QuickSwitch

[NotNull]

Most recent version: 0.5 ( 2022-04-03 )
Download 64-bit version
Download 32-bit version

Sourcecode is available on GitHub


QuickSwitch is a spin-off of JumpToFolder and was suggested as an alternative to Listary's QuickSwitch as that is abandoned.


What does QuickSwitch do? - the short version
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.

What does QuickSwitch do? -more details
to do ...


QuickSwitch is not finished yet.
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 64-bit or 32-bit version of the QuickSwitch zip-file, depending on your operating system.
  Download link is at the top of this page.
• 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


Note:
I want to thank @horst.epp and @tuska for testing.
*Especially* @tuska, as this program would not even exist without him. He went through at least 7 rewrites of the code and tested all of them. Extensively ...

I even wanted to call it TuskaTool, but "someone" had strong objections against that. I can't tell you who, as I respect tuska's privacy
So, if you like it, say thanks to @tuska!

[tuska]

2NotNull
I have to say thank you

[horst.epp]

Thanks for the update.
I already downloaded it from Github and compiled it.
Runs fine for me as the previous versions did.

[NotNull]

Thanks for the update.
I already downloaded it from Github and compiled it.
Runs fine for me as the previous versions did.

The previous detection mechanism required a rewrite because of ... wait for it .. Everything 1.5!
In Everything 1.5, the important components that make up the dialog are named differently from other known dialogs.
Meaning a new dialog-detector (that was number 6, IIRC).
The latest version works differently and can work with a lot less dialog specific detection.

[eagleeyez]

Thank you!!! I would be great to have the look and feel of Listary and some other features...

[horst.epp]

Thank you!!! I would be great to have the look and feel of Listary and some other features...

For this you have Everything, it beats Listary in all aspects.
Quick Switch is for Open/Save dialogs.

[NotNull]

Thank you!!! I would be great to have the look and feel of Listary and some other features...

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

• A better user interface. There will be a simplified menu with less 'technical' entries.
  Suggestions are welcome.

So let's hear them ..
What look and feel would work/look better?

[horst.epp]

Thank you!!! I would be great to have the look and feel of Listary and some other features...

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

• A better user interface. There will be a simplified menu with less 'technical' entries.
  Suggestions are welcome.

So let's hear them ..
What look and feel would work/look better?

Personaly I don't need much more in the interface.
One thing is missing, I can't see which entry in the list comes from which tool.
I sometimes have Total Commander, XYplorer and the Windows Explorer running and so I get 5 entries to select from.
Its not importand but may be the entries should have an header which says what the source is.

[NotNull]

Personaly I don't need much more in the interface.

In my opinion there should be *less* interface, but I think it is better to show the list of folders somehow.
You can always press Escape, the Alt key or click somewhere in the File Dialog to make the folder list go away.
Selecting "Not now" does the same.

One thing is missing, I can't see which entry in the list comes from which tool.

That is strange. There should be an icon of the file manager where the folder came from, at the left of the foldername. Like this:

2021-03-23 14_56_49-C__Windows.png (14.11 KiB) Viewed 304990 times

The folders are sorted by most recent used file manager. Most recent on top.

Note that if you have a specific folder opened in multiple file managers, it will be shown only once.
That will change with the new menu that I am working on *as we speak*. Thatwill also have path ellipsis, so long paths will be shown as
c:\folder1\...\folder5 (very pleased that I got that part working )

[horst.epp]

Personaly I don't need much more in the interface.

In my opinion there should be *less* interface, but I think it is better to show the list of folders somehow.
You can always press Escape, the Alt key or click somewhere in the File Dialog to make the folder list go away.
Selecting "Not now" does the same.

One thing is missing, I can't see which entry in the list comes from which tool.

That is strange. There should be an icon of the file manager where the folder came from, at the left of the foldername. Like this:

Note that if you have a specific folder opened in multiple file managers, it will be shown only once.
That will change with the new menu that I am working on *as we speak*. Thatwill also have path ellipsis, so long paths will be shown as
c:\folder1\...\folder5 (very pleased that I got that part working )

Sorry, my mistake in the last tests I only looked to the list of dirs, all is fine with the icons.
I prefer to always see the list of folders and will never use Auto-Switch.

[eagleeyez]

Hi,

Sounds great that you are willing to develop this further and open to suggestions...

The new Listary 6 is based on Node.js so I don't know if AutoHotkey allows the same flexibility in the term of user interface and features but I guess relying on WinAPI is the key to achieve better User Interaction... right now the menu open just once and it is over the open/save dialogue which is annoying and once it gets ignored, it is hard to get it back! The best is to make it display on the sides or the bottom (I think the bottom is better) and if it starts where Listary 5 at least left it can be a significant step toward replacing that abondonware...


