Export / Import All Settings

[Combinatix]

I'd love to be able to export and import all settings, including installed plugins and button bar icons.

Although it is possible to copy the .ini files, it is quite complicated:

• The INI files must be copied by another program, because when copied from within Total Commander, the ini files are rewritten when Total Commander quits

• To my knowledge, button bar icons are not copied by copying INI file, it must be copied individually

• Installed plugins are not copied, it must be copied manually

Tuning the configuration to perfection on one PC can be quite a demanding process. Synchronizing settings across multiple computers is then daunting. I have never achieved exactly same settings across all my PCs as it is simply not worth the effort.

Imagine how great it would be to go to Configuration > Export All Settings (Load All Settings) to ZIP file (from ZIP). The ZIP could contain tcmd.ini, user.ini, button bar icons, all plugins with all settings and shortcuts.

Is it difficult?

EDIT: I replaced TCMD with Total Commander, as it was clearly causing damage to the thread

[Horst.Epp]

You are talking about TCMD and not TC.
Its no problem at all to get the setting of TC and all its plugins und button bars to another PC.
As a TC config can be completely portable you can even transfer the whole TC tree
and on the other PC you just have to install any prerequisites like run-time libraries.

[petermad]

Maybe this can help: https://www.ghisler.ch/wiki/index.php?title=Backup

[Combinatix]

2Horst.Epp: Hi Horst. To be clear I'm talking about Total Commander (I use version 9.51). I'm sorry, I don't know what is the difference betwen TC and TCMD? Could you please explain it to me? The mighty Google is silent...

I know it's not a problem at all, it's just too many files in different places that need to be copied manually. Some files may live on different computers in different folders, so you need to spend some time searching. I think it would be a nice feature if Total Commander could do this export/import for you. Many other programs can export/import their settings (for example, the Open-Shell menu)

TC knows exactly where its files live, unlike the user who has to search for them manually. IMHO adding this feature to the menu is not that difficult

2petermad: Thank you for the link. That article nicely illustrates the amount of work one has to do.

That's why I wrote this Feature Suggestion. This is not a question.

[Usher]

TC knows exactly where its files live, unlike the user who has to search for them manually.

Not exactly. TC doesn't know locations of 3rd party tools used by plugins, the user knows those locations.

[Horst.Epp]

2Horst.Epp: Hi Horst. To be clear I'm talking about Total Commander (I use version 9.51). I'm sorry, I don't know what is the difference betwen TC and TCMD? Could you please explain it to me? The mighty Google is silent...

You said
"The INI files must be copied by another program, because when copied from within TCMD, the ini files are rewritten when TCMD quits"
So for me you are talking about TCMD, which is a packaged TC and not original TC !
You can find it on Totalcmd.net for example.

[gdpr deleted 6]

2Horst.Epp
Are you sure there is a packaged/customized TC called "TCMD"? Could you provide a direct link to it? I am curious about it, too...

All the Google-foo i could muster, including searching on totalcmd.net, didn't help me finding this "TCMD" (aside from icon libraries/packs). Also, a forum search here was not really helpful. Various people here in the forum use(d) to abbreviate Total Commande as TCMD, and searching for "TCMD" or "TCMD package" here only revealed many posts and post titles talking about the Total Commander (without any mention of some customized TC package). If there are any posts or topics about this TC package, they are buried too deep in the search results for me to find.

[Hacker]

Horst.Epp,
I'd like to know as well which "TCMD" you are referring to. Do you have a link, please? Perhaps you are mistaking it for TCUP?

Roman

[petermad]

2Combinatix

2petermad: Thank you for the link. That article nicely illustrates the amount of work one has to do.

It is usually not that bad. Copy your totalcmd directory (cd %COMMANDER_PATH%) with all its subdirectories and copy your ini directory (cd %COMMANDER_INI%) with all subdirectories.

Some file locations can be customized by the user - for example: .bar files, viewer for (Alt+)F3, editor for F4, Ignore file, external packers, and logfiles - but as default they are usually put in %COMMANDER_PATH%, %COMMANDER_INI%\.. or %TEMP%

If you do NOT install TC in "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)" but in for example "C:\totalcmd" - then by using the parameter UseIniInProgramDir=7 in "C:\totalcmd\wincmd.ini" ALL TC's files can be stored in "C:\totalcmd" and its subdirectories

[Horst.Epp]

Horst.Epp,
I'd like to know as well which "TCMD" you are referring to. Do you have a link, please? Perhaps you are mistaking it for TCUP?

Roman

You are right
Currently TCUP is no longer easy to find on Totalcmd.net
and has its web pages on https://www.tcup.pl/index.php/en/

[Combinatix]

This is hopeless.

[tuska]

Tuning the configuration to perfection on one PC can be quite a demanding process.
Synchronizing settings across multiple computers is then daunting.
I have never achieved exactly same settings across all my PCs as it is simply not worth the effort.

I would assume the same if there was an "Export/Import All Settings" function,
because on different PC's e.g. different screen resolutions, and/or other requirements can be present.

However, it might be helpful to create a portable TC version (as already mentioned several times)
and to use this either on different PC's or to duplicate by means of "asymmetrical synchronization".
Individual important settings could then be transferred to the other portable versions either via synchronization or manually.

Regards,
Karl

[umbra]

2Combinatix
To put it simply, right now, there is no way do automatically backup a whole TC configuration. If it was just TC itself, it could be implemented easily.

But the problem is in plugins. TC has no way of knowing where they keep their configuration, in what format and whether it's reusable on other computers. And sometimes even the plugins themselves do not know that. For example, if you install TC into the ProgramFiles folder and some old plugin tries to write its configuration into its local folder (a ProgramFiles subfolder), the actual file may end up for example in "c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Total Commander\...".

Sure, the author could expand the plugin interface to allow the plugins to provide such information to TC. But most of the interesting plugins are not actively developed anymore so they would not support it anyway.

That's why others here suggested turning TC into a portable mode. That way, you just copy that one folder and that's it. It would still not be a guaranteed backup, but you'd have a pretty high confidence it would be fine, because it bypasses most of the issues.
Personally, I don't do that. I use the normal ProgramFiles and AppData\Roaming folders and just copy those whenever needed. But I know the plugins I use and I configured everything to use relative paths and variables like %COMMANDER_PATH%, so my TC is in a kind of portable mode anyway.

Maybe you have some idea, how to backup plugin configurations?

[umbra]

One more thought: Have you tried simply copying the "c:\Program Files (x86)\Total Commander\" (or wherever your TC is installed), "c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Ghisler" (if you use that folder for configuration) and maybe also "c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Total Commander\..." to another PC to the same paths? I'd say it would very likely work just fine. Even without any special preparation.

[gdpr deleted 6]

Sure, the author could expand the plugin interface to allow the plugins to provide such information to TC. But most of the interesting plugins are not actively developed anymore so they would not support it anyway.

Just an FYI: TC is since version 5.51 capable to suggest to a plug-in where the plug-in should store its settings (through the *SetDefaultParams API). It is of course not enforceable, as this would otherwise make older, not updated plug-ins incompatible. But it also means even current plug-in developers are free to not implement this API or let their plug-in completely ignore the suggestion provided by TC.