Targeting Explorer to give specific drive and folders.

[Loose rivets]

For example, I now have four Explorer folder images in a row. This is fine when I'm just aiming at logical drives, the subject is obvious from the position, but suppose I want to work on my book - I aim at say, Drive so-and-so \ Working. At one touch I'm seeing the current chapter file.

It seems to work well, but I'm perplexed by two things:

One, the folder on the task bar takes a 2 seconds to show the target - this is true of all items on the bar and the same on my i7 lap top. Funny how long that can seem. Is there a bit of editable soft somewhere to take out that delay?

Two, Just sometimes, I can't get the label to change from "Windows explorer". Just won't. :bored:

I access Properties by right clicking on the folder image in the Taskbar, and then right clicking again on the same image in the pop-up. I then write in shortcut, for example

%windir%\explorer.exe C:\X,/e

Then I go to General, and edit the Folder name. Mostly it works but not every time. Why is software like this? Having a fading brain is bad enough without moodily deceptive control mechanisms. :ugh:

[mixture]

I suspect this is one of those cases where its easier to utter the words "show me"....

But evidently that isn't the case unless you feel like making a little video and sticking it on ewetoob.

Are you basically saying you've got four Windows Explorer windows minimised on your task bar and you want to name those ?

[Saab Dastard]

What's wrong with good, old-fashioned shortcuts?

SD

[mixture]

What's wrong with good, old-fashioned shortcuts?

That thought crossed my mind too !

But then in the form it is composed in the original post, I can't begin to comprehend his workflow anyway !

We need more clarity LR... maybe some screenshots ?

[Loose rivets]

I'm still having a Dickens of a job with Photobucket. The Auto copy thing just doesn't. This is using the other method.

This shot is of a target on the second physical drive. HD partition 2 ( as opposed to SSD)


I've used this for years and it seems to be fine except for the amount of Task bar that it takes up. That would be an issue for power users.



The other thing I do is to create a folder called X. As you can see, I aim at that for each drive where I just want to see the whole drive and that way I see my entire tree right away. As mentioned, specific aiming points can be tailored for regular cases. My example of 'Working' gets hit many hundreds if not thousands of times. I pick the file to start Word which then goes right to that file.


This idea is working well apart from the reluctance of just one of the Folder images on the Taskbar to be named correctly. The others look like the picture in the box. What I can't do of course is show the pop up label while snipping. But suffice it to say, they all look like the picture in the properties box -except one which retains the label Windows Explorer Despite showing HD 1 in the box.

I've used this for years and it seems to be fine except for the amount of Task bar that it takes up. That would be an issue for power users.

Oh, I have nothing but a nice picture (or will have) on my desktop. Puts one's mind into creative mode.

[Saab Dastard]

You can create a shortcut to your chapter folder, save the shortcut anywhere but pin it to Windows Explorer in the taskbar, then just right click Windows Explorer in the taskbar and you'll see the pinned folders: select the one you want and off you go. Saves on Taskbar real estate, too.

Or just drag the shortcuts to the Start Menu to pin them there, so just click Start and they they are.

That's two obvious solutions using standard Win 7 functionality.

I don't know why you see a delay in showing the target - possibly because of the way you are implementing your solution - possibly each launched folder is a fresh instance of Windows Explorer.

I see no delay when opening folders from shortcuts.

SD

[Loose rivets]

Last thing first. I'm fairly sure it is calling a new implementation of explorer each time, but that's quite quick, my 'problem' (for it's not a serious issue at all) is that it's only the name of the folder which shows when you hover over the folder image on the task bar that's taking so long. I would love to be able to tailor the folder image to show the drive.

All on one image? That does sound like the proper way to do things. Certainly I'm using up two inches of task bar on a 16" screen. I'll give your way a go, but it's not as quick as one click and zooming to a precise point. Or it wouldn't be if one could see it was the right button instantly.

[Booglebox]

I use "Favorites" [sic] in Windows Explorer, which is the top part of the left-hand tree of folders. I like it because they show when you want to save something. However, for "one-click" access you need to have an Explorer window open all the time.