Total Commander

We all know that in these days of gigahertz processors, multiple cores and SSDs, instantaneous is normal.

A disappointing failure in Total Commander, for me, is the directory tree function under Alt+F10 - in that it is a passive function, it is what it is until it's provoked into life, can frequently be wrong, and takes a hugely disproportionate amount of time to refresh its data reading of a standard drive installation.

I seem to have over two hundred thousand directories on a relatively standard Windows 7 system disk, and so when I refresh TC's reading of those directories, it starts from scratch and reads every single one of them, one after the other, all the way to 200,000 and beyond.
Anything but instantaneous.
I am always reminded to go and make a cup of coffee.

Could we not have a separate Directory Tree sub-system that periodically, when CPU usage is low, scans a drive's directories and updates its records?

Could we, also, not have a function embedded that, when Alt+F10 is called, and the current directory from where it is called isn't in the known tree list, adds that directory to the list immediately and streamlinedly, and displays that directory as the current resident location?

Adding an active blinking cursor (insertion point) to the data entry field would also be welcome, and customary.

Converting the F2 (re-read) control to a button would comply with interface design principles, too.

Apparently there is a way to invoke a directory tree of a non-current drive; my average brain has not yet conquered such complexity. Perhaps there could be a way to simply switch between drives' trees.

A Directory Tree Sub-System I humbly suggest.

Using a tool like Everything or Hddb solves such problems.
TC will support Everything in the next release.
Since I have Everything running I never invoked the TC Tree function at all.

I don't know that the marvellous Everything will solve this, Horst.Epp.
I too use that program and find it indispensable, but jumping within TC to a known folder doesn't seem to be one of the functions it serves. I know that there's a way to integrate Everything somewhat into TC but I've never succeeded in getting it to work*. Some threads here on the subject are incomplete or contain links that yield 404s.
It will be interesting to see how the next version of TC works with it.
Hddb? More r'search..
.
[*not 'open_folder_command=' but open_folder_command2=$exec("c:\Program Files\Total Commander\Totalcmd.exe" /t /o /l="%1") keeps getting rewritten, and nothing works as expected anyway]

Phred wrote:I don't know that the marvellous Everything will solve this, Horst.Epp.
I too use that program and find it indispensable, but jumping within TC to a known folder doesn't seem to be one of the functions it serves. I know that there's a way to integrate Everything somewhat into TC but I've never succeeded in getting it to work*. Some threads here on the subject are incomplete or contain links that yield 404s.
It will be interesting to see how the next version of TC works with it.
Hddb? More r'search..
.
[*not 'open_folder_command=' but open_folder_command2=$exec("c:\Program Files\Total Commander\Totalcmd.exe" /t /o /l="%1") keeps getting rewritten, and nothing works as expected anyway]

My Everything.ini is in the tools dir itself and stays as it should.
Installed it just by expanding the zip files.

My Everything.ini entries:
open_folder_command2=$exec("c:\Tools\Wincmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE" /o /t /A /S "%1")
open_file_command2=
open_path_command2=$exec("c:\Tools\Wincmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE" /o /t /A /S "%1")
explore_command2=$exec("%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe" /n,/e,/select,"%1")
explore_path_command2=$exec("c:\Tools\Wincmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE" /o /t /S $parent("%1"))

In Hddb you even can enable a tree view and use TC lister plugins for internal preview. Also it sorts fast and has a lot of other useful features.
You can include more than one file manager or tools for the results.

I still feel that TC could have an efficient live directory sub-system within it that lets us jump to folders that we want to get to, and are not on our Ctrl-D set of favourites.
.
That said, your set of ini lines has helped Everything call TC better than I have ever seen it. Thx.
I do disagree with the proliferation of folders off the root - like \Totalcmd and \Tools :) - so I've modified my E..ini in my user data repository.
Viz.
[?!?! I was going to post \Users\Phred\AppData\Roaming\Everything ini lines - but they've disappeared!
[Does Ething use some sort of cache that restores its ini? I closed it, changed its ini, then started it again - and the ini's changed back. :-|
[Standard User running Ething service.
[Mind you, jumping to a folder from Ething still works...
[A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma..]

Phred,
You may also want to try XCD.

HTH
Roman