Searchable/Accessible List of Files Across Multiple Folders?

Is there a way to bring up a single Explorer window showing everything
cross multiple folders in a single list - i.e. the same sort of list as
if I opened one of the folders ?

First problem that comes to mind is duplicate names across those
folders....

I have not clue what a "Library" is, but it has the right sound....
--
Pete Cresswell

On 2015-03-10 19:53, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Is there a way to bring up a single Explorer window showing everything
cross multiple folders in a single list - i.e. the same sort of list as
if I opened one of the folders ?

First problem that comes to mind is duplicate names across those
folders....

I have not clue what a "Library" is, but it has the right sound....

lol, you answered yourself :-) Library is the way to go. They should be
showing in the left pane of Explorer (if they are not, there is a
setting somewhere to make them appear - Microsoft wanted to push that
OneDrive crap so much in Win8 that it made libraries harder to find.
Once you have them showing, click the Libraries root, then right-click
and create a new one and add folders to it.

Libraries work only in Explorer (another MS fail). If you want to merge
several folders in a shell, you have to write a script that hardlinks
all the files of the folders into a new folder - but then it wont
auto-update itself...

Best Regards,

--
! _\|/_ Sylvain /
! (o o) Member-+-David-Suzuki-Foundation/EFF/Planetary-Society-+-
oO-( )-Oo Drunk Borg: "Rsilience in floor tile. Wan'be similated?"

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 19:53:50 -0400, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Is there a way to bring up a single Explorer window showing everything
cross multiple folders in a single list - i.e. the same sort of list as
if I opened one of the folders ?

First problem that comes to mind is duplicate names across those
folders....

I have not clue what a "Library" is, but it has the right sound....

I suspect you'll have to find a third-party program to do that.

You can do something like that in DOS (I really mean a command window!),
but it ain't a GUI.

Maybe a Library can do that, but that's not the way I use them, so I
don't know. I really *don't* use them - but the libraries on this
computer just show directory trees, and I haven't tried to change that.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 2015-03-10 20:17, B00ze/Empire wrote:

On 2015-03-10 19:53, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Is there a way to bring up a single Explorer window showing everything
cross multiple folders in a single list - i.e. the same sort of list as
if I opened one of the folders ?

First problem that comes to mind is duplicate names across those
folders....

I have not clue what a "Library" is, but it has the right sound....

lol, you answered yourself :-) Library is the way to go. They should be
showing in the left pane of Explorer (if they are not, there is a
setting somewhere to make them appear - Microsoft wanted to push that
OneDrive crap so much in Win8 that it made libraries harder to find.
Once you have them showing, click the Libraries root, then right-click
and create a new one and add folders to it.

One thing to note: this only works 1 level deep - if you add a folder to
a library, then click the library root, you will see the files inside
that folder, but not the files inside folders inside that folder. Also,
the files are listed BY FOLDER, so WILL get a list of all files but they
are listed by folder :-(

One solution is to SEARCH the library; click the library then search for
* and you will get a list of all files.

Best Regards,

--
! _\|/_ Sylvain /
! (o o) Member-+-David-Suzuki-Foundation/EFF/Planetary-Society-+-
oO-( )-Oo "Live Long And Suffer" - Ancient Vulcan Curse.

Per Gene E. Bloch:
I suspect you'll have to find a third-party program to do that.

I am coming around to the same conclusion.

Booze/Empire's approach works with Windows-based folders but not
Linux/NAS-based.

Something about the NAS box being unable to create a Windows-compatible
index.

On the brighter side, I found this little gem in one of the Microsoft
fora:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Jesper,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community Forums.

From your issue description , I understand that you want to set the
Windows Library to a folder on a Network Attached Storage .

The selected task is more complex than what is typically answered in the
Microsoft Answers forums. It is better suited for the IT Pro audience on
TechNet.

Please post your question in the Technet Forum.
---------------------------------------------------------------

This is not a religious issue with me... just a matter of convenience so
I don't have to have four or five folder windows open and eyeball each
one to find a subfolder.
--
Pete Cresswell

On 2015-03-10 21:04, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Good day Pete.

Per Gene E. Bloch:
I suspect you'll have to find a third-party program to do that.

I am coming around to the same conclusion.

Booze/Empire's approach works with Windows-based folders but not
Linux/NAS-based.

Something about the NAS box being unable to create a Windows-compatible
index.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...rk-folder.html

Best Regards,

--
! _\|/_ Sylvain /
! (o o) Member-+-David-Suzuki-Foundation/EFF/Planetary-Society-+-
oO-( )-Oo "Scotty, beam us aboard." - "Aye Aye sir, will a 2x4 do?"

Per B00ze/Empi
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...rk-folder.html

The junction and symbolic links look like what I am trying to do.

I can use mklink d:\Dummy \\nas\b\DVDs_NoBackup to create link to the
NAS folder.

But I cannot figure out how to build on that single link - i.e. I want
to link d:\dummy to many directories on the NAS instead of just
DVDs_NoBackup.

Intuivively, I would think:

mklink d:\Dummy \\nas\b\DVDs_NoBackup
mklink d:\Dummy \\nas\b\DVDs_Owned

But that throws "Cannot create a file when that file already exists".

