Looking for something

I'm stumped. Yes, the Google whore that I am cannot find something. For years I've been using Midnight Commander on my system to view text files (code) and generally move around (grown up from my days with Xtree-Pro in DOS). Now I'm finding that I'm actually becoming just as (if not more) productive using Windows Explorer (plus the fact that half the time I can't do something with MC so I end up typing "start ." and do it in Explorer).

However for the life of me I cannot find an Explorer add-in that will do something what I think is simple. Autodisplay the file in the big bottom right corner of the Explorer window. Just something simple. If it's a text file, just show it to me. If not, then the file details would be fine (bonus points if it could view image files). Yes I know there are goobers of Windows Explorer replacements but I don't want that. I'm looking for some shell integration that will just be there.

Anyone know of such a beast?

Published Saturday, November 19, 2005 10:28 AM by Bil Simser
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Comments

# re: Looking for something

Saturday, November 19, 2005 1:03 PM by Frans Bouma
I always use 'send to' and then notepad. (notepad2 of course). Just copy the notepad shortcut in an explorer view of the startmenu to the SendTo folder of your user and viola :) -> rightclick a file and select notepad from the sendto menu in explorer.

# re: Looking for something

Saturday, November 19, 2005 1:20 PM by todd brooks
I would start looking at this site; if it doesn't exist here, I doubt it exists :D

http://www.shellcity.net/

# re: Looking for something

Saturday, November 19, 2005 3:52 PM by Bil Simser
Thanks for the link Todd. Can't seem to find anything that fits the bill.

Frans: Yes, the send to is an option but I wanted an extra pane in my Explorer that would just open the file up and show me it rather than the extra clicks to send a file to another program.

Looks like I might have to write this myself.

# re: Looking for something

Saturