Making backspace going 'up' instead of 'back'

BadDayComing · 17 Mar 2010

Hello there.

So I made my homework and googled about the issue, responses went from installing 3rd party apps to start using Alt+up combo to achieve the same result.

I'm friends with my processor you know? I like it to work for me, so the option to install 3rd party apps can't be considered.

And I read about the breadcrumbs in the location bar but theres the issue that I find way faster to use the keyboard than to use the mouse.

So, question: does anyone know about a way (registry hack, MS patch, etc) to make this key work like in XP?

Thanks in advance =)

logicearth · 17 Mar 2010

You are going to be disappointed. Might as well get used to ALT + UP ARROW or the breadcrumbs.

BadDayComing · 17 Mar 2010

Awww, tell me your lying >.<

Actually the Alt+up option is not bad at all, considering that the other option involves the mouse.

However I find faster to spam backspace rather than a combo =/

Bill2 · 18 Mar 2010

Hello BadDayComing,
Have you read this?
Make Backspace in Windows 7 or Vista Explorer Go Up like XP Did - How-To Geek
Yes, yes, i read your first post but this guy's just made a smaaaall script, you might like it.

BadDayComing · 18 Mar 2010

Thanks for your reply.

Problem is not about the size of the script but the memory footprint of AHK and the CPU cicles required to run it.

We can't be solving each windows annoyance with 3rd party software, our machines would be crawling then = (

Prisoner · 18 Mar 2010

BadDayComing said:

Problem is not about the size of the script but the memory footprint of AHK and the CPU cicles required to run it.

I script all of my programs in AHK, and my transparency script, which has a pretty decent GUI and handles transparency + hot areas, I barely notice on my laptop, which is 512MB, 1.6Ghz processor. AHK will have no trouble at all running on your system, and the footprint will be very low for a script this simple.

Trust me... I've been at this for a while.

sbrads · 18 Mar 2010

Breadcrumbs aren't for me, too much reading required before an accurate mouse click becomes an option. My side mouse switch is programmed to simulate ALT+UP, and I've added Classic Shell to get an up arrow button. Haven't noticed any slowdowns.

BadDayComing · 19 Mar 2010

Prisoner said:

BadDayComing said:

Problem is not about the size of the script but the memory footprint of AHK and the CPU cicles required to run it.

I script all of my programs in AHK, and my transparency script, which has a pretty decent GUI and handles transparency + hot areas, I barely notice on my laptop, which is 512MB, 1.6Ghz processor. AHK will have no trouble at all running on your system, and the footprint will be very low for a script this simple.

Trust me... I've been at this for a while.

I have used AHK myself and it's pretty impressive, however the thing here is about running a program all the time just to have that tiny bit of functionality back, which i think is a waste of cpu cycles.

There should be a way at this point since most people complain about that.

sbrads said:

Breadcrumbs aren't for me, too much reading required before an accurate mouse click becomes an option. My side mouse switch is programmed to simulate ALT+UP, and I've added Classic Shell to get an up arrow button. Haven't noticed any slowdowns.

Didn't think about the classic shell before o.o

EDIT:
Theres an option to put an up button back on explorer. It doesnt make backspace work as it should though.

Ivo · 19 Mar 2010

The accelerator for ALt+Up comes from the explorerframe.dll.mui file. Here's what Resource Hacker shows for accelerator "256":
...
VK_UP, 40994, NOINVERT, ALT, VIRTKEY
VK_BACK, 41010, NOINVERT, VIRTKEY
...
I bet if you replace the second number 41010 with the first number 40994 then Backspace will do the same as Alt+Up.

Few things to keep in mind:
- there are multiple versions of the file, one for each language. For English the file is in Windows\System32\en-US. Make sure you are editing the right file
- on 64-bit systems there are 2 files per language - one for 32 bits and one for 64 bits. You may have to edit both
- the file is currently in use by Explorer. So it will be tricky to update. This might work: rename the file to something else, make a copy, rename the copy to the original name, then edit the copy
- make sure you don't do Save As in Resource Hacker, because that has been known to save 64-bit files as 32-bit. just do Save.
- I haven't tried any of these, so proceed carefully :)

Prisoner · 19 Mar 2010

Best way to replace files that are in use by Explorer:

1. Find the file, make a copy, make a second, and edit either one. Do not edit the other. Save both to the desktop, and rename one you did not edit to "explorerframe.dllbackup".
2. Make sure you don't need any of the explorer windows that are open.
3. Open Task Manager. Go to the Processes tab and task kill Explorer.exe.
Go to the Applications tab, and click "New Task". Navigate to the desktop.
4. Copy the file that you edited to the folder that the original file is at. Go through the motions to copy files, and it will copy.
5. If it copied, click Cancel and click the "New Task" button again, and type "explorer.exe"

That's always worked for me. Beware, editing system files, no matter if you make backups, can permanently damage your system... And half of the time, you can't fix it. It's happened to me.