But I do think you have me on to something... just have to dig some
more...

Thanks.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Thu, 12 Mar 2015 16:38:01 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

Per B00ze/Empi
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...rk-folder.html

The junction and symbolic links look like what I am trying to do.

I can use mklink d:\Dummy \\nas\b\DVDs_NoBackup to create link to the
NAS folder.

But I cannot figure out how to build on that single link - i.e. I want
to link d:\dummy to many directories on the NAS instead of just
DVDs_NoBackup.

Intuivively, I would think:

mklink d:\Dummy \\nas\b\DVDs_NoBackup
mklink d:\Dummy \\nas\b\DVDs_Owned

But that throws "Cannot create a file when that file already exists".

Using your example, can you just link to \\nas\b? Does that give you access
to everything below that point? Or is that too broad then?

Per Char Jackson:
Using your example, can you just link to \\nas\b? Does that give you access
to everything below that point? Or is that too broad then?

I wish.

But it just gives the same effect as NET USE B \\NAS\B.... i.e. opening
it gives a list of all the directories under NAS\B.

What I was looking for is a single window containing all the
subdirectories.

Sounds to me like, if I want to make this a big deal I am looking for a
third-party app or even trying to cobble something together in VB6 or
VBS.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Fri, 13 Mar 2015 10:30:13 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

Per Char Jackson:
Using your example, can you just link to \\nas\b? Does that give you access
to everything below that point? Or is that too broad then?

I wish.

But it just gives the same effect as NET USE B \\NAS\B.... i.e. opening
it gives a list of all the directories under NAS\B.

And from there you have access to each of those subdirectories, but you want
to see the files directly and not have to navigate, right?

What I was looking for is a single window containing all the
subdirectories.

I assume that should be "a single window containing *the contents* of all of
the subdirectories."

Sounds to me like, if I want to make this a big deal I am looking for a
third-party app or even trying to cobble something together in VB6 or
VBS.

Dunno, as the kids say.

Per Char Jackson:
And from there you have access to each of those subdirectories, but you want
to see the files directly and not have to navigate, right?

Right - as opposed to opening a half-dozen windows and scanning each.


I assume that should be "a single window containing *the contents* of all of
the subdirectories."

Wrong - I only want to list the folders that are three deep.

e.g.

NAS
B
DVDs_Owned
First folder
DVDs_Nobackup
Second folder
Streamed_NetFlix
Third Folder

What I would like to see is a single window listing
First folder
Second folder
Third folder

Each of those folders is the title of a movie. The files within are
the Main Movie plus various "Extras" like Director's Commentary, Making
the Movie, Interviews With Cast, and so-forth. If I want to see the
contents, I will click on the subfolder.

It's not a big deal with me - I just thought that there might be a
quick/easy way and I would learn something about Libraries along the
way....

Actually, I've learned something about Libraries... but still do not see
a use for them for me..... Although the ability to alias a folder in
C:\Program Files so that it actually resides on D: sounds promising for
the occasional application that insists on putting it's data on the
System drive and does not offer Settings alternative.
--
Pete Cresswell

Per Stormin' Norman:
I discovered this can be accomplished with both Total Commander and
FreeCommander. I am not sure if you can select specific folders one wishes to
amalgamate the contents of, but both tools can amalgamate the contents of all
folders.

I will check them out and report back.
--
Pete Cresswell

Per (PeteCresswell):

I will check them out and report back.

I can't make it happen in Total Commander. Doesn't mean that TC can't
do it, just that I can't figure out how...

OTOH FreeCommander looks promising.

Takes awhile to render to the list, but then again it has to process
about 3,000 names...

I've got one huge directory "Original_Rips" that's cluttering up the
list with a bazillion VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS names... but I am in the
process of moving that to a different Share on the NAS box and once that
is done I would anticipate that FreeCommander is going to be the ticket.

Thanks!

--
Pete Cresswell

On Sat, 14 Mar 2015 13:35:59 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

I've got one huge directory "Original_Rips" that's cluttering up the
list with a bazillion VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS names... but I am in the
process of moving that to a different Share on the NAS box and once that
is done I would anticipate that FreeCommander is going to be the ticket.

Back when I was doing something along the same lines, I packaged each DVD up
into a single ISO file. That got rid of all the *_TS folders, as well as the
*.bup and *.ifo files. Much, much cleaner that way. Of course, it helped
greatly that my media player was perfectly happy with that format.

Per Char Jackson:
Back when I was doing something along the same lines, I packaged each DVD up
into a single ISO file. That got rid of all the *_TS folders, as well as the
*.bup and *.ifo files. Much, much cleaner that way. Of course, it helped
greatly that my media player was perfectly happy with that format.

I had a similar moment of clarity - except I chose .MPG as my format.

Mostly just one .MPG per movie except when there are "Extras" and then
it's a .MPG for each video file on the disc.

I tend to save the original rips against the off-chance that I want to
burn a DVD: it's easier from the original rip that authoring from
scratch using the .MPG(s).

I guess I could convert them to .ISOs, but they're basically trivial and
moving them to a separate share works around the issue.
--
Pete Cresswell