Explorer to open in "Computer"?

In message , John K.Eason
writes:
In article , (J. P. Gilliver
(John)) wrote:

*From:* "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
*Date:* Wed, 19 Dec 2018 18:06:10 +0000

When I press Win+E, Explorer opens, at "Computer", i. e. with the
drives
in the right-hand pane.

What would be the command-line (or Run, or Shortcut) version to open
Explorer there?

I've tried:

explorer opens at "Libraries".

explorer \\ opens at
C:\Users\username\Documents.

explorer \ opens at C:\

explorer \.. opens at C:\

explorer \\computer-name\ opens at
Network\computer-name


The info from the W95 tips.txt file still works for me:

[Windows Explorer Switches]
Windows Explorer switches are useful in creating rooted folders:

Explorer [/e][,/root,object][[,/select],sub object]

/e Use Explorer view (scope and results pane view). The default is Open
view (results in pane view only).
/rootobject Specify the object in the "normal" name space that is used
as the root (top level) of this Explorer/Folder (i.e., local path
or UNC name). The default is the Desktop).
/Select The parent folder opens and the specified object is selected.
sub object Specify the folder unless /select is used. The default is
the root.

Examples: Explorer /e, /root, \\Reports opens an Explorer window at \\Reports.

Explorer /select, C:\Windows\Calc.exe opens a folder at
C:\Windows (or activates one that is currently open) and
selects Calc.exe.
Explorer /e, /root, \\Source\Internal\Design\Users\David\Archive
opens a folder to the Archive folder above. This is a good
way to create a dedicated, remote, documents archive
folder. A link to this folder
(\\Source\Internal\Design\ Users\David\Archive) can then be
placed in the SendTo folder for quick routing of documents.

Yes, I remember those - "/e," or something like that - the comma was
important! - doing something I'd wanted to in the past.

It was just a matter of figuring out what to put in the
[,/root, object] field, to make it open one level above C:\ .
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

There should be a place on the ballot paper for 'None of the above', and if
enough people filled that in, the system might start to change. - Jeremy
Paxman in RT, 2014/1/25-31

In message , pjp
writes:
In article , says...

When I press Win+E, Explorer opens, at "Computer", i. e. with the drives
in the right-hand pane.

What would be the command-line (or Run, or Shortcut) version to open
Explorer there?

I've tried:

explorer opens at "Libraries".

explorer \\ opens at C:\Users\username\Documents.

explorer \ opens at C:\

explorer \.. opens at C:\

explorer \\computer-name\ opens at Network\computer-name

JPG
---


How about a three-way referendum, allowing second choices?
--
Are petitions unfair? See 255soft.uk (YOUR VOTE COUNTS)! [Pass it on.]

I use

%windir%\explorer.exe /e,c:\

to open at the root of "C".

Do you know what (other than the weird string JJ quoted - which _does_
work!) to use to make it open one level higher (i. e. so that the drives
appear in the right-hand window)?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

There should be a place on the ballot paper for 'None of the above', and if
enough people filled that in, the system might start to change. - Jeremy
Paxman in RT, 2014/1/25-31

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| Why not just drag the shortcut from the start
| menu to the Desktop? Then you can skip
| all the gobbledygook.
|
|
| Because I wanted to create a pinned token.

I guess I should know what that means, but I have
no idea. Pinned to the taskbar? You haven't set up
Quick Launch for Win7? I haven't tried putting
Computer in there, but I don't see any reason that
it wouldn't work.

I just tried it in XP. Dragged the desktop icon to
Quick Launch. worked fine.

In message , Mayayana
writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| Why not just drag the shortcut from the start
| menu to the Desktop? Then you can skip
| all the gobbledygook.
|
|
| Because I wanted to create a pinned token.

I guess I should know what that means, but I have
no idea. Pinned to the taskbar? You haven't set up
Quick Launch for Win7? I haven't tried putting
Computer in there, but I don't see any reason that
it wouldn't work.

I just tried it in XP. Dragged the desktop icon to
Quick Launch. worked fine.