I may miss some stuff since I didn't dive deep enough into QuickSwitch but I am open for a collaboration if you are willing to make it open-source ( I am not a programmer myself but a power-tinkerer and I can contribute to GUI and other stuff)

[horst.epp]

...
relying on WinAPI is the key to achieve better User Interaction... right now the menu open just once and it is over the open/save dialogue which is annoying and once it gets ignored, it is hard to get it back! The best is to make it display on the sides or the bottom (I think the bottom is better) and if

You can always hit Ctrl-Q in the open/save dialog to get the QuickSwitch menu back

[NotNull]

The idea was to either operate in AutoSwitch mode - that will automatically switch folders - or present a list of open folders to choose from - what you see by default.

When you don't want the list, you can get rid of it in a couple of ways:
- press the ESCAPE key
- press the ALT key
- click somewhere in the File Dialog (but not on files/folders, I noticed just recently)
- click on "Not Now"
- use cursor up / down to select the "Not Now" entry and press ENTER
- and probably more

As horst.epp already mentioned: pressing CTRL+Q brings the list back.




But all that may change with a new menu layout
At the moment I am working on the technical side of a new, cleaner and simpler, menu (how to handle mouse/keyboard actions, etcetera)
AutoHotKey has it's limitations in what is visually possible. It is mainly the basic Windows controls, like buttons, dropdownlist, etc.
But with some trickery, I could make it look like this (menu 1 of 3; just trying different possibilities and see what turns out best) :

2021-03-27 19_39_11-Window.png (41.04 KiB) Viewed 305673 times

@tuska wanted a different icon for in the system tray - and I fully agree with that. So playing around with that, i came up with the one below, but it is horribly hard - as in: after 3 hours work still no decent result - to reduce that to a 16*16 pixel icon.


The code is already open source: all the code is in QuickSwitch.ahk and that can be opened in any text editor.

Qswitch-03-removebg-preview-02.png (213.21 KiB) Viewed 305673 times

[eagleeyez]

I can help with the icon! I told you!

[NotNull]

I can help with the icon! I told you!

You should have told me 46 aspirins ago!!!


But yes, if you can: please!
I don't have the tools, the knowledge and most important: the patience to get this done.


As long as it is still a stylized Q / rotated power-switch I'm good [1]. And that the leg of the Q starts in the center of the circle.
I don't expect the "glow" [2] in the power button to be captured in a small icon.


[1] Technically it is a stand-by switch, but who cares; it is still a Q (uick) SWITCH logo...
[2] Better visible here:

2021-03-30 20_03_16-1.5.0.1251a (x64).png (234.53 KiB) Viewed 305138 times

[cmhdream]

I hope can support xplorer2 too..

[qvinto1]

HI There,

Are there any plans to support Directory Opus? it is the gold standard of file explorer replacements. Thank you

[horst.epp]

HI There,

Are there any plans to support Directory Opus? it is the gold standard of file explorer replacements. Thank you

Thats only the gold standard for poeple who want to spend a lot of money,
pay for every major update and even be restricted to the number of PCs
I had it many years ago.
Now using Total Commander and XYplorer, you have to pay only once a moderate price.
Neverthelesss I guess that the author may add support for DO.

[NotNull]

Are there any plans to support Directory Opus?

Yes, absolutely.

I planned on working again on QuickSwitch in August.
I have to talk to the developer first, as my evaluation version already expired. Hopefully he can give me an extra long evaluation period this time.

[Coldblackice]

This is a cool idea and all (I was a longtime Listary user), but honestly, IMO even better than this ability is incorporating Everything into Windows/Explorer file/save dialogs themselves. I can't tell you how many times a day I have to navigate to a random folder across a handful of drives in some Windows/file/save dialogs (yes, I utilize Quick Access, but its usefulness only helps to a point).

My current routine is to of course pop up Everything and not bother navigating in the dialog itself, use Everything to search easily/quickly for the folder, then I use a custom Everything keyboard shortcut for "Copy Path", then alt-tab back to the dialog, paste it + {Enter}, done.

But even faster + easier + better than this would be embedding Everything into dialogs themselves, which would not only make this effort/routine unnecessary, it would even trump the need (largely) for QuickSwitching -- because QuickSwitch's effectiveness only really works if the folder is already opened. If the folder isn't already opened, then you're still having to trawl through the filesystem to get to the folder. Once you reach that folder, it's just as fast as QuickSwitch to Alt-D (highlight file path), Alt-C (copy), Alt-tab, Ctrl-V (paste), {Enter}.

Sure, it'd be nice to not have to bother with the shortcuts, don't get me wrong, but the downside is if you've got multiple projects + multiple folders open that you're jumping between, QuickSwitch starts to lose its usefulness. And again, the folder already needs to be open (or freshly accessed) for it to work ...which means you're still having to trawl through the file system, which you could've just done in the file dialog itself.

