Can XP show me list of recently visted folders?

[Zak]

Can XP show me a list of recently visted folders?

I am thinking of something similar to "My Recent Documents" on the
Start menu but with folders rather than documents.

If not then maybe a registry tweak would allow me to include
recently visited folders in the list shown by "My Recent Documents"?

 

[David Candy]

No. And MS thinks it's a stupid idea. I asked and that's what one of the programmers said.

 

[Don Taylor]

Can XP show me a list of recently visted folders?

I am thinking of something similar to "My Recent Documents" on the
Start menu but with folders rather than documents.

If not then maybe a registry tweak would allow me to include
recently visited folders in the list shown by "My Recent Documents"?

If you peek at the details of the contents of Temporary Internet Files
folder you can see that it maintains a "Last Accessed" date/timestamp
for everything in there. You can sort that on any column and if you
sort on Last Accessed then the most recently accessed files and
folders will be at the top of the list.

So that sounds like it is almost what you want, if you used IE to
visit the folders on your drive, instead of say Windows explorer,
and that is certainly possible to do..

But there are lots of other things that get dumped into that folder
besides the folders on your local drive, that you don't want to see.

For a completely different reason, I'd dearly like to find a way for
a script to get the same information on the Temporary Internet Files
folder contents. If it were possible to do that then a little script
might be able to sift through all of it and just show you your
recently visited folders.

Anyone seen any information about how a script can get all that info,
not just the names of the items in the folder?

Thank you

 

[David Candy]

Here's a script designed for extracting object properties from file folders. Because it uses shell functions rather than file functions it means it can access anything about a file that explorer can show. It either has a problem with TIF or MS has a problem with TIF, as the last few fields get repeated which does not happen on File Folders or Compressed Folders (zip files).

I implemented an addin for Windows ME that offers a Recent Folder feature but it doesn't really work on XP (meaning it works but would take hundreds of years to configure your computer to make it work usefully whereas in ME I just had to set a few registry keys and the user took 10 seconds to configure.)

To implement this feature on XP with VB isn't that hard. The problem is that programs can't add menus to the Start Panel (as this is an area for the user to customise - as was Favourites, the old Start Menu but programs soon took to filling these areas with crap and so MS made it impossible for programs to hijack the new Start Menu). You can read about it here http://www.angelfire.com/biz/serenitymacros/

 

[Chad Harris]

Zak--

This may not display the detail David is referencing in his posts, but one
simple method I use to tell what files and folders I visit besides the info
referenced from TIF sorting is to go to History on the IE toolbar>the "My
Computer" entry under "M"> and I usually find the files and folders I've
visited listed there. For some odd reason that makes no difference, there
is an "e" icon placed by them instead of a folder icon. You can also
mouseover and see the file path of that particular folder. Works for me.

Chad Harris
__________________________________


Can XP show me a list of recently visted folders?

I am thinking of something similar to "My Recent Documents" on the
Start menu but with folders rather than documents.

If not then maybe a registry tweak would allow me to include
recently visited folders in the list shown by "My Recent Documents"?

 

[=?Windows-1252?B?1L/UIE13cw==?=]

You may want something different, but if you choose view on windows explore
menu, then select "go to" it will display all the places or folders you opened
or visited recently. Hope that helps.

Moe

 

[=?Windows-1252?B?1L/UIE13cw==?=]

If you select view on the windows explorer menu bar then select go to, what will
be displayed is a list of the folders you opened or recently visited.
Hope that helps some.

Moe

 

[Chad Harris]

Zak--

You might want to try out these and compare them. They're both free and
they forecast a little of the search that might be in Longhorn instead of
what might have been in Longhorn now that Win FS won't be as fully
developed.

One is an addin to Outlook you may have seen called Lookout. Lookout
searches My Documents and Outlook. MSFT recently bought it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...ee-16e5-4961-91b8-2200ba31ea37&displaylang=en

http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html

http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html

The other is described by Paul Thurrott here--CDS. I just started looking
at it, but I think it will do some of what you want.

http://www.winnetmag.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/43833/windowspaulthurrott_43833.html

Description on the site:

http://help.copernic.com/topic/desktopsearch10en/overview.htm

Chad Harris
____________________________________________________



Can XP show me a list of recently visted folders?

I am thinking of something similar to "My Recent Documents" on the
Start menu but with folders rather than documents.