In 7, if I have a prog. open, such that it has a long bar in the
taskbar, I can right-click that long bar, then one of the options is
"Pin this program to task bar"; if I select that, when I later close the
prog., it leaves its icon in the taskbar (which appears as a short -
almost square - button if I hover over it). This works rather like Quick
Launch did in XP - no need for "Quick Launch for Win7".
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

There should be a place on the ballot paper for 'None of the above', and if
enough people filled that in, the system might start to change. - Jeremy
Paxman in RT, 2014/1/25-31

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| In 7, if I have a prog. open, such that it has a long bar in the
| taskbar, I can right-click that long bar, then one of the options is
| "Pin this program to task bar"; if I select that, when I later close the
| prog., it leaves its icon in the taskbar (which appears as a short -
| almost square - button if I hover over it). This works rather like Quick
| Launch did in XP - no need for "Quick Launch for Win7".

I still use QL. It seems easier than "pinning".
But what you describe is pretty much the same thing.
So why the need for figuring out a command? Am
I missing something?

On 20/12/2018 02:02, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

On Wed, 19 Dec 2018 19:44:29 +0000, Java Jive
wrote:

On 19/12/2018 19:05, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

Good grief! How on earth would we be supposed to find _that_ out!

Search for explorer command-line options.

[You mean using Google or another search engine? Is it really such an
unexpected thing to want to do?)

No, that's why their are a number of hits, depending on exactly how you
phrase your search, and on which search engine you use, for example:
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q...options&ia=web

Now, how do I change the icon shown in the taskbar for this pinned
function (ideally to the one on the desktop as "Computer")?

I thought I'd got it, but it didn't work - though I was amused to find
"moricons.dll" is still there - and contains lots of icons from
long-gone (and I mean LONG-) software!

Well, I just changed the icon on my desktop to one of the computer icons
in explorer.exe in the normal way ...
Rt-Click icon,Properties,Change Icon
.... so I don't know what your problem is there. Perhaps you are
allowing icons to stack, and therefore must change the properties of the
first one launched, or of all of them?

On 20/12/2018 10:16, Java Jive wrote:
On 20/12/2018 02:02, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

On Wed, 19 Dec 2018 19:44:29 +0000, Java Jive
wrote:

On 19/12/2018 19:05, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

Good grief! How on earth would we be supposed to find _that_ out!

Search for explorer command-line options.

[You mean using Google or another search engine? Is it really such an
unexpected thing to want to do?)

No, that's why ...

there

... are a number of hits, depending on exactly how you
phrase your search, and on which search engine you use, for example:
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q...options&ia=web

An explanation of the shell namespace GUIDs is given here ...

http://www.geoffchappell.com/studies...er/cmdline.htm

There used to be a page of commonly used GUIDs, but I can't find it now.

Java Jive wrote:
On 20/12/2018 10:16, Java Jive wrote:
On 20/12/2018 02:02, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

On Wed, 19 Dec 2018 19:44:29 +0000, Java Jive
wrote:

On 19/12/2018 19:05, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

Good grief! How on earth would we be supposed to find _that_ out!

Search for explorer command-line options.

[You mean using Google or another search engine? Is it really such an
unexpected thing to want to do?)

No, that's why ...

there

... are a number of hits, depending on exactly how you phrase your
search, and on which search engine you use, for example:
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q...options&ia=web

An explanation of the shell namespace GUIDs is given here ...

http://www.geoffchappell.com/studies...er/cmdline.htm

There used to be a page of commonly used GUIDs, but I can't find it now.


The CLSID thing might make a good search term.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ndows-7-a.html

The tough part is finding the "kind" of list you
want, with the right focus. Like maybe the CLSID
for the various libraries perhaps.

Paul

On Thu, 20 Dec 2018 01:53:05 +0000, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

If I do Win+E, then click on View in the window that opens,
there's no Options among the entries thereunder.

Must have been one of the improvements in win10!

"Mayayana" wrote

| I still use QL. It seems easier than "pinning".
| But what you describe is pretty much the same thing.
| So why the need for figuring out a command? Am
| I missing something?
|

I just tried this in Win7. I always drag Computer onto
the desktop for easy access, as well as shortcuts to
each drive/partition. So I dragged the Computer shortcut
onto the taskbar. Win7 "pinned" it without problem,
though it switched the icon to something indecipherable.
(I don't know what it's supposed to be. Scrambled
eggs and pancakes that fell on the floor, maybe?)

I then dragged it to Quick Launch. Again, it added the
shortcut without a hitch, and this time kept the right
icon.
So I still don't get why anyone needs to craft command
line switches to do this.