But there may be some utility in it that I'm overlooking or misunderstanding, so anyone please correct me if so. I'm not trying to argue this or anything.

[NotNull]

Totally agreed! I wrote QuickSwitch because quite a few people were asking for it as they saw it as the most valuable feature of Listary (not in my opinion, btw)


Maybe you can try JumpToFolder. That should largely do what you want.
In the future (= after this summer) I will combine the JumpToFolder functionality with QuickSwitch. Technically not a big problem, but have to think hard about the user interface (what will be shown and where/when).

[netenken1]

I use listary before and the quickswitch function is also useful function....

must use and great alternative tool...

thank you

[reelismism]

Just finding this - wondering if there are plans still afoot to combine the JumpToFolder functionality with QuickSwitch?

[horst.epp]

Just finding this - wondering if there are plans still afoot to combine the JumpToFolder functionality with QuickSwitch?

Why combining ?
I use both tools for their designed functions.

[NotNull]

Just finding this - wondering if there are plans still afoot to combine the JumpToFolder functionality with QuickSwitch?

Yes, that is planned:

In the future (= after this summer) I will combine the JumpToFolder functionality with QuickSwitch. Technically not a big problem, but have to think hard about the user interface (what will be shown and where/when).

I just have to find some time, as life "outside the matrix" takes up all of it at the moment.

[Alistair1231]

Thanks
I am trying to cut listary out of my life completely since finding Everything I use listary only for this feature...

Thanks for the update.
I already downloaded it from Github and compiled it.
Runs fine for me as the previous versions did.

Where would I find that repository?
Also are there update notifications or some sort of auto-update function?

[horst.epp]

https://github.com/gepruts/QuickSwitch

[gazmoz17]

Hi,

This is great. Is there a way (if you don't have any file explorer windows active) to still have either pathway of last active windows explorer or just list of most common book marked file location where you most often save files. Or upon Save As recognizes file type or whatever parameter then like bookmark options where to save? Not sure if default option to set windows explorer Save as default file option anyway.

[NotNull]

No, currently not. There are alternatives like Quick Access Popup that can do that.

or just list of most common book marked file location where you most often save files.

You can use the Quick Access pane for that. Available in File Explorer as well as File dialogs.
Right-click a folder and choose Pin to Quick Access to add it to the list. Or drag that folder to the Quick Access List.
(In Win7 it was called Favourites, IIRC)

2021-12-01 23_56_07-Window.png (16.32 KiB) Viewed 270203 times

[gazmoz17]

Thanks for the reply the Quick Access Popup sounds useful

[ollehi]

are you still working on QuickSwitch ? how about for Directory Opus?
I found something maybe can help. and i use the code in runany to quickswitch ,now it work well for me,below is the link.
https://github.com/hui-Zz/RunAny/blob/master/RunAny.ahk

https://github.com/Chaoses-Ib/IbDOpusSc ... ogJump.ahk

[NotNull]

are you still working on QuickSwitch ? how about for Directory Opus?

Yes, I am still working on QuickSwitch and Yes, it will support Directory Opus.
However, things go slowly as I need to find multiple-hour blocks of time to do something. And those are rare.

Thank you very much for these links, @ollehi!
Looks promising at first sight. Will take a closer look.

[wontell]

Just registered to thank you, I've just tried it now and it's working well. I can finally get rid of Listary which I used only for the Quick Switch feature.

I want to request something, is there any possibility to support this type of dialog (Listary worked there so I'm guessing it is possible?):

https://i.imgur.com/0xijPlO.png

(It's used by PowerDVD) Thank you again.

[ollehi]

here another link this the best, support for DOpus.
hope will help you
https://github.com/JnLlnd/FoldersPopup/ ... sPopup.ahk

[NotNull]

here another link this the best, support for DOpus.

Oh, thanks a lot you for that!!!
I recently contacted Directory Opus and they can give me one extra trial period, which is generous in itself, but will not be enough to implement Dopus support. And buying a license specifically for that .. I'm not sure about that.

Anyway, with the code you linked, I can try to do it "blindfolded" ( without any possibility to test).


I'm positive about my - and your! - chances. Thanks again!

[NotNull]

I want to request something, is there any possibility to support this type of dialog (Listary worked there so I'm guessing it is possible?):
(It's used by PowerDVD)

Good suggestion, @wontell!

I did research that (long time ago) and it turned out to be possible, but extremely hard as it is basically some sort of menu structure.
Worse: the menu-entries are named different, depending on your locale.

Microsoft has declared this type of dialogs deprecated after WinXP (15 years ago ..), but you can still find them in some places, like you already found out. Even Windows itself still uses it in Win10! (create a new shortcut > Browse).