If not then maybe a registry tweak would allow me to include
recently visited folders in the list shown by "My Recent Documents"?

 

[Zak]

If you peek at the details of the contents of Temporary
Internet Files folder you can see that it maintains a "Last
Accessed" date/timestamp for everything in there. You can sort
that on any column and if you sort on Last Accessed then the
most recently accessed files and folders will be at the top of
the list.

So that sounds like it is almost what you want, if you used IE
to visit the folders on your drive, instead of say Windows
explorer, and that is certainly possible to do..

But there are lots of other things that get dumped into that
folder besides the folders on your local drive, that you don't
want to see.

That's interesting ... I never knew I could use Internet Explorer to browse
my hard drive instead of Windows Explorer.

I simply put the "folders" button on IE's toolbar and it works!

I don't normally use XP for browsing so I could use it only for looking at
the hard drive.

But I think IE stores all sorts of other things on the hard drive as it
visits places. Maybe that would lead to clutter in XP the long run? Do you
know if that's a possible issue? I would like to know about this.

Also there are far fewer usability preferences which can be set in IE >
Tools > Internet Options than in Win Exp > Tools > Folder Options > View.

For example are there command line switches (in a shortcut) when using IE to
open a folder? http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=130510

Do you have any good links for this topic of using IE for WinExp?

Thanks for any info.

Zak



PS: Have you seen ActualDoc?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=130510

It seems to displays some MRU info for recently seen files and I think it
may also include folders visited. The Lite version is free.

 

[Zak]

-- snipped & trimmed ---

Here's a script designed for extracting object properties from
file folders. Because it uses shell functions rather than file
functions it means it can access anything about a file that
explorer can show. It either has a problem with TIF or MS has a
problem with TIF, as the last few fields get repeated which
does not happen on File Folders or Compressed Folders (zip
files).

I implemented an addin for Windows ME that offers a Recent
Folder feature but it doesn't really work on XP (meaning it
works but would take hundreds of years to configure your
computer to make it work usefully whereas in ME I just had to
set a few registry keys and the user took 10 seconds to
configure.)

Dave, is your script similar to what the program ActualDoc does?

I have just mentioned it to Don in this thread. This is the correct link to
its website: http://www.flexigensoft.com/actualdoc/


As soon as you install it it seems to be able to show some history info.
I guess it might be displaying some MRU info for recently used files.

The Lite version is free.

 

[David Candy]

IE just loads explorer. Neither explorer.exe or iexplore.exe show internet or local drives. They load shdocvw to view both the web and local files (and shdocvw calls shell32 to show the local files).

Explorer's job is to do Start and the Taskbar. Both explorer and IE can browse the web or local files and looks the part (as it's coming from the dlls not the exe). IE doesn't support the same switches as explorer. It's switches are webish and explorer's fileish. Tools Folder Options afect both IE and Explorer and internet options also affect both.

This is what MS means when they say IE is integrated into windows. You can't browse local files without IE (primilary shdocvw) in a normal fashion. I think, and it was so years ago, using classic shell policy removes IE from file browsing.

 

[Don Taylor]

That's interesting ... I never knew I could use Internet Explorer to browse
my hard drive instead of Windows Explorer.

I simply put the "folders" button on IE's toolbar and it works!

I don't normally use XP for browsing so I could use it only for looking at
the hard drive.

But I think IE stores all sorts of other things on the hard drive as it
visits places. Maybe that would lead to clutter in XP the long run? Do
you know if that's a possible issue? I would like to know about this.

There is a maximum size you can set for the storage, when it gets up to
that the oldest material will be automatically dropped. But your other
web browsers, and I believe even things like Windows Help and other things,
may store things in there, so I don't think you can depend on this only
being for your folder viewing.

Also there are far fewer usability preferences which can be set in IE >
Tools > Internet Options than in Win Exp > Tools > Folder Options > View.

For example are there command line switches (in a shortcut) when using IE to
open a folder? http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=130510

Do you have any good links for this topic of using IE for WinExp?

Nope, sorry. But other folks posted some alternative ideas.

Thanks for any info.

Glad I could give you a possible solution

PS: Have you seen ActualDoc?

It seems to displays some MRU info for recently seen files and I think it
may also include folders visited. The Lite version is free.

Interesting.
Thanks