to be extremely efficient on Windows.

Update (for the cross referenced permanent Usenet record)
o TARGET = %comspec% /c [1st command] & [2nd command & [3rd command]
o TARGET = %comspec% /k [1st command] & [2nd command & [3rd command]

I am setting up a new system after a BSOD failure to boot necessitated it:
o Windows 10 BSOD indicates a hardware problem - but what hardware is the problem?
https://alt.comp.os.windows-10.narkive.com/oL7PTNKu/windows-10-bsod-indicates-a-hardware-problem-but-what-hardware-is-the-problem

I first re-created these three basic Veracrypt links as described prior:
o What syntax combines 2 commands into a single shortcut TARGET line?
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.msdos.batch/azQbz6D_v0Y

1. Win+R dismount (dismounts all mounted encrypted volumes, aka unmount)
2. Win+R favorite (mounts favorite encrypted volumes)
3. Win+R mountx (mounts encrypted volumes, where 'x' is a given volume)
(for example, mountxyz mounts three encrypted volumes as X, Y, & Z)

Those keywords are defined in the AppPaths key in the system registry:
o [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\]

1. dismount.exe === C:\path\lnk\dismount.lnk (aka c:\path\lnk\unmount.lnk)
2. favorite.exe === C:\path\favorite.lnk
3. mountx.exe === C:\path\lnk\mountx.lnk
(For example, mountxyz.exe === C:\path\lnk\mountxyz.lnk)

Where the TARGET lines for each of those shortcut (links) a
1. dismount.lnk
TARGET === c:\path\veracrypt.exe /dismount /force /q /silent
2. favorite.lnk
TARGET === c:\path\veracrypt.exe /a favorites /q
3. mountx.lnk
TARGET === %comspec% /c veracrypt /volume C:\path\volume1.hc /letter x /auto /quit /explore

(For example, mountxyz.lnk)
TARGET === %comspec% /c veracrypt.exe /volume volume1.hc /letter x /auto /quit /explore
& veracrypt.exe /volume volume2.hc /letter y /auto /quit /explore
& veracrypt.exe /volume volume3.hc /letter z /auto /quit /explore

Shortcut targets are assigned appropriate easily distinguished icons, as per:
o Tutorial for creating custom Windows icons from screenshots using only Irfanview freeware
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.comp.freeware/qeHbJySBp0M

Note AppPaths keys are simply keywords that _must_ end with ".exe":
o What Windwos freeware adds powerful "phone Susan" & "vipw" commands?
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/ySVGbayhLSk
--
Usenet is a no-login web-searchable archive of useful crosslinked tutorials.