Positioning the Windows Explorer windows

On 3/1/18 5:03 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Ken Springer" wrote

| A friend of mine recently made a very cogent comment... "Ignorance is a
| choice." After he said that, I lost all sympathy for people having
| computer issues. They can go out and find the answers, or live with the
| problem.
|
Yikes. Seems a bit harsh to me.

I think of ignorance having 2 definitions: lack of
knowledge and semi-deliberate unknowing. The
latter would be like someone who never washes
their dishes and manages not to notice the filthy
sink.

I'm including both. Especially the ones that know they need education,
but don't want to learn. The would rather complain about the computer.

But I assume you mean lack of knowledge. It
seems very arrogant to me to think everyone should
be able to manage their computer well. It requires
linear thinking. Some people just aren't suited to it.
Nor should they have to be. Don't we all have blind
spots? I suppose it's somewhat true that nearly
everyone *could* figure it out. But for some of us
that's fun. For other's it's torture.

I'm not talking managing their computer, but using their computer. I
know an Apple consultant in the "big city" who runs into people that
don't know how to cut an paste

In essence, those that will organize their filing cabinet so they can
find things, but never bothered to learn how to organize their hard drive.

An example in the other direction is artistic sensibility.
Some of the most talented programmers have no
aesthetic sense at all. If they create a webpage it
looks like 1996. If they have to write or speak they
show themselves to have an adolescent command
of language. They're like human calculators. Those
people *could* become more well balanced. It might
do them good. But I know it would be very stressful
for them. They just don't get it.




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Remember, this is not for me or my computer. I set the thing up for
this guy's job to be as simple as I could make it. Did it yesterday.
Yet, after spending an hour working with him, he still called me today
with problems.

It's like trying to do junior high work, and the student doesn't even
have first grade knowledge.


On 3/1/18 2:16 PM, tesla sTinker wrote:
well, if your going to have a current online system you will have to
stay up with current events such as new browsers and programming, you
may as well keep up with the current events. Its the programming that
changes, and that's why it does not work sometimes. We use Visual Web
Developer 2008 Express Edition. But, we also like and use this.
Works on Mac or Windows.

https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/

On 3/1/2018 11:08 AM, Ken Springer scribbled:
On 2/28/18 8:38 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"B00ze" wrote

| Nice; I think you like showing-off your VB skills lol, just kidding ;-)
|

I do enjoy the challenge. I also like to be helpful.
I guess that's a kind of showing off. But I've always
felt a duty about knowledge. So many times I've
been able to do something for myself only because
someone more expert told me what I needed to know.
I try to do the same with the things I know. (I think
of that as the original inspiration of the Internet.
Before there were blogs with endless comments, and
before EBay, there were lots of people just chipping in
whatever creativity or expertise they could offer.)

Part of it is also a kind of shared frustration. The
first time I had my own computer I spent an entire
evening trying to follow the instruction: "Copy setup.exe
from the floppy to the desktop". I didn't have the
slightest idea how to do that. Nowhere did it say. I
was supposed to just know about drag/drop. The
Windows manual also made no mention of it.

You have pretty much mirrored my frustration with the lack of any
documentation being included with computers. It's no wonder people have
so little clue as to how to use a computer.

I was lucky, I didn't start out with Windows. My first windowing
computer was an Atari 1040ST. That manual DID tell you how to drag and
drop, and everything else. So when I was exposed to Windows, those
things I already knew how to do.

These types of things I include when people ask me for help.

I resolved
to learn enough so that I wouldn't be continually
faced with such frustration. What I didn't realize was
that I was in for a years-long project. Not only are
computers complex, but nearly all the people who
make them work have a vested interest in not optimizing
the usability.

A friend of mine recently made a very cogent comment... "Ignorance is a
choice." After he said that, I lost all sympathy for people having
computer issues. They can go out and find the answers, or live with the
problem.




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 3/1/18 1:22 PM, tesla sTinker wrote:
Alright you ready? Mayayana may want to use this herself.

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamici...ndow/index.htm

Get an html editor and create the webpage. Put this script inside it,
do as it says in its instructions. Once the page is made, you can put
anything on the page such as title at the top. CD collection. MP3 etc.
And links to title artists or to say like, great recipes.
Then on the page the links will link to the windows that will open
inside the one page and they can open anywhere descripted by you in the
script itself on the page. Once the one page is made, the script opens
these when someone cliks on the links on that page, or automatic when
you just open the one page. Make a shortcut to it just the one page on
your desktop. Then when you want to use it, it gets the files you want
and opens them inside other html windows smaller of, inside the one IE
window page that the short cut is made to..

