Explorer shortcut question

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

One my computers home and at work (both XP Pro SP2) I have a shortcut
to Windows Explorer with the key CTRL-ALT-E (Windows-E is disabled).

At work each use the CTRL-ALT-E will open a new Explorer window.

But at home CTRL-ALT-E open one windows, and if I hit it again it just
brings that allready opened window to the front (not opening a new).

And I can't find what setting controls this. Anyone have any idea?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

1. Open Folder Options in Control Panel.
2. Select your desired changes under the General tab.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| One my computers home and at work (both XP Pro SP2) I have a shortcut
| to Windows Explorer with the key CTRL-ALT-E (Windows-E is disabled).
|
| At work each use the CTRL-ALT-E will open a new Explorer window.
|
| But at home CTRL-ALT-E open one windows, and if I hit it again it just
| brings that allready opened window to the front (not opening a new).
|
| And I can't find what setting controls this. Anyone have any idea?
| --
| Lars-Erik

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Carey Frisch [MVP] skrev:

1. Open Folder Options in Control Panel.
2. Select your desired changes under the General tab.

How would this help on Explorer not launching a new explorer?
This controls what happends when you open (dblclick a folder)

I changed it. And it din't help (just to try). Using the keyboard
shortcut I made will only open one explorer.exe, clicking the same
shortcut icon opens a new one. Why does it act different?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

What happens when you press your WIN key + E?

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| How would this help on Explorer not launching a new explorer?
| This controls what happends when you open (dblclick a folder)
|
| I changed it. And it din't help (just to try). Using the keyboard
| shortcut I made will only open one explorer.exe, clicking the same
| shortcut icon opens a new one. Why does it act different?
| --
| Lars-Erik - http://home.chello.no/~larse/ - ICQ 7297605

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Carey Frisch [MVP] skrev:

What happens when you press your WIN key + E?

Disabled by Policy on both machines (for other reasons).

But the trick with a shortcut with Ctrl-Alt-E works on one machine
(opens new window each time) and not on the other. And I can't find
any differences. And the shortcut itself (not the key-combination)
open news explorer windows on both. Very very strange :-/

(just as the ie info bar, also not working on one of the systems)

 

[Bob I]

CTRL+ALT+key is normally a user configured KEY Combination. So when/who
assigned the Ctrl+Alt+E combo?

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Bob I skrev:

CTRL+ALT+key is normally a user configured KEY Combination. So when/who
assigned the Ctrl+Alt+E combo?

It's done to keep "somebody" from opening Explorer (policy).
But as I said, adding a CTRL-ALT-E works both places.
That's not the problem. The problem is that on one system it opens a
new Exporer each time, the other place, just raises the existing one.

 

[Bob I]

Have you looked at "Folder Options"? That's selectable.

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Bob I skrev:

Have you looked at "Folder Options"? That's selectable.

Can't find any settings there that affect this. The "open folders in
own windows" does not control this (only doubleclick on folders) and
the "Reuse window" seems to be only for new IE windows (it's off)

 

[David Candy]

Try typing
regsvr32 /i shell32

Such a minor issue about a delibrately crippled XP.

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

David Candy skrev:

Try typing
regsvr32 /i shell32

Such a minor issue about a delibrately crippled XP.

Even stranger, I played around on my work PC (where this works),
trying to find what setting is different, trying to enable/disable som
settings, and now it suddenly doesn't work here either (no new window,
only raises the existing), and it doesn't help changing all back :-(

(I don't know if I should laugh or cry

 

[David Candy]

You could always try a proper problem definition. You do know that starting explorer to an existing window switches.

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

David Candy skrev:

You could always try a proper problem definition. You do know that starting explorer to an existing window switches.

Didn't quite get that? I'll to sum up what I have found out:

1) Starting Explorer from the icon, or using Windows+E (on a machine
that has that not disabled) opens a new windows even if one is open.
This is ALWAYS true on ALL the XP machines I have access to

2) On two of my machines, using a keyboard shortcut (defined on the
same icon as used in 1) will not open more than one window (allready
existing Explorer windows will be raised to the top instead)

3) On my office PC however, the keyboard shortcut open new instances
of Explorer (as in 1) UNTIL I tried changing some option (changed them
back too) today. Now it too only raises the existing Explorer window.

Is there a way (some command line option or someting) to tell
Explorer.exe if it should start a new instance, or raise the existing
one. Since the behaviour is different from clicking the icon AND from
system to system, there's got to be some setting controlling this

 

[Bob I]

If i didn't post this before, sorry.
How To Customize the Windows Explorer Views in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];307856