Opening 'grouped' taskbar entry?

[Terry Pinnell]

I have XP configured so that if I have more than 3 folders open they
are grouped into a single taskbar entry, labeled for example '18
Windows Explorer'.

Is there any way I can open all of these at once, in their currently
defined sizes & positions (not cascaded or tiled) please?

Doing so individually is very slow.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

I have XP configured so that if I have more than 3 folders open they
are grouped into a single taskbar entry, labeled for example '18
Windows Explorer'.

Is there any way I can open all of these at once, in their currently
defined sizes & positions (not cascaded or tiled) please?

Doing so individually is very slow.

No one with any solution to this please?

 

[Twayne]

No one with any solution to this please?

Looks like no one knows. I don't either, but I can suggest an
alternative. Try Mozilla's FireFox 3 web browser. It uses tabs, you
can save a group of links at once, and go back later and open all the
links listed in a; group. If IE can do it, I've never figured out how.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Hi Terry,
Sorry you may feel a bit neglected but, I have been thinking
about this one. I remember something about an app for managing multiple
open windows, however, I can't recall exactly what it was called. One thing
that may meet your needs, though, is the Alt-Tab Replacement Powertoy for
XP. This Microsoft app is a souped-up version of the Alt-Tab key
combination for cycling through a pop-up menu of icons representing open
applications. In this replacement, you not only get the same functionality
to quickly cycle through the apps but, you also get a tiny "preview" of the
open window as well, which makes identifying exactly what window you're
going to be calling up much easier. With this, you have to keep the windows
in their original sizes, piled upon one another, but then it's very
effective at determining which window it is you're settling upon.
With or without this [great] XP add on, if you want to see the desktop
through a maze of open windows at any time, you can just click on the "Show
Desktop" icon in the "quick launch" toolbar, which minimizes all windows
temporarily. After doing that, as soon as you click on any window to bring
it back, ALL windows automatically go back to their ORIGINAL restored sizes
anyway. Hope this is of some use to you.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Hi again,
really sorry, I did mean to post the URL to download the
Microsoft Alt-Tab Replacement Powertoy for XP but forgot to paste it in. It
really is a bit of a gem. So here it is, should you choose to accept it...

http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TaskswitchPowertoySetup.exe

....it will NOT self-destruct in five seconds!
--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Hi Terry,
Sorry you may feel a bit neglected but, I have been thinking
about this one. I remember something about an app for managing multiple
open windows, however, I can't recall exactly what it was called. One
thing that may meet your needs, though, is the Alt-Tab Replacement
Powertoy for XP. This Microsoft app is a souped-up version of the Alt-Tab
key combination for cycling through a pop-up menu of icons representing
open applications. In this replacement, you not only get the same
functionality to quickly cycle through the apps but, you also get a tiny
"preview" of the open window as well, which makes identifying exactly what
window you're going to be calling up much easier. With this, you have to
keep the windows in their original sizes, piled upon one another, but then
it's very effective at determining which window it is you're settling
upon.
With or without this [great] XP add on, if you want to see the desktop
through a maze of open windows at any time, you can just click on the
"Show Desktop" icon in the "quick launch" toolbar, which minimizes all
windows temporarily. After doing that, as soon as you click on any window
to bring it back, ALL windows automatically go back to their ORIGINAL
restored sizes anyway. Hope this is of some use to you.
--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

I have XP configured so that if I have more than 3 folders open they
are grouped into a single taskbar entry, labeled for example '18
Windows Explorer'.

Is there any way I can open all of these at once, in their currently
defined sizes & positions (not cascaded or tiled) please?

Doing so individually is very slow.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Hi again,
really sorry, I did mean to post the URL to download the
Microsoft Alt-Tab Replacement Powertoy for XP but forgot to paste it in. It
really is a bit of a gem. So here it is, should you choose to accept it...

http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TaskswitchPowertoySetup.exe

...it will NOT self-destruct in five seconds!

Many thanks Tim. I'm a long-time user of TweakUI so I didn't hesitate
about installing Task Switcher. Very handy - don't know why I didn't
install it years ago!

