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#1
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Saving/restoring folder layouts
I've tried various work-arounds over the last year or two but I've
still not found a program that will achieve what I would have thought would be a fairly popular requirement. With a set of Windows XP folders positioned and sized as I like on my desktop, I want to be able to save that layout. Then, at any later time I want to be able to restore exactly the same layout. Of course, one or more of the folders might have been moved, resized, minimised or even closed by then, so the program would have to open, size and position them again. I'm surprised that so far I've been unable to find anything, but live in hope! Note that I'm talking about folder, not icon layouts, for which there seem to be dozens of programs. -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
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#2
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Saving/restoring folder layouts
"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
I've tried various work-arounds over the last year or two but I've still not found a program that will achieve what I would have thought would be a fairly popular requirement. With a set of Windows XP folders positioned and sized as I like on my desktop, I want to be able to save that layout. Then, at any later time I want to be able to restore exactly the same layout. Of course, one or more of the folders might have been moved, resized, minimised or even closed by then, so the program would have to open, size and position them again. I'm surprised that so far I've been unable to find anything, but live in hope! Note that I'm talking about folder, not icon layouts, for which there seem to be dozens of programs. Folders on a desktop are nothing more than icons; an icon that represents a folder instead of a shortcut. If a program can save/restore your desktop layout, it seems to meet your requirements, so, if that's not enough, just what are you looking for? If I were to turn on the display, you'd find about 50 folders and maybe 20 shortcuts on my desktop. My desktop restoration program does a great job of saving and restoring everything to what it looked liked before things moved. What am I missing? Twayne` |
#3
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Saving/restoring folder layouts
"Richard" wrote:
"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message ... I've tried various work-arounds over the last year or two but I've still not found a program that will achieve what I would have thought would be a fairly popular requirement. With a set of Windows XP folders positioned and sized as I like on my desktop, I want to be able to save that layout. Then, at any later time I want to be able to restore exactly the same layout. Of course, one or more of the folders might have been moved, resized, minimised or even closed by then, so the program would have to open, size and position them again. I'm surprised that so far I've been unable to find anything, but live in hope! Note that I'm talking about folder, not icon layouts, for which there seem to be dozens of programs. -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Hi Terry, Check these: Folder Options General [*] Use Windows classic folders [*] Open each folder in its own window Folder Options View [*] Remember each folder's view settings Thanks Richard. Yes, all of that understood and used regularly. All the folders that I have resized and positioned appear correctly. If you don't resize or move them, they should appear in the same place the next time they are opened. But that 'If' is the big issue! Take a typical example. I regularly work with maps, for which I set up 10 XP folders, neatly arranged to allow easy access for file opening, drag and drop copying/moving, deletions, etc. But I don't keep these open at their original positions and sizes and viewing modes, even within a single day. Deliberately or accidentally some will get changed in one way or another. And for sure some will be minimised while I work on other stuff. Even if ALL I did was minimise some/all of them, to re-open all 10 in their original layout would take up to 10 clicks after opening the list from the drop down in the grouped tray item (which as I compose this is currently '15 Windows Explorer'). That's all on the same day the folders were set up. Now consider the situation a week or month later when not only their sizes/positions/viewing modes may have been changed but none of them are now likely to be even OPEN. I may have just finished another type of work, say 'DVD-making' and now want to switch to 'Map work'. Map work was just one 'task type'. I probably need layouts for a dozen. To get a layout exactly like the original all folders must be opened in succession, so that they appear on top of anything else on the desktop. So your batch approach looks promising and I'll explore it further. But even if XP can be relied upon to re-open size/position/view mode exactly as they were at the time the folder was closed (and I'm sure I've encountered occasions when it apparently didn't) then the batch method again relies on nothing having been changed. Remember, some of these folders may be opened individually at times during the intervening period, and work done with them that may change size/position/view mode. To open more than one folder at the same time, you can use a simple BATCH file script: start C:\WINDOWS\Temp start C:\Docume~1\Richard\Locals~1\Temp exit I put the above in OpenFolders.bat, and with 1 of the 2 folders closed, and the other minimized, both appeared correctly sized and positioned where I last left them. I had to use the short names for "Documents and Settings" and "Local Settings" to get it to work. OK, I just tried it again with one closed and the other maximized, and both appeared normal size in their correct position, not maximized. That's as far as my batch writing skills can go. Have you asked in Visual Basic or C++ newsgroups? Not yet, but that's a good idea, thanks. The closest I've got so far is to use Macro Express Pro to write a unique macro for one task (my map work). In this I've tediously hard-coded the position/size of each folder so that the macro can restore these when I run it. As a plus, this allows me to include PROGRAMS in the layout, as well as folders, such as Google Earth, Memory-Map and GPS Utility. But the downsides of inflexibility and set-up effort are serious. One improvement would be to write a 'save macro' that helps create the 'restore macro' by identifying its size and position. But it looks hard work! Note that I didn't mention viewing mode in the above para. Until now I sort of disregarded that, as it's an added complication. But it's interesting that you specified[*] Open each folder in its own window I've always had that set to[*] Open each folder in the same window so that I don't end up with 50 folders instead of 15. But if your option keeps the view mode reliably set (as it was when closed) that may be worth the effort of remembering to Shift-click when opening. Best wishes, -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
#4
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Saving/restoring folder layouts
"Twayne" wrote:
"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message I've tried various work-arounds over the last year or two but I've still not found a program that will achieve what I would have thought would be a fairly popular requirement. With a set of Windows XP folders positioned and sized as I like on my desktop, I want to be able to save that layout. Then, at any later time I want to be able to restore exactly the same layout. Of course, one or more of the folders might have been moved, resized, minimised or even closed by then, so the program would have to open, size and position them again. I'm surprised that so far I've been unable to find anything, but live in hope! Note that I'm talking about folder, not icon layouts, for which there seem to be dozens of programs. Folders on a desktop are nothing more than icons; an icon that represents a folder instead of a shortcut. If a program can save/restore your desktop layout, it seems to meet your requirements, so, if that's not enough, just what are you looking for? If I were to turn on the display, you'd find about 50 folders and maybe 20 shortcuts on my desktop. My desktop restoration program does a great job of saving and restoring everything to what it looked liked before things moved. What am I missing? Quite a bit! See my reply to Richard. -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
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