Unable to duplicate settings on another computer

[Dazzer]

Hi folks,

Over the years i've posted a couple of times asking about how to duplicate the TC settings on another computer.

What's important to me are really just the custom button that i've made, but obviously if i can duplicate all settings, this would be perfect.

The main issue is that i need this on two computers (work & home). So i don't just need to do this once, it's a continual thing, as i add new tweaks, i just need to easily replicate on these two different PCs.

Someone will probably reply with a link to one of my earlier threads, but that earlier info is not enough to get the job done, because it's not working for me.

I'm totally open to the possibility that i'm just being a dumbass, so if this thread results results in me learning the error of my ways, all good!

I have just done the following:

Deleted TC from my laptop and deleted any residual TC folders i could find.

Fresh install.

cd %COMMANDER_INI% to find file location on source and destination PCs.

Deleted files from destination and replace with source files.

Copied the "buttons" folder from source PC to destination PC (program files/totalcmd)

When i start TC on the destination PC, i don't see any of my custom buttons appearing.

Could it be because my source PC is TC 9.0a but my destination PC is 11.02?

Problem is, i'm scared to try and update my source TC in case i lose my settings, until i know how to safely back up.

Does such a thing as a portable install exist, where you can just have all program & ini files in one place? So you can just copy the contents of one folder to the destination PC? In fact, is the location of these system files optional? If so, can't i just have all files in program files/totalcmd?

It would be so nice if TC had some sort of export feature that made it easy and fullproof to move your tweaked install around.

Thanks in advance!

[sqa_wizard]

May the TC-Wiki helps with backup tips

[petermad]

2Dazzer

Copied the "buttons" folder from source PC to destination PC (program files/totalcmd)

When i start TC on the destination PC, i don't see any of my custom buttons appearing.

You might have to point TC to the location of your buttons file. Open the "Change button bar" dialog by right-clicking on an empty space in the buttonbar and choose "Change". On the very top of that dialog there is a [>>] button - click that and navigate to your button bar file and click on it. When yo the press OK in the dialog you will be asked: "Do you want to make this button bar permanent? It will then be loaded each time Totalcmd is started." Answer yes to that.

Or you can edit your wincmd.ini file [buttonbar] section manually:

Code: Select all

[Buttonbar]
Buttonbar=drive:\path\yourbarfile.bar

and restart TC.

[ghisler(Author)]

When i start TC on the destination PC, i don't see any of my custom buttons appearing.

When Total Commander is installed in a read only directory like one under c:\Program Files and you edit the button bar, TC makes a copy of the bar file under c:\users\our user name\appdata\Roaming\GHISLER (after warning the user). If you have any bar file there, then put your backed up bar file there instead.

[petermad]

2ghisler(Author)

Apparently Dazzer keeps his button bar(s) in a buttons folder:

Copied the "buttons" folder from source PC to destination PC (program files/totalcmd)

[Dazzer]

When i start TC on the destination PC, i don't see any of my custom buttons appearing.

When Total Commander is installed in a read only directory like one under c:\Program Files and you edit the button bar, TC makes a copy of the bar file under c:\users\our user name\appdata\Roaming\GHISLER (after warning the user). If you have any bar file there, then put your backed up bar file there instead.

Thanks guys!

I don't understand what you mean by "read only directory"!

Why should the TC install folder in Program Files be read only?

[Horst.Epp]

I don't understand what you mean by "read only directory"!

Why should the TC install folder in Program Files be read only?

Simply because the tree Program Files is protected and by default only writable with enhanced rights.
You should know that as Windows user.

[Dalai]

Why should the TC install folder in Program Files be read only?

%ProgramFiles% and %ProgramFiles(x86)% are writable only with higher permissions like administrators have. In practice they are read-only for regular users. This means that if you run TC as administrator, you'll be able to write to its directory, but that won't be possible when running TC as regular user (without doing additional stuff like changing permissions).

Hope that makes it clear.

NB: It's a bad idea to permanently run TC as admin because ALL programs launched from such an instance will inherit these permissions, i.e. also run as admin. This includes all programs that are launched by double-clicking on any file type.

Regards
Dalai

[Dazzer]

Thanks, of course i always run Total Commander as administrator.

So you're saying that if one is running TC as administrator, there shouldn't be a DEFAULT.BAR in c:\users\our user name\appdata\Roaming\GHISLER?

I mean TC won't create one there? So you can just copy the one from c:\Program Files\totalcmd\?

Sorry, one more question: when i work on my two different computers, i also have an external USB drive plugged in, drive later: V

So actually, wouldn't it make more sense to install TC on this drive?

But then is there is still the issue of the wincmd.ini file location.

I googled it but it seems it's only possible by some complicated steps i don't really understand. But these posts were quite old.

Surely there must be an easy way to do this in the settings, so people can easily have portable configurations?

[petermad]

2Dazzer
just put UseIniInProgramDir=7 in the [Configuration] section of your wincmd.ini file, and put the wincmd.ini file in the same directory as your totalcmd64.exe (or totalcmd.exe - then all other .ini and .bar files will be used from that directory IF you have write permission to that folder, by either running as TC with elevated rights (not recommended) or by installing TC in a folder that is not write restricted as for example C:\totalcmd or V:\totalcmd.

Thanks, of course i always run Total Commander as administrator.

Do you mean that are always running TC from an account that has administrator rights or do you mean that you (under such an account) are running TC with elevated rights? It is not the same. If you are running TC with elevated rights your Windows user name followed by a^ will be shown in the start of the Title bar

[Dazzer]

Yes, i see the caret after my username.

I guess the only downside is that TC won't work when my USB drive isn't plugged in, by i can always do a second installation for those moments.

About UseIniInProgramDir=7: i tried it and it works, only all the links to my ico buttons are broken, so i guess i need to fix those one time, then i'm good.

(i mean i just copied the whole totalcmd folder to the V drive, edited the wincmd.ini file with UseIniInProgramDir=7, and hoped that it would work.

So just that i'm 100% clear, now that I'm using UseIniInProgramDir=7, the only folder i need to worry about is V:\totalcmd, right?

[petermad]

2Dazzer

About UseIniInProgramDir=7: i tried it and it works, only all the links to my ico buttons are broken, so i guess i need to fix those one time, then i'm good.

You should also change all occurrences in wincmd.ini (and other .ini files and bar files) of the path to TC's program folder (for example c:\Program Files\totalcmd) to %COMMANDER_PATH% then it will work even if the drive letter for your TC drive is not V:

Also be aware that USB sticks and USB SD cards can have a limit to how many times each sector can be overwritten, so constantly having wincmd.ini updated could give a problem after maybe 10.000 writes.