For anyone who doesn't know, it's fairly easy to add
QL back to Win7. There are directions online. Basically
you just create the folder and then choose to add
a toolbar to the Desktop, pointing it to the QL folder.
An extra advantage of adding QL back is that it adds
back functionality/compatibility that Microsoft broke for
no good reason. Program installers are not allowed to
"pin" icons to the taskbar. But many installers still provide
the option of adding a QL shortcut. If you make a QL toolbar
you can still have that functionality while using the pinning
or not, as you like. And you can also have icons as you
like them. No scrambled eggs. I actually don't use the
pinning at all on Win7. I only use QL. Why have two
shortcut toolbars and only use the one that's broken?

In message , Paul
writes:
[]
The CLSID thing might make a good search term.

I would never have thought of using that! The only time I've previously
come across the term CLSID is as a command to do with access
permissions.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ndows-7-a.html

Thanks, that looks like a potentially very useful list. Bookmarked.

The tough part is finding the "kind" of list you
want, with the right focus. Like maybe the CLSID
for the various libraries perhaps.

Paul


255soft.uk
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Whoever decided to limit tagline length to 68 characters can kiss my

In message , Mayayana
writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| In 7, if I have a prog. open, such that it has a long bar in the
| taskbar, I can right-click that long bar, then one of the options is
| "Pin this program to task bar"; if I select that, when I later close the
| prog., it leaves its icon in the taskbar (which appears as a short -
| almost square - button if I hover over it). This works rather like Quick
| Launch did in XP - no need for "Quick Launch for Win7".

I still use QL. It seems easier than "pinning".

Conversely, I've, once I got used to it, found pinning simple. I found
it particularly handy that I don't need to make a shortcut - I can
decide to "pin" something from running software.

But what you describe is pretty much the same thing.
So why the need for figuring out a command? Am
I missing something?

Making a shortcut (desktop, QL, or pinned) to Explorer is easy; making
one that makes it open with a particular focus - or, at least, the one I
wanted (the level above C:\) - was less so. The string someone found for
me - which, apparently, is called a CLSID string - solved that.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Whoever decided to limit tagline length to 68 characters can kiss my

In message , Java Jive
writes:
On 20/12/2018 02:02, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[]
Now, how do I change the icon shown in the taskbar for this pinned
function (ideally to the one on the desktop as "Computer")?
I thought I'd got it, but it didn't work - though I was amused to
find "moricons.dll" is still there - and contains lots of icons from
long-gone (and I mean LONG-) software!

Well, I just changed the icon on my desktop to one of the computer
icons in explorer.exe in the normal way ...
Rt-Click icon,Properties,Change Icon
... so I don't know what your problem is there. Perhaps you are
allowing icons to stack, and therefore must change the properties of
the first one launched, or of all of them?

Changing the icon for a desktop shortcut works. Changing the icon for a
pinned - I don't know what they're called, still shortcut? - isn't so
easy.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Whoever decided to limit tagline length to 68 characters can kiss my

In message , Java Jive
writes:
[]
An explanation of the shell namespace GUIDs is given here ...

http://www.geoffchappell.com/studies...er/cmdline.htm

Thanks - I'd say that's more an exploration of the explorer command
itself, and looks like a good one. It also gives the amusing - and, as
he says, probably unintended - fact that just

explorer ,

(_with_ the comma!) does what I wanted, opens at "Computer", with a lot
less than the spaghetti string!


There used to be a page of commonly used GUIDs, but I can't find it now.

Paul found one that looks good:
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ndows-7-a.html

JPG
+++


How about a three-way referendum, allowing second choices?
--
Are petitions unfair? See 255soft.uk (YOUR VOTE COUNTS)! [Pass it on.]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Whoever decided to limit tagline length to 68 characters can kiss my

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote

| Making a shortcut (desktop, QL, or pinned) to Explorer is easy; making
| one that makes it open with a particular focus - or, at least, the one I
| wanted (the level above C:\) - was less so.

Yes, you said you wanted a "My Computer" window.
By dragging the shortcut on the start menu to the
desktop and then dragging that to the taskbar, it's
just a simple drag-drop to create an icon in the pin
area or on Quick Launch. And it opens to Computer.
No complicated steps necessary.

(The only glitch was that the pinned icon changed
to something uninformative that I couldn't make out.)

Similar should work for any folder: Drag the folder,
create a shortcut, drag that to QL or pin area.

It's very rare that command line operations are
actually necessary for anything. That's why it's
called Windows and works with a mouse.