(Programmatically) customize Windows Explorer views?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gerhard Fiedler
  • Start date Start date
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Gerhard Fiedler

Hello,

I often want to customize the views of a few folders in Windows Explorer. I
don't want to change the view for /all/ folders (I know how to do that) --
because there are already a number of folders that look the way I want them
and I don't want them to charge --, and I don't want to manually change
every involved folder one by one (I also know how to do that) -- because
the set of folders I want to change contains quite a number of folders.

What I'm looking for is to change the view of a set of folders (usually a
whole directory tree). Is there any utility out there that can do that? Or
does anybody know whether there is an API or a set of registry settings
that allows me to customize an arbitrary set of folders, or at least a
whole directory tree?

With "customizing the view" I mean mainly set it to detail view, select the
columns to be displayed, choose the column to sort by, maybe set the width
for each column.

If this shouldn't be possible with Windows Explorer, does anybody know of a
tool similar to Windows Explorer (and that shows the same additional
columns that Explorer shows, and the same additional context menu entries)
that can do this?

Thanks for any pointers,
Gerhard
 
I've just finished writing a script to do this. Currently though, it wipes out previously saved views. However, because you can specify a view for, say, My Music and have it apply to all the subfolders; then My Pictures and all it's subfolders; then My Documents and all its subfolders (except My Music & My Pictures) -- rebuilding everything to your liking is fairly quick. You can download it here:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res18hr7/FVM.zip

It creates an undo file -- if you don't like the results you can restore you saved views from before the script was run.

I'm working on a version that will work with existing saved views and only alter specified subfolders...but it's a little trickier :)

Keith
 
I've just finished writing a script to do this.
Click to expand...

Very cool! I almost thought it wasn't possible. You probably did a fair
amount of reverse engineering... (Why can't they document that stuff? :)
Currently though, it wipes out previously saved views.
Click to expand...

Do you mean that it wipes out /all/ previously saved views, or only the
ones in the directory tree that has been selected for changing the view?

My main purpose for now is to add the additional CVS status columns that
TortoiseCVS provides to the view in CVS sandbox folders. In these, I
wouldn't care about losing all previous customizations, because the only
consistent ones I have are additions of exactly these columns in a number
of folders.

But I have a bunch of other folders (outside of these CVS sandbox trees)
for which I wouldn't like to lose their configuration.

Would that work? Say, I specify E:\Projects\ and set the view. Would
E:\Data or C:\... be affected?

Thanks a lot,
Gerhard
 
Gerhard Fiedler said:
Very cool! I almost thought it wasn't possible. You probably did a fair
amount of reverse engineering... (Why can't they document that stuff? :)
Click to expand...

Where's the fun in that? :)
Do you mean that it wipes out /all/ previously saved views, or only the
ones in the directory tree that has been selected for changing the view?
Click to expand...

ALL saved views are wiped out currently, sorry.

If you want to wait, I think I can have a version that will save previous views (except those you are changing) ready in a few days...It's working in my head, just haven't gotten it all down in code yet ;-)

Keith
 
Where's the fun in that? :)
Click to expand...

Y'know, there still are those guys who think that plain simple programming
cool stuff with good documentation can be a lot of fun :)
If you want to wait, I think I can have a version that will save
previous views (except those you are changing) ready in a few
days...It's working in my head, just haven't gotten it all down in code
yet ;-)
Click to expand...

I'll wait, definitely... I've lived with that nuisance for so long, a few
more days won't kill me :)

If you would, could you please contact me by email once you have something?

Thanks,
Gerhard
 
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