However, although it does help a bit in the current context, I'm still
looking for a proper solution. I suspect I may have to try writing a
macro (using Macro Express) to do it, although I'm really surprised no
one has come up with a nifty freeware utility for this.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Looks like no one knows. I don't either, but I can suggest an
alternative. Try Mozilla's FireFox 3 web browser. It uses tabs, you
can save a group of links at once, and go back later and open all the
links listed in a; group. If IE can do it, I've never figured out how.

Thanks Twayne, but I don't know why you think FF can do it?

 

[Twayne]

Thanks Twayne, but I don't know why you think FF can do it?

Not sure why you'd phrase a question like that; have you had trouble
with it?

Bookmarks; BookMark All Tabs (meaning everything that's open including
the pages you can't see, all at once.

And when you go to that, or any bookmark, actually, there is always an
"Open All Tabs" choice at the bottom of the list of choices which will
open every page in there. But if it's only a subset of them you want,
then that's how you save them.

I find it pretty handy, especially for research when I've found a set of
sites that all seem to be good ones. If what you want is to see them
all at once, you'll have to set that up on your own but FF will open
them all with one click.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[Olórin]

Not sure why you'd phrase a question like that; have you had trouble
with it?

<snip>

I suspect because the question was about folders in Windows Explorer, not
web browsers. Try opening a local folder in IE and up pops Windows Explorer.
Does the same happen with Firefox?

 

[Terry Pinnell]

<snip>

I suspect because the question was about folders in Windows Explorer, not
web browsers. Try opening a local folder in IE and up pops Windows Explorer.
Does the same happen with Firefox?

Yes, it does, but a web browser is just not in the running as a
serious practical alternative to Explorer IMO. You can view a folder's
contents and you can open a file by d-clicking, but that's about it.
No deletion. No drag'n drop for copying/moving. No extensive
right-click context menu. No sorting, no viewing in different modes,
including thumbnails...etc

 

[Twayne]

<snip>

I suspect because the question was about folders in Windows Explorer,
not web browsers. Try opening a local folder in IE and up pops
Windows Explorer. Does the same happen with Firefox?

Ah, yes, you are quite right. Got a brain twist there I guess. No
wonder it sounded like I was confusing things; I was.

Sorry,

Twayne

 

[Tim Meddick]

Terry,
The simple answer to your original post is that there is no way that
Windows can do this. The function of which you speak is simply not there.
Windows does similar things like arranging the folders, under a single group
on the taskbar, into "tiled horizontally" and "tiled vertically" but not
"restore all" - which is what, if I'm right, you wanted it to do. However,
the closest thing I can come up with is: if you were to minimise all open
Windows all at once by clicking on the "Show desktop" button, then if you
click on the grouped button all the windows do go back to their original
sizes. This is weak, I know, but if you want something to do this properly,
then you will have to search for a third-party application to do this,

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Terry,
The simple answer to your original post is that there is no way that
Windows can do this. The function of which you speak is simply not there.
Windows does similar things like arranging the folders, under a single group
on the taskbar, into "tiled horizontally" and "tiled vertically" but not
"restore all" - which is what, if I'm right, you wanted it to do. However,
the closest thing I can come up with is: if you were to minimise all open
Windows all at once by clicking on the "Show desktop" button, then if you
click on the grouped button all the windows do go back to their original
sizes. This is weak, I know, but if you want something to do this properly,
then you will have to search for a third-party application to do this,

Thanks Tim. I've done it with a macro. One minor and rather baffling
issue is that just *one* of the many windows restored somehow gets
hidden by another application open. But overall it cuts the mustard.

I may try an alternative macro that emulates clicking on each of the
entries in the group, but that's going to be tricky, not least in
first locating the group's position in the taskbar.

Omission of the facility seems an obvious Windows design flaw to me!

 

[Tim Meddick]

Hi Terry,
No problem! I'm glad you sorted something out, although,
I'm sorry that I could not be of more help to you.