gepruts / quickswitch

Uses opened file manager folders in File dialogs

QuickSwitch

Use opened file manager folders in File dialogs.

QuickSwitch is an alternative to Listary's QuickSwitch as that is abandoned.

What does QuickSwitch do?

When in a file dialog, like Save As .. or Open ... , it can switch that dialog to any folder that is opened in a file manager. Currently supported file managers: File Explorer, Directory Opus, Total Commander and XYPlorer.

QuickSwitch can do that in a couple of different ways:

• QuickSwitch Menu mode. Out of the box, it will show you a list of opened folders to choose from. When you select one of those, the file dialog will switch to the selected folder. The menu will not be shown if there are no file manager folders to select from.

• AutoSwitch mode. After selecting AutoSwitch from the menu, the menu will no longer be shown for that specific dialog, for example Notepad's Save As dialog. From there on, when you Alt-Tab to the file manager and Alt-Tab back to the file dialog, The file dialog will automatically open the folder that was active in that file manager. When the file manager was active before you open the file dialog, it will even open that folder straight away, without further needed action. The keyboard shortcut Control-Q will still open the menu if you need it, for example to reconfigure what to do in this dialog.

• There is also an option Never here. Select that setting to 'mute' QuickSwitch in that specific dialog. Useful for example for webbrowser dialogs, as they already keep track of website/downloadfolder combinations.

• AutoSwitch Exception AutoSwitch "calculates" the number of (hidden/normal) windows between the most recent used file manager and the file dialog. In 95% of the cases, this is 2 windows, like for example (1) Notepad's Open dialog, (2) Notepad itself and (3) File Explorer. For the remaining 5%, you can follow these steps when AutoSwitch is unable "to do it's thing":

  • Open the unwilling file dialog. (Nothing will happen as AutoSwitch doesn't understand/ miscalculates)
  • Press 'CTRL + Q'
  • Select AutoSwitch exception from the QuickSwitch menu
  • Follow the on-screen steps.

In short, this lets QuickSwitch figure out and learn what the correct "window-distance" is for this specific application/dialog combination. The next time, that will be used. and AutoSwitch should work again.

QuickSwitch is not finished yet ...

... but it should be fully functional in it's current form.

On the To-Do list for the near future are:

• Support for long paths ( longer than 259 characters)
• A better user interface. There will be a simplified menu with less 'technical' entries. Suggestions are welcome.
• A different way to 'talk with' Total Commander an XYplorer
• A notification area (/system tray) menu, including icon
• Option to load at startup

Limitations

• Windows 7 and up are supported. QuickSwitch will not run on lower versions.
• Can not get information from file managers that run elevated (as administrator)

Installation

• Download the QuickSwitch zip-file from the releases
• Extract the zip-file containing QuickSwitch.exe to a folder Note: QuickSwitch will write it's ini-file to that same folder, so you need write access there.
• That's all

Running QuickSwitch

To start, run QuickSwitch.exe. It will stay quietly in the background, until you open a File Dialog. To stop using QuickSwitch, right-click it's system tray icon - a white on green "H" - and choose Exit

quickswitch's Issues

more a question + thanks

First of all, Thank you. i used to love flashfolders, but with W10, it is hit and miss, while QuickSwitch has so far not failed once.

my question is with the integration of qttabbar (which can be scripted)

i have found a way to list all the open qttabs, in explorer which can be invoked externally with a js script.

`var qs = new ActiveXObject( "QTTabBarLib.Scripting" );
var wnd = qs.activewindow;

if( wnd )
{
wnd.InvokeCommand( "SetClipboardAllTabPaths");
}
else
{
wnd = qs.invokeCommand( "SetClipboardAllTabPaths");
}
`

this basically gets qttb to copy all the open tabs paths in the clipboard.

what i think would be amazing, is being able to include those paths inside QuickSwitch

how easy or difficult would this be?

Support Tablacus Explorer

It is an amazing script! Thanks for development and sharing.
Can I apply for support Tablacus Explorer?
Expecting! Thanks again.

Files app compatibility

Is there a way to add compatibility with Files? https://files.community/

@Rotemblumberg:

@RotemBlumberg:

is this still an issue?

Originally posted by @gepruts in #3 (comment)

It is. I appreciate your help.

feature request: support Double Commander

https://sourceforge.net/projects/doublecmd/

Double Commander is a cross platform open source file manager with two panels side by side. It is inspired by Total Commander and features some new ideas.

OneCommander Suport

OneCommander can only Quick Switch without auto. I think it will be a better choice.

dialog selection not assigned

I encounter an issue with the dialog when selecting "Allow AutoSwitch" or "Never here".
After clicking the dialog disappears but the option is not selected and just reappears on the window focus.
I am on Windows 11.

Using the ahk script manually

Hello!

I want to run the ahk as part of my own script, but when I include it there are some errors regarding variable names.
Using same same global and local names.

Which version of AutoHotKey did you use to compile the exe?
Do you have some other suggestion for my use case?

Thank you!

feature request: Compatibility with QTTabBar

Currently, QuickSwitch will only show the active tab in the list:

It would be great to be able to select from all open tabs, like this:

QTTabBar is a brilliant shell extension (more like a rework), that adds highly functional tab functionality to Windows 10 / 11 File Explorer, whilst respecting the original GUI style and conventions.

Additionally, it allows customisation of much of the base shell functionality & adds a ton more, as well as a full scripting support in multiple languages.

It does all this while being super stable and having no noticeable impact on performance/responsiveness.

Although the website isn't the best layout, you should be able to find QTTabBar plugin documentation which might allow you to let QuickSwitch communicate with a plugin to get the open tabs.

I can't imagine using File Explorer without it, hence this feature request.

I might have a look at doing this myself as a plugin, but just putting it on the cards to start.

Thanks in advance!

Make Dialogue box auto pop up optional

First of all, thank you for this QuickSwitch script. I like this script a lot.

I would like to suggest an additional feature, which is to have an option for the dialogue to pop up only when the Ctrl+Q hotkey is triggered (rather than auto pop up at each time)

In my opinion, it would provide the user with more control over their workflow.

New Win11 File Explorer Tab Incompatibility! Active tab not recognized!

New Windows 11 File Explorer Tab feature. Active Tab isn't recognized by auto switch only the leading tab is recognized.

Support alway `AutoSwitch` ?

Can add options to support alway use AutoSwitch ?

Option for always Auto Switch without prompt

I am sure this is what I would want, many would want as well, add this option to the tray menu (ill try to do this in my free time)

Although not necessary, it is a time saver if people just prefer the script to always auto switch rather than set auto switch to every type of dialogs.

xplorer2 & Q-dir Support

can you please add support to:-
xplorer2 "https://www.zabkat.com/"
Q-dir "https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/Q-Dir"

Not a issue but a suggestion

It would be nice to provide compiled versions for 32bit and 64bit in addition to the ahk source.
Its not importand for me as I have Autohotkey installed (of course)
but others may be interested on QuickSwitch but don't want to install Autohotkey itself.