Total Commander and virtual desktops

[JJ-Martens]

Hi,

i'am using a Total Commander (TC) / Dexpot combination for daily working .

Dexpot provides virtual desktops for windows. On my system it opens different TC instances with different configurations at first desktop call.

Dasktop navigation is easy there is a task overview in the taskbar.

Clicking a task changes to the desired desktop.

This works very good with total commander but:

Unfortunately different TC instances have only different numbers. These number are set in starting sequence order so i don't now the right one (i only start needed desktops in different order). .

An example: Currently i see in the taskbar this instances of TC

[3] Total comm.. || Total comm.. || [2] Total comm.. || etc.

but what is Project B or C ?


Forum says that parameters in the title bar are not possible, ok. So how can i identify TC instances in the taskbar settable by command line or ini file ?

[MVV]

As I see, you can use IconLib to change main TC icon in taskbar button. You will need a DLL with a set of icons (called ICL) and INI option IconLib under Configuration section (see help section 4.b). You can check that it works by specifying e.g. IconLib=%SystemRoot%\System32\shell32.dll.

The only problem is I don't know where you can find ICL with default TC icons (but you can make it yourself by copying icons from TOTALCMD.exe into empty DLL using e.g. Resource Hacker).

[petermad]

For sample ICL file see: http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=258583#258583

[JJ-Martens]

Thanks you for the hint, i give it a try.

[JJ-Martens]

Thanks you for the hint, i give it a try.

Thank you very much, it works.

Quick and dirty howto:

- i used pinball icons

http://www.rw-designer.com/icon-set/pool-balls

- downloaded modified icl file

http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/new-logo.icl

- with resource hacker i replaced icons in the icl file with with the pinball

- save the "pinballed" icl files with different names (e.g. tc-logo-8.icl)

- add in totalcommand.ini at the end of [Configuration] section
IconLib=%COMMANDER_PATH%\tc-logo-8.icl

- save the ini file under new name (e.g. dexpot8.ini)

and change the calling line of total commander to e.g.
C:\Programme\totalcmd\TOTALCMD.EXE /i=Dexpot8.ini

Don't now really what i did at icl edit , but it works.

[MVV]

Great that it works!
Now you can start learning about INI redirection and parameters AlternateUserIni and RedirectSection (to keep much of your TC settings in one place).

Or maybe you can simply use same INI but to write corresponding IconLib into it before starting new TC instance. So you create set of LNKs that call same batch file that writes required IconLib to INI and then starts new TC instance.

[JJ-Martens]

Great that it works!
Now you can start learning about INI redirection and parameters AlternateUserIni and RedirectSection (to keep much of your TC settings in one place).

Thank you for the hint. As far as i see (quick and dirty forum search) redirection is used to share global tc.ini parameters for different users (e.g. for network admins). Than individual (elsewhere stored) settings are linked to it.

I have 8 tc instances on one pc at the same time. So i made 8 different icl files and have 8 tc.ini file (all in the same directory).

This is easy to manage (this is the first config change in years). So i can't see the benefit in making sections in one file.

Or maybe you can simply use same INI but to write corresponding IconLib into it before starting new TC instance.

Thats not "self explanatory" i will keep it simple.

So you create set of LNKs that call same batch file that writes required IconLib to INI and then starts new TC instance.

Thanks for the good idea. Maybe a control over environment variables is possible.

[MVV]

Maybe a control over environment variables is possible.

That's even simpler:

Code: Select all

@echo off
set COMMANDER_PATH=C:\Programme\totalcmd
set icolibx=%COMMANDER_PATH%\tc-logo-%1.icl
start "" "%COMMANDER_PATH%\TOTALCMD.exe"

And you need single wincmd.ini with IconLib=%icolibx% line. And any of your LNKs should contain path to batch file and a digit as a parameter:

Code: Select all

"C:\Programme\totalcmd\tc_start.bat" 1

You can set show mode to 'Minimized' in LNK properties to minimize black window blinking.

If you start TC directly, it will use standard icon set 'cause there is no envvar defined.

[JJ-Martens]

That's even simpler:

Thanks, looks great. As far as i understand there is only one .ini file left.

But what happens then with individual desktop settings (Tabs, recent dir list etc.) on the different desktops?

[MVV]

But what happens then with individual desktop settings (Tabs, recent dir list etc.) on the different desktops?

By default all settings are in same wincmd.ini. But you can easilly redirect sections with such settings to separate INIs using same envvar method and same batch file (just define one more envvar in it).

[JJ-Martens]

But what happens then with individual desktop settings (Tabs, recent dir list etc.) on the different desktops?

By default all settings are in same wincmd.ini. But you can easilly redirect sections with such settings to separate INIs using same envvar method and same batch file (just define one more envvar in it).

Thank you.

[JJ-Martens]

Hello again:
%tcaltuser% runs very good. Every desktop depending setting is in an separate .ini file. I named them TcDexpot.ini for Desktop 1 and TcDexpot2.ini for Desktop 2 and so on .

But today i tried to unify the color by file type settings.

By default all settings are in same wincmd.ini. But you can easilly redirect sections with such settings to separate INIs using same envvar method and same batch file (just define one more envvar in it).

All desktops should have the same coloring scheme so that must be written to wincmd.ini.

But this didn't work. For example, the following lines written to wincmd.ini:

[Colors]
ColorFilter1=*.hex
ColorFilter1Color=4227072
ColorFilter2=*.ini
ColorFilter2Color=33023

will be ignored and no colors shown. Creating this in the TcDexpot.ini works.

When i generate new file types with the configuration (Define colors by file type...) they are generated in the TcDexpot.ini instead of the global wincmd.ini.

What do i wrong?

[ghisler(Author)]

If you use AlternateUserIni, all sections will be redirected, except for the following sections: [Configuration], [Layout], [Packer], [Confirmation], [Extensions], [Associations], [Shortcuts], [ShortcutsWin], [PackerPlugins], [FileSystemPlugins], [ListerPlugins], [ContentPlugins].

To NOT redirect a section, add RedirectSection=0
In your case, this would be:

[Colors]
RedirectSection=0
ColorFilter1=*.hex
ColorFilter1Color=4227072
ColorFilter2=*.ini
ColorFilter2Color=33023

[JJ-Martens]

If you use AlternateUserIni, all sections will be redirected, except for the following sections: [Configuration], [Layout], [Packer], [Confirmation], [Extensions], [Associations], [Shortcuts], [ShortcutsWin], [PackerPlugins], [FileSystemPlugins], [ListerPlugins], [ContentPlugins].

To NOT redirect a section, add RedirectSection=0
In your case, this would be:

[Colors]
RedirectSection=0
ColorFilter1=*.hex
ColorFilter1Color=4227072
ColorFilter2=*.ini
ColorFilter2Color=33023

Works perfect on all tested desktops , thank you