Of course, it makes for a great info tool on your desktop once your done
with it. The great thing is it will open as many as you want.
So, its not like it has to be on the left, and one on the right. It can
be one in each corner of the screen. For a total of 4.
The great thing is, once you have it made up, it can be reedited, to fit
anyones agenda, and then just send them the webpage via attachment.

Kind of like a programmer yup. But is that not what you are requesting.

All of that is wa-a-a-a-y over my head, and in this case would be
definite overkill. The computer owner would be totally confused at this
point.

I believer in the KISS principle, and Mayayana's script is far more
simple than creating a webpage.

--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 3/1/18 7:16 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Bob_S" wrote

| Right-click on Explorer icon, select Properties and enter what you want in
| the Target window.
|

What he wants is 2 Explorer windows, for two
different folders, opening next to each other, one
on the left and one on the right. If you can choose
position in shortcut properties it's news to me.

Exactly. It's what you would end up with if you open the 2 Explorer
windows, then snap one to the left, and one to the right.

I think you can do most of what's in that webpage by simply creating
shortcuts in 7.

--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

"Mayayana" wrote in message news

"Bob_S" wrote

| Right-click on Explorer icon, select Properties and enter what you want
in
| the Target window.
|

What he wants is 2 Explorer windows, for two
different folders, opening next to each other, one
on the left and one on the right. If you can choose
position in shortcut properties it's news to me.


That’s what I get for working on two systems and reading a newsgroup at the
same time....

--
Bob S.

On 3/1/18 8:08 PM, Bob_S wrote:
"Mayayana" wrote in message news

"Bob_S" wrote

| Right-click on Explorer icon, select Properties and enter what you want
in
| the Target window.
|

What he wants is 2 Explorer windows, for two
different folders, opening next to each other, one
on the left and one on the right. If you can choose
position in shortcut properties it's news to me.


That’s what I get for working on two systems and reading a newsgroup at the
same time....

ROFL

--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 2018-02-28 22:38, Mayayana wrote:

"B00ze" wrote

| Nice; I think you like showing-off your VB skills lol, just kidding ;-)
|

I do enjoy the challenge. I also like to be helpful.
I guess that's a kind of showing off. But I've always
felt a duty about knowledge. So many times I've
been able to do something for myself only because
someone more expert told me what I needed to know.
I try to do the same with the things I know. (I think
of that as the original inspiration of the Internet.
Before there were blogs with endless comments, and
before EBay, there were lots of people just chipping in
whatever creativity or expertise they could offer.)

Yeah, I was only joking, I know what you mean, it is fun to solve little
problems and post the result online. It makes you better at it and you
get to keep all those little solutions in case you need them yourself :-)

Part of it is also a kind of shared frustration. The
first time I had my own computer I spent an entire
evening trying to follow the instruction: "Copy setup.exe
from the floppy to the desktop". I didn't have the
slightest idea how to do that. Nowhere did it say. I
was supposed to just know about drag/drop. The
Windows manual also made no mention of it. I resolved
to learn enough so that I wouldn't be continually
faced with such frustration. What I didn't realize was
that I was in for a years-long project. Not only are
computers complex, but nearly all the people who
make them work have a vested interest in not optimizing
the usability.

My first computer was a Commodore 64. For a few years all I knew to do
was put a floppy in the drive and type LOAD. Got to play lots and lots
of games. It might not look like it, but you learn, very slowly, doing
that. After a long time I knew lots of strange things, like all the
kinds of ways the computer can crash. Started coding some BASIC, and
then one day, I picked-up assembler and very rapidly became good at it.
It's a logarithmic curve; takes a long time at first but you pick-up
things, then one day it all makes sense. The Commodore did come with a
good user manual, and you did not have to buy more than 1 more book to
get all the info on 6510 assembler.

Best Regards,

--
! _\|/_ Sylvain /
! (o o) Memberavid-Suzuki-Fdn/EFF/Red+Cross/SPCA/Planetary-Society
oO-( )-Oo Data, ahh, I think Spot needs a litter box. -Troi

On 2018-02-28 09:55, Mayayana wrote:

'--------- begin code --------------------
Dim Fol1, Fol2, IE, ScrWidth
Fol1 = "C:\Windows\Desktop\Folder1"
Fol2 = "C:\Windows\Desktop\Folder2"
On Error Resume Next
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
IE.Navigate "about:blank"
While IE.ReadyState 4
Wend
ScrWidth = IE.document.parentWindow.screen.availWidth
IE.Quit
Set IE = Nothing
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
With IE
.Height = 600
.Width = 600
.Left = 0
.top = 100
.Navigate Fol1
.visible = True
End With
Set IE = Nothing
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
With IE
.Height = 600
.Width = 600
.Left = ScrWidth - (.width + 50)
.top = 100
.Navigate Fol2
.visible = True
End With
Set IE = Nothing
'------------- end of code ----------------

