Total Commander

EDIT -- Sorry guys ... I'm on 98se for dialup connection so I was unable to install PEBuilder ... I looked everywhere else but inside it for the TC plugin ... WHOOPS! ... and there is was! plain as day!! my bad ... arghhh ... embarassed

probably wouldn't be deserve rating as a regular menu item ... maybe add it as a Configuration, Options, Other... option?

build a tool that will put together a cab+inf or other package to add TC (as installed on a user's sytem, with settings and plugins with their settings) to Bart's BartPE Builder 3.1.10a.

the package would rectify all TC settings to set them to work in a BartPE, and it would include all user installed TC plugins with their user tweaked options ... so TC would run in maintenance mode (BartPE) just like it runs during regular usage.

BartPE has a TC page (explaining to copy cab files to BartPE plugins directory) but based on search of "BartPE" on this forum, lots of TC users have had problems especially with transferring tweaks and settings.

There is no need for any special plugin.
You can just copy a portable installation of TC onto the BartPE cd
and all will work as normal including the settings.

Thank you! ... I had forgotten about Portable Aps. I'll try it. I keep all my setting in c:\totalcmd, plus I add the 7z and rar .exes, and an early, small copy of irfan view .exe and .ini to totalcmd\. My plugins and utilities are also installed and maintained from folders which are under totalcmd\l. I don't know what RedirectCommand option under totalcmd.ini does, but hopefully it won't affect building a BartPE.

It's been a while since I built a BartPE (I'm graduating from 98se to XP ... can you imagine ... but it's that time to build again.) It would be nice if BartPE can run portable programs from a USB, but as I remember (very rough) BartPE has to declare its programs during PE building?

My preference would be to install TC from the two BartPE setup files, i.e. totalcmd.inf and totalcmd_nu2menu.xml. So they need to be written. There are two links with example (below) which seem helpful on that. But they differ quite a bit, and they are getting old (2007, 2008)

On this forum, this 2007 thread by Dalai TC 7 in BartPE einbinded has the needed INF setup file. Under [WinntDirectories] he adds files from Language and Plugins subdirs. (I don't understand inf coding, so I'm just guessing here.) Under [SourceDisksFolders] he only has files=a. That was 2007.

The 911cd.net forum (which is aslo the BartPE forum) Ed_P has this 2008 thread Total Commander not following wincmd.ini. It also has the needed INF and the menu XML file as well. By comparision, his inf has an extensive [SourceDisksFolders] inf section. Posts 15, 16, 17 and 20 have good information
#15 -- running TC from BartPE ramdrive (edit so that changes to Configuraiton Options while in BartPE environment would work ... otherwise, TC will try to display in BartPE with usual options ... which might work at a higher video resolutions, but be unusable at lower BartPE resolutions ... as I remember changes to TC configuration while in BartPE don't take hold?)
#16 -- mapping TC ini to BartPE registry
#17 -- Ghisler mentioned in another thread on this forum (cant find it ... arghhh) where in a BartPE the totalcmd.ini needed a line (which section?) ResolutionSpecific=0, and section [1024x768 (8x16)] had to be renamed to [AllResolutions]. This was so that the regular (edit - font) would work when TC runs in BartPE (Otherwise (edit -- TC displays) bold and it is harder to read (edit in lower BartPE resolutions)). I can't find the thread ... search on ResolutionSpecific=0 and [AllResolutions] return null.
#20 -- how to transfer ifranview inf (ini?) or use exif plugin

Portable TC and bartPE are very similar for Total Commander layout. But because of the inf and xml files, I was thinking a one-button solution for BartPE would be helpful ... maybe the portable apps zip could include copies of working BartPE inf and BartPE menu xml files? with a short (edit; note) explaining how to setup ...

... maybe use the method used by TerabyteUnlimited as a model for optional BartPE builder

BartPE builder is installed with TC (as a possible option).

To build a BartPE, user calls it from the Windows Start menu, TC group

1. A dialog opens that asks user for the path to his BartPE directory

2. Then it runs the tc2usb.exe from the tc2usb zip tool and copies the files to the BartPE directory instead of to a USB standalone directory,

3. Then it builds the xml menu and inf files required for the BartPE builder.

example is at Step 2 (no anchor) BartPE builder for Terabyte Unlimited

quick screenshot of possible dialog is example of TBI2BartPE dialog

whoops ... my bad!!

the BartPE plugin in inside the PEBuilder ... I couldn't find it, but I had never looked inside the plugin until just now (I only have win98 machine while searching internet and can't install on XP until I move to another room ...) sorry guys