Pin a network mapped shorcut..

[alvoryx]

Hello !

I found many tutorials explaining how to pin custom things to the win7 "superbar"

maybe i readed wrong but i didn't found anything about pinning a shorcut from a virtual mapped drive..

so, saying my virtual drive (mapped using net use ..) is R:\,

what i want, is to have in my superbar a shorcut to R:\foo\bar.exe

is this possible ?

thanks

 

[SquonkSC]

Hello !

I found many tutorials explaining how to pin custom things to the win7 "superbar"

maybe i readed wrong but i didn't found anything about pinning a shorcut from a virtual mapped drive..

so, saying my virtual drive (mapped using net use ..) is R:\,

what i want, is to have in my superbar a shorcut to R:\foo\bar.exe

is this possible ?

thanks

Well, maybe not exactely what you want, but maybe a suitable solution for you?

Open explorer and open the mapped folder.

Close the explorer.

On the taskbar right click on the explorer.

You'll see a recent list, and the just opened mapped folder is in the list.

Right click it, and choose attach to this list.

This will make it permanently show up in the list.

Greetz

 

[alvoryx]

then i goes faster to just make a shortcut on the deskop directly to the exe

thx for the try..

nobody else ?

 

[SquonkSC]

then i goes faster to just make a shortcut on the deskop directly to the exe

thx for the try..

nobody else ?

That's another option, but then you would have to always go to the desktop to start it when you have programs on top.
That would take exactly the same effort as right click/left click on the taskbar.

It is not possible to pin mapped network folders to the taskbar.

I have tried even through registry hacks, and so have many others on the internet, but it just is not possible. (yet)

Good luck

 

[mickey megabyte]

you can put network shortcuts onto a quicklaunch toolbar that you can have on your taskbar.

here's a great tutorial to enable quicklaunch.

here's what mine looks like...

 

[alvoryx]

That's another option, but then you would have to always go to the desktop to start it when you have programs on top.
That would take exactly the same effort as right click/left click on the taskbar.

no offence, I don't wish to argue on something that we both understand, but it seem's that ur wrong :

what you describe is making a shorcut to a network mapped folder into another shorcut.

that mean's it would take me : 1 right clic, 1 left clic, browsing to the exe i wanna launch and finally double clic it. meaning 3 steps (if you include the fact of browsing to the file, I could say 4)

from my opinion, this is much more complicated than just going to the desktop and double click on the shorcut, which makes 2 step's
renforced by the fact that now, going back to the deskop is (using the mouse) much easier than before (one of the bettest idea's microsoft recently had imo).


anyways..i don't understand why microsoft made it impossible to launch something that's network mapped from the superbar..i'm sure this is something they didn't think about cause it's ridiculous..

actually i might just write a program in c# that launches my networked exe...but there must be a better way (maybe some microsoft patch ?)

eventually i could even write something that ask's about some exe files / icon file and create the exact exe that launches it (which, since it's local could be pinned..)

 

[alvoryx]

ok instead of speaking, i quickly wrote this :

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;

namespace bck_lnch
{
    public partial class backlauncher : Form
    {
        public backlauncher()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private string filePath = @"C:\Windows\System32\back_launch.conf";
        private string line = "";



        private void backlauncher_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            
            Process pr = new Process();

            pr.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = "C:\\Windows\\";
            pr.StartInfo.FileName = "notepad.exe";
           

            try
            {

                if (File.Exists(filePath))
                {


                    StreamReader file = null;
                    try
                    {
                        file = new StreamReader(filePath);

                        int i = 0;
                        while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
                        {
                            switch (i)
                            {
                                case 0:
                                        pr.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = line;
                                    break;

                                case 1:
                                        pr.StartInfo.FileName = line; 
                                    break;


                                default:
                                    break;
                            }

                            i++;
                        }

                    }
                    finally
                    {

                        if (file != null)
                            file.Close();
                    }
                }
                else
                {

                    System.IO.FileStream fs = System.IO.File.Create(filePath, 1024);
                    fs.Close();

                    TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(filePath);

                    tw.WriteLine("C:\\Windows\\");
                    tw.WriteLine("notepad.exe");
                    
                    tw.Close();

                }
            }
            catch (Exception exc)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(exc.Message + exc.StackTrace);
            }

            try
            {

                pr.Start();
    
                this.Hide();

                while (pr.HasExited == false)
                {
                    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception) { }

            this.Close();

        
        }
       

    }
}

in 2 words :

after the first launch the program creates C:\Windows\System32\back_launch.conf

in this file, 2 lines :

C:\Windows\
notepad.exe


just replace those 2 lines with what u want to be networked launched..

for ex :

V:\somefolder\somesubfolder\
myfile.exe



save&close


then u can pin my program to the superbar, change the icon et voilà.. ur done

 

[alvoryx]

the compiled code :

http://users.skynet.be/alvoryx/bck_lnch.rar

 

[mickey megabyte]

did you read my post? it's a pretty good workaround.

enable your quicklaunch toolbar >> stick a shortcut to a networked exe on it >> stick the quicklaunch onto your taskbar >> result is networked shortcut pinned to bottom of screen that doesn't get obscured by maximised windows.