Hmmm, doesn't work well on my system. I end-up with two internet browser
windows (positioned as requested,) and one explorer window (folder2). I
removed the screen-width code and I still end-up with two browser
windows and one explorer window. I tried adding pauses here and there
but it did not help. Might be because I run Classic Shell and Clover,
but not really interested in unInstalling them to test ;-)

Regards,

--
! _\|/_ Sylvain /
! (o o) Memberavid-Suzuki-Fdn/EFF/Red+Cross/SPCA/Planetary-Society
oO-( )-Oo Redundant book title: "Macs for dummies."

"Ken Springer" wrote in message news

On 3/1/18 8:08 PM, Bob_S wrote:
"Mayayana" wrote in message news

"Bob_S" wrote

| Right-click on Explorer icon, select Properties and enter what you
want
in
| the Target window.
|

What he wants is 2 Explorer windows, for two
different folders, opening next to each other, one
on the left and one on the right. If you can choose
position in shortcut properties it's news to me.


That’s what I get for working on two systems and reading a newsgroup at
the
same time....

ROFL


Ken,

See if "Total Commander" doesn't get you closer to what you want to do. The
SourceForge site is down right now but here's the authors page
https://www.ghisler.com/

--
Bob S.

B00ze wrote:
On 2018-02-28 09:55, Mayayana wrote:

'--------- begin code --------------------
Dim Fol1, Fol2, IE, ScrWidth
Fol1 = "C:\Windows\Desktop\Folder1"
Fol2 = "C:\Windows\Desktop\Folder2"
On Error Resume Next
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
IE.Navigate "about:blank"
While IE.ReadyState 4
Wend
ScrWidth = IE.document.parentWindow.screen.availWidth
IE.Quit
Set IE = Nothing
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
With IE
.Height = 600
.Width = 600
.Left = 0
.top = 100
.Navigate Fol1
.visible = True
End With
Set IE = Nothing
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
With IE
.Height = 600
.Width = 600
.Left = ScrWidth - (.width + 50)
.top = 100
.Navigate Fol2
.visible = True
End With
Set IE = Nothing
'------------- end of code ----------------

Hmmm, doesn't work well on my system. I end-up with two internet browser
windows (positioned as requested,) and one explorer window (folder2). I
removed the screen-width code and I still end-up with two browser
windows and one explorer window. I tried adding pauses here and there
but it did not help. Might be because I run Classic Shell and Clover,
but not really interested in unInstalling them to test ;-)

Regards,


You can use virtual machines to test code like that.

Installing them from an installer DVD is a nuisance.

But Microsoft has some pre-baked ones (which run for at
least the 30 day grace period), which you could use.

The selection isn't as wide as it used to be. I have
a WinXP one and a Vista one, from back when those were offered.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...vms/#downloads

When the grace period expires, you can unpack the original download
as many times as you want.

You may need to change the workgroup on those from MSHOME to WORKGROUP.
That's something I have to remember to do when using one. And I leave
the network cable unplugged, until Windows Update is disabled on the
Windows 7 one.

I use the VirtualBox versions.

The Windows 10 Insider version, the OS itself will expire after
a while. So the Insider version isn't a good deal as such. Probably
a good deal if you cannot get the Insider to run any other way (and
you needed an Insider version for some test case).

Paul

On 3/1/18 8:54 PM, Bob_S wrote:
"Ken Springer" wrote in message news

On 3/1/18 8:08 PM, Bob_S wrote:
"Mayayana" wrote in message news
"Bob_S" wrote

| Right-click on Explorer icon, select Properties and enter what you
want
in
| the Target window.
|

What he wants is 2 Explorer windows, for two
different folders, opening next to each other, one
on the left and one on the right. If you can choose
position in shortcut properties it's news to me.


That’s what I get for working on two systems and reading a newsgroup at
the
same time....

ROFL


Ken,

See if "Total Commander" doesn't get you closer to what you want to do. The
SourceForge site is down right now but here's the authors page
https://www.ghisler.com/

At this stage, Total Commander will "totally confuse" this guy. :-)

The concept of the filesystem hierarchy still hasn't sunk in. The
"light bulb" hasn't come on.

