Quickswitch

[taooceros]

Nothing more than quickswitch. We may integrate flow's path system to this feature instead of relying explorer.

[taooceros]

Some threading issues seem appearing. Not sure the detailed reason.

[stefnotch]

Quick design questions:

• Would it ever make sense for a plugin to also query which other explorer windows are open? Stuff like having two explorer windows open side by side...?
• And, how should the case be handled where the user clearly has one explorer window open, but it's not the topmost window? Like having the explorer window opened, but being focused on the task manager?

[taooceros]

Would it ever make sense for a plugin to also query which other explorer windows are open? Stuff like having two explorer windows open side by side...?

Then only sync the path that is moved foreground. I didn't design this feature, but just try to mimic the design.

Here's the original design. https://www.listary.com/quick-switch

And, how should the case be handled where the user clearly has one explorer window open, but it's not the topmost window? Like having the explorer window opened, but being focused on the task manager?

It may be useful to sync explorer path that is not at the foreground. But I guess the case you describe is somewhat different. The original design gives user control about what they want to sync or when they want to sync the explorer path. Therefore, they need to put the explorer up to front to notify which path they want to sync for.

[stefnotch]

Oh, I understand! Then all of this makes perfect sense.

[stefnotch]

Okay, my main questions would be

• What's the intended use-case for this? As in, when does a Flow plugin need to navigate in the actual file explorer, instead of opening a new one with the correct path.
• Would opening a new file explorer window with the desired path, and closing the old one work? Or does that not handle certain cases? (e.g. the file browser/chooser )

[taooceros]

Okay, my main questions would be

* What's the intended use-case for this? As in, when does a Flow plugin need to navigate in the actual file explorer, instead of opening a new one with the correct path.

I think the major use case is to sync the path of an opened explorer to a open file dialog to select a file easily.

Would opening a new file explorer window with the desired path, and closing the old one work? Or does that not handle certain cases? (e.g. the file browser/chooser )

Sry I don't get the idea.

[stefnotch]

Okay, I understand what this is used for now. I'd have to dig a lot deeper into what the IUIAutomation can do to be able to improve this.

I think the rule of thumb is to avoid sending keyboard events, and instead always use an API if one exists. Keyboard events can be delayed and whatnot.

[taooceros]

Okay, I understand what this is used for now. I'd have to dig a lot deeper into what the IUIAutomation can do to be able to improve this.

I think the rule of thumb is to avoid sending keyboard events, and instead always use an API if one exists. Keyboard events can be delayed and whatnot.

Yeah that's what I would like to see. It is possible to use PInvoke directly without IUIAutomation though, so it will be cool if you are familiar with that as well.

Another thing is the original listary seems implement this feature without changing the textbox and sending an enter signal, so I wonder whether you may have some clues about that.

[stefnotch]

I tried searching for what I could, but that's apparently quite tricky to hook into. So I don't really have a better solution at the moment.

[taooceros]

I tried searching for what I could, but that's apparently quite tricky to hook into. So I don't really have a better solution at the moment.

okay thanks🤣

[stefnotch]

There might be a alternate design:

So the file manager has the "quick access" sidebar. Flow could add its own entry there, and that entry always redirects to the currently open folder. An additional advantage might be that it's easier to discover this, compared to a keyboard shortcut.

Screenshot for context:

(Note: I have no idea how hard that would be to efficiently pull that off.)

[taooceros]

So you mean to add a entry that redirect to the most recent opened explorer path?🤔Interesting

[stefnotch]

Yep, spot-on.

[taooceros]

Yep, spot-on.

If that's the case, we may be able to create a plugin for it.

[taooceros]

Do you have any docs for that?

[stefnotch]

@taooceros I haven't looked into this all that much (just a few cursory google searches)

Programmatic access

Apparently there's a way of programmatically adding folders to the quick access area.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30051634/is-it-possible-programmatically-add-folders-to-the-windows-10-quick-access-panel

Special Links folder

https://blogs.msmvps.com/kenlin/2017/06/14/537/

Steps:

1. Enable a special, built-in folder by setting a value in the system registry. Anything in this folder will land in the "quick access".
2. Put a shortcut in that folder. (A .lnk shortcut)
3. And then always update the shortcut's path to point at the currently open file explorer.

Symbolic links or Hardlink

I bet there's some trickery that could be done with those

Extra harddrive

We could add an in-memory harddrive, mount it and provide a single shortcut in there.
This might be a tad tricky though, depending on whether there's an easy API/wrapper or not...

[mcthesw]

Could this be done? I really love this feature.

[stefnotch]

Yet another option would be to add a "switch to" context menu entry

Sort of like how 7zip has a dynamic context menu, except that we'd populate it with the titles of other explorer windows.

[stefnotch]

Apparently Windows 11 can add files to quick access. That might let us pin a program to quick access

Such a program could then update the list of files in the quick access window.

[rexhibition]

Really hope we can get the quick switch function :( the Ctrl+G in Listary is so useful