Resolve program for Win 7 X64

[Ztruker]

I had a program called resolve that I could run that would tell me where a command would be executed from. For instance, if I entered

resolve xcopy

It would respond with

C:\Windows\System32\xcopy.exe

This program doesn't work in X64. Anyone know of a replacement?

The Start menu Search can help with this some but not enough.

 

[Mike Connor]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I use "everything" for that;

Everything Search Engine

I run it at start up and keep it open in the taskbar. It will instantly find the path to anything you type in and also allow you to work on the results with a context menu.

Here's a screen shot;



Some useful tricks; http://forum.voidtools.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=765

http://forum.voidtools.com/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=2276ec779e383750a64e73a484717afd

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

By the way, if you want to search within files and the like;

dngrep - Project Hosting on Google Code

Blindingly fast, extremely comfortable, previews while you type, can search and replace, etc etc. What Windows search should have been.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Ztruker]

Thanks Mike. I'm really looking for a Command Line solution, though I will look at Everything Search Engine.

Also, I use plain old grep from UnixTools, probably very similar to dngrep. Lots of other usefull Linux tools in the package as well.

 

[Mike Connor]

I spent an awful lot of time looking for a good command line solution as well, never found anything suitable.

Those two programs were (are!) my best compromise. I don't like Windows search at all, too much mess on, too slow, and unreliable as well!

Everything is really very very good, and there are various tricks which make it come very close to a command line solution.

You might also consider this;

PowerGREP: Windows grep Software to Search (and Replace) through Files and Folders on Your PC and Network

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Ztruker]

Thanks Mike. I looked at Everything Search and decided to keep it. I can see where it can be a real help some times, especially as it's a Context Menu selection.

 

[Mike Connor]

They must have been listening!

Here is the command line interface for everything;

Download Everything

<http://www.voidtools.com/download.php>

Works great!

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Ztruker]

That's useful but still not what resolve did for me.

It would actually tell me what executable (.exe/com/bat/cmd) file would be used as I show in the xcopy example.

Thanks though. For now I added it to a directoy in my path and called it resolve.exe

 

[Mike Connor]

Brilliant!!! Here's a screenshot;

Finds all items on all mounted volumes containing the search term instantly, and of course you can pipe them etc.

Search term here was "may".



Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

That's useful but still not what resolve did for me.

It would actually tell me what executable (.exe/com/bat/cmd) file would be used as I show in the xcopy example.

Thanks though. For now I added it to a directoy in my path and called it resolve.exe

Wil have a play with it, a small batch which tells it to include all paths etc should reproduce the behaviour you want.

Anyway, I'm very pleased you asked about it, as I would not have found it if I had not been checking it out!

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[WindowsStar]

If you would like a pure OS solution.

Open a command prompt and enter:

dir /s xcopy.exe | find /i "directory"
 
or
 
dir /s xcopy.* | find /i "directory"

-WS

Edit:

or

attrib xcopy.exe /s

 

[Ztruker]

I understand that and sometimes do so, but it's not the same at all and would be very slow.

There must (should?) be a way to query the OS for the path an executable resides in.

 

[Mike Connor]

Application.ExecutablePath Property (System.Windows.Forms)

<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.application.executablepath.aspx>

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[WindowsStar]

I understand that and sometimes do so, but it's not the same at all and would be very slow.

There must (should?) be a way to query the OS for the path an executable resides in.

Humm, just searched my 2TB drive for readme.txt with dir /s readme.txt |find /i "Directory" which there are a lot of those files. And it did not take too long. System found over 500 files in about 30 seconds. I did the same search within Windows Explorer and it took 60 seconds. How much faster does it need to be??

 

[Ztruker]

Well, instantaneous or 1 to 2 seconds would be nice. It takes the OS less than that to determine if a command I type is valid or not so why isn't it possible to query the OS in a similar way?

 

[WindowsStar]

Well, instantaneous or 1 to 2 seconds would be nice. It takes the OS less than that to determine if a command I type is valid or not so why isn't it possible to query the OS in a similar way?

Because you are searching a hard drive. Hard drives are mechanical and slow by most standards. It is only now-a-days that we have SSD replacements for your hard drive, however even these are slow, much faster than a mechanical hard drive but still slow. To have a super fast look up you would need very fast memory (expensive). The way Microsoft has gotten around this is to index the drive which makes the searches much faster so my search of a 2TB drive at 30 seconds is amazing.

I remember back in the day when I had an 850MB hard drive and it took 5 minutes to search the whole drive.

(Please note I am being extremely general here, I know there are other ways to make the search faster, I am only providing a simple general explanation here.)

 

[Ztruker]

Sorry. Either I did not explain myself well or I'm just not getting my point across.

I do not want to search the hard drive. I want a way to ask the OS where a specific command will be executed from. That's what resolve did, from OS/2 through all the releases of Windows through XP until now as it will not work in X64. I don't have the source code, just the executable.

My original post was:

I had a program called resolve that I could run that would tell me where a command would be executed from. For instance, if I entered

resolve xcopy

It would respond with

C:\Windows\System32\xcopy.exe

In OS/2 it would even tell me if the command was supported by cmd.exe and not a stand alone program (like xcopy).

 

[WindowsStar]

@Ztruker

I guess you are right I don't understand. Can you upload the program and I can try it on my XP machine to understand what it does??

 

[WindowsStar]

@Ztruker

I see your posts in all the other forums and all over the internet for this. In those posts you were looking for a VBS solution. If you still are I can create one. I just need to know how you are going to use it and what it really does. Thanks.

 

[Ztruker]

This is what it looks like for me in XP Mode:

C:\Documents and Settings\XPMUser>resolve xcopy

C:\WINDOWS\system32\xcopy.EXE

C:\DOCUME~1\XPMUser>resolve netsh

C:\WINDOWS\system32\netsh.EXE

C:\DOCUME~1\XPMUser>resolve copy

Program not found

C:\DOCUME~1\XPMUser>

Under OS/2, resolve xcopy would have returned cmd.exe since copy is built into cmd.exe, not an external command.


This is the executable: View attachment RESOLVE.zip