 

[alvoryx]

yes it's a workaround.. but this enables to put the whole stuff just as anything else

 

[SquonkSC]

That's another option, but then you would have to always go to the desktop to start it when you have programs on top.
That would take exactly the same effort as right click/left click on the taskbar.

no offence, I don't wish to argue on something that we both understand, but it seem's that ur wrong :

what you describe is making a shorcut to a network mapped folder into another shorcut.

that mean's it would take me : 1 right clic, 1 left clic, browsing to the exe i wanna launch and finally double clic it. meaning 3 steps (if you include the fact of browsing to the file, I could say 4)

from my opinion, this is much more complicated than just going to the desktop and double click on the shorcut, which makes 2 step's
renforced by the fact that now, going back to the deskop is (using the mouse) much easier than before (one of the bettest idea's microsoft recently had imo).


anyways..i don't understand why microsoft made it impossible to launch something that's network mapped from the superbar..i'm sure this is something they didn't think about cause it's ridiculous..

actually i might just write a program in c# that launches my networked exe...but there must be a better way (maybe some microsoft patch ?)

eventually i could even write something that ask's about some exe files / icon file and create the exact exe that launches it (which, since it's local could be pinned..)

Thought you were talking about pinning a mapped folder to the bar, not an individual .exe file. In which case the amount of clicks would be two to open the folder. Equal to click show desktop, double click folder.
But that's elementary now, since you found (made) a better way.

Nice piece of programming.

When I said it couldn't be done yet, I didn't take in account the writing of a script or programming.

While you are at it.
Why not go all the way and program a little bit more,
to make it a addable feature in the right click menu on the desktop named
"pin network folder/app" or something similar?
Write a little installer around it, and put it online?

Me and probably a couple of million others would be very grateful.

Having to manually edit a few lines every time you want to pin a mapped item would put a lot of users off.

Having it in a right click menu might even persuade MS to change their minds.

I actually think MS made a conscious choice to restrict what you can pin.
They did this to avoid problems.
When the drive or machine you have mapped is offline, you would end up with white unlinked icons on the taskbar, or users not understanding why the program they click won't open.

The confusion that would create for noob users outweighs the convenience for power users.

Greetz

 

[Antman]

how maybe u noob's want the compiled code xD

here u go:

http://users.skynet.be/alvoryx/bck_lnch.rar

never say "It is not possible" to me

Wow. You are so awesome.

 

[alvoryx]

copy of pm :

i'm sorry, i didn't intend to be rude..

don't take it so serious..on internet it's always difficult that both part understand good each other..

but ok, in this cas i shouldn't have written that (a few glasses wine helped though)

i'm the biggest noob for writting such things without knowing people..

do you all accept my apologies?

 

[alvoryx]

mmmh i noticed a bug in my prog :


once the "networked" exe is launched, there comes another icon on the superbar :\

i guess windows does it because it's not the same process or because at the end it detect it's coming from the network..

i might try to launch it in a thread instead ?..mmh

of course i could launch the network process in the same window than my host prog but it becomes complicated in the philosophy of the concept xD


i just don't get it .. why does microsoft enable such a behavior ? it doesn't make any sense to me..

it will be (for sure) something they will get much reclamations for if not fixed..

in enterprise's there are LOT'S of app's running on a network drive..(if not saying more than local)

someone got bill's phone number ? damn that would be cool isn't it ?

 

[Dinesh]

copy of pm :

i'm sorry, i didn't intend to be rude..

don't take it so serious..on internet it's always difficult that both part understand good each other..

but ok, in this cas i shouldn't have written that (a few glasses wine helped though)

i'm the biggest noob for writting such things without knowing people..

do you all accept my apologies?

C'mon now that was not necessary to show a PM in the thread. Now its no more a Private Message.

 

[SquonkSC]

copy of pm :

i'm sorry, i didn't intend to be rude..

don't take it so serious..on internet it's always difficult that both part understand good each other..

but ok, in this cas i shouldn't have written that (a few glasses wine helped though)

i'm the biggest noob for writting such things without knowing people..

do you all accept my apologies?

C'mon now that was not necessary to show a PM in the thread. Now its no more a Private Message.

To avoid any further confusion.

It was Alvorix's own reply to me, where he apologized for his earlier comment.

Please give the guy a break.

Not many people do apologize at all.

Greetz.

 

[Antman]

He is so misunderstood.

 

[Antman]

I am still reading...

To link a networked drive or folder, drag it to the Explorer icon.

Still reading...

Superbar - 90% tasty.

 

[Antman]

Hmm...

Use the Start Menu.

 

[SquonkSC]

Personally I would like to have a less restricted superbar, but then a lot of "noob" users would run into all kinds of trouble, which we in turn would have to solve.

So I'm kind of ambiguous on this one, if not on everything.

Life is never black and white.