Virtual Folders

[jeknepley]

I would like to see a feature that displays the IM5 File Window contents in a virtual-folder in Windows Explorer.

Currently, if you need to open files in another program, drag & drop is a viable option in many or most programs. Another option is the IM Favorites Applications feature - which is mostly just another form of D&D. However, not all programs accept D&D - they insist on selecting files via a Windows Explorer like display. In that case, one must first copy & paste the IM5 File Window's content to a folder (since most often the files come from many different folders).

As an example, consider Proshow Producer. PSP allows D&D unless you want to create a show using its Wizard feature (which often is more than a "just convenient" starting point). Wizard files must be selected from Explorer.

[Lord_Helmchen]

I'd really love to have such function! I was already thinking of doing some scripting to implement this with links, but never found time and passion to dig deeper into it.

[Mario]

Windows provides functions to create symbolic links. My initial idea was to make this available via scripting. A small script could then take all selected files and create symbolic (soft) links to them in a folder the user selects. If the links are no longer needed, the user can delete them in Windows Explorer.

The problem is, that these functions require the user to be member of the Administrator, and this complicates things to no end if the user does not run IMatch under an Admin account - which should be the normal case. It's basically the same when you use mklink on the command line. This is also only possible when you are an Admin.

[Lord_Helmchen]

Hm. I just tried what you describes and it's correct, that mklink doesn't work without active admin privileges. But I tried unix tool "ln" from GNU tools (if you like I could try to search for a current link) that worked without active admin privileges.

Could this be an option?

[Mario]

I don't want to hard-code external applications in scripting, I use only Windows API functions.

You can of course write a script which drives UNIX command line tools.

[Lord_Helmchen]

Let's see, when I have patience to have a closer look at scripting and some patience to do this.