I'll see what I can do, but don't hold your breath; it may take me so long that all those legacy dialogs are already phased out

[arsh999cg]

Can we ignore applications all dialogs like 7-zip, when extracting by drag and drop the popup opens for each archive, if i click never, then it is appearing for another archive every time.

[NotNull]

I tried to reproduce this, but didn't succeed.
Which steps did you take that led to QuickSwitch being activated?

[horst.epp]

Downloaded and succesfully tested the new version.

A few comments:
In the introduction you say its working only for Windows 10.
Its working fine also in Windows 11 of course

The Runtime link in the first post contains a very old version.
It should contain the actual version and the name not be runtime
but rather Executable_Version.

[NotNull]

I removed the code again, as I found a bug:
Directory Opus has an "Explorer Replacement" mode, where all calls to File Explorer are intercepted and passed to Opus.
When that mode is enabled, it interfered heavily with my code to get the active folder from Explorer, causing QuickSwitch to stop working.

Working on a solution (will be *very* hard)

If that works, I will upload a compiled version (= runtime + ahk code combined). Much easier ...


Nevertheless, thanks for testing


BTW: the runtime is nothing more than a renamed autohotkeyu64.exe

[autocart]

Hello NotNull,

I just registered to be able to say: "Thank you for this amazing tool!!!!! You made the world a bit a better place by developing and sharing this!!!! THANK YOU " I was desperately looking for a replacement for Listary since I stopped using it a while ago.

Now, since I am already registerd, I also have a question:
What is wrong with, e.g. Win 8.1?
I commented the Win 10 query out in the code and it seems to work just fine on Win 8.1.

[NotNull]

Now, since I am already registerd, I also have a question:
What is wrong with, e.g. Win 8.1?
I commented the Win 10 query out in the code and it seems to work just fine on Win 8.1.

Just to be on the safe side. I was unable to test it on older Windows versions and as I assumed most people would be using Win10 anyways, I simply set that as the lower limit.

But good to know that it works on Win8.1 too!
An update will follow soon (added Directory Opus support and support for Win11), so I will include support for Win8.1 too.
( you are using XYplorer, right? Will post about it on the XYplorer forums too)

Thanks for letting me know you like it! That made my day (admitted: the day is only 2 hours old, but still ... )

[horst.epp]

I made some advertising of QuickSwitch in the XY forum.
Looks like with success

[NotNull]

Indeed!

That saves me the posting on their forums in the short term

[autocart]

you are using XYplorer, right? Will post about it on the XYplorer forums too

Yes, it is really hard to find a quick switch tool for the open/save dialogs working with XY. There are a few out there but none works well with XY. I adapted QuickAccessPopup - another AHK tool in that area - to work also with XY but something never work perfectly with my adaptions.

BTW, QAP does work with Dopus out of the box and is open source AHK code. So, if you need even more inspiration, it might be another source for that.

[autocart]

The Runtime link in the first post contains a very old version.
It should contain the actual version and the name not be runtime
but rather Executable_Version.

I agree to everything.
The date of the "runtime" version inside the 7z says: June 17, 2020

[autocart]

One more BTW,
I own a copy of Dopus, so if you need one more tester, I can make myself available.

[NotNull]

Posted a long story, thinking this was about JumpToFolder ... Deleted.

BTW, QAP does work with Dopus out of the box and is open source AHK code. So, if you need even more inspiration, it might be another source for that.

Wasn't that pay-ware? Would not expect it to be open source. Will check it out anyway. Thanks for the suggestion!
IIRC, it's predecessor - PopupFolders (?) - was opensource and free. I did check that out in the past.

EDIT: You are right! The sources are on GitHub...

I agree to everything.
The date of the "runtime" version inside the 7z says: June 17, 2020

And I agree too
But in my opinion for a compiled version a systray menu, an icon and lots more are needed as it keeps "running" in the background.
Just need some time to spend on that so I can confidently publish it as a ready-to-run program.

I own a copy of Dopus, so if you need one more tester, I can make myself available.

Thanks for your offer, I'll keep that in mind!
This morning I finished a new version. The Dopus part is all working now.
The code was also rewritten so exceptions to support DOpus 'Explorer Replacement' are no longer needed. Taht interfered massively with Explorer calls.Now It will work with simple, straightforward code.


Will post an new version tomorrow (if the last tests go well). Maybe even a compiled version



Really helpful feedback. Thank you!

[NotNull]

QuickSwitch 0.5 has been released.

Changes:

• added support for Directory Opus
• Windows version 7 and up are supported (was: only Win10).
  Win7 is not tested yet, btw. But should work.

Download link to the compiled versions ( ) and new installation instructions are in the opening post.
AutoSwitch exception has been described in that post too as that wasn't obvious to everyone (or anyone?).

[horst.epp]

Downloaded compiled and basic checks made with
Total Commander, XYplorer, Explorer
using Open dialogs in Akelpad and WinRAR.
No problems so far