Explaining things like this can be hard when the user is fixated on
doing a, b, c, d and has no interest in learning something else. The
hierarchy is so much easier to explain when your file manager has
"lines" like XP and older system have. I may end up installing only the
Classic Explorer part of Classic Shell, so he has the lines for his eyes
to follow. I've created a simple chart that visually shows the
hierarchy, but laid out as if it was an organizational chart, but I
don't know if he's really looked at it.

I'm fairly sure that, at some point, he's going to decide he wants his
music categorized, into R&B, country, soft rock, etc., and that should
be the perfect time to explain the hierarchy.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

In message , Ken Springer
writes:
[]
At this stage, Total Commander will "totally confuse" this guy. :-)

The concept of the filesystem hierarchy still hasn't sunk in. The
"light bulb" hasn't come on.

Explaining things like this can be hard when the user is fixated on
doing a, b, c, d and has no interest in learning something else. The

Don't I know it! I have a (possibly similar) elderly friend who doesn't
grasp the concept of folders within folders. He's more than once asked
me to go through downloading from his camera card - and he writes down
each stage/step. He just doesn't grasp the _concept_.

(He's not dim; I'm quite proud that he's managed to convert most of his
LP collection onto CDs, using mp3directcut to cut sides into tracks, and
so on. He's a retired printer - from hot metal days, but I think would
have used linotype machines, not just hand-layout.)

hierarchy is so much easier to explain when your file manager has
"lines" like XP and older system have. I may end up installing only

(My friend has Vista, which I think still has the lines.)

the Classic Explorer part of Classic Shell, so he has the lines for his
eyes to follow. I've created a simple chart that visually shows the
hierarchy, but laid out as if it was an organizational chart, but I
don't know if he's really looked at it.

That is indeed the problem. You can't give them too much at once, or
they suffer from information overload.

I'm fairly sure that, at some point, he's going to decide he wants his
music categorized, into R&B, country, soft rock, etc., and that should
be the perfect time to explain the hierarchy.

Could be; good luck.

What _is_ it that makes the hierarchical file/folder system, which is so
obvious to us, so difficult to grasp as a concept to some? I'd really
like to know. My friend, for example, just about knows how to make a new
folder - but I suspect would never think of doing so, or at best would
only ever do so in one or two specific places.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Radio 4 is one of the reasons being British is good. It's not a subset of
Britain - it's almost as if Britain is a subset of Radio 4. - Stephen Fry, in
Radio Times, 7-13 June, 2003.

"B00ze" wrote

| Hmmm, doesn't work well on my system. I end-up with two internet browser
| windows (positioned as requested,) and one explorer window (folder2).

I wrote it on XP and haven't had a chance to test it
on 7. It may not work on all systems. That's why
I suggested to Ken that he test it first. Shell is
quirky, as you know.

But.... the result you get seems odd. What's the
location shown in the title bar of the IE on the left?
Could it be that Fol1 is not a valid path? Or that it's
restricted?
Also, you shouldn't be seeing the first IE. It's never
made visible. (Though that quirk could be a Windows
security change, I'd be surprised.)

Each folder starts as an IE instance and becomes
an Explorer instance as a result of navigating to a
folder rather than a webpage. (The document object
then becomes a ShellFolderView object.) So.... if you
get one folder then it seems to be working. If the other
folder is not loading then I'd suspect the folder, or
the code.

If you don't get it maybe you could post the exact
code and I can test it here.

"Bob_S" wrote

| What he wants is 2 Explorer windows, for two
| different folders, opening next to each other, one
| on the left and one on the right. If you can choose
| position in shortcut properties it's news to me.
|
|
| That's what I get for working on two systems and reading a newsgroup at
the
| same time....
|

I know the feeling. Sometimes one
just needs to get up, eat something,
and maybe take a walk.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| What _is_ it that makes the hierarchical file/folder system, which is so
| obvious to us, so difficult to grasp as a concept to some?
|

I don't think it's at all obvious. The original
idea was to use a desk/paper/file cabinet
metaphor, but the metaphor simply doesn't
work. It's not self-evident. Only the names
are the same. There are far too many
differences. Just one example: When you
move a paper across your desk it moves,
but when you put it into a file cabinet it
doesn't magically copy.

Likewise with writing files. We can say that
a DOC is equivalent to a paper-printed
letter, but it's simply not true. They have
very little in common until you print the DOC.
20 years of typewriters and White-Out won't
be of any help at all in learning how to cut,
copy, paste or get rid of talking paperclip
cartoons that pop up while you're trying to
learn how to cut, copy, paste. It's a high
bar to become adept with the tool.

I think the office metaphors actually end
up being an obstacle. People need to learn
a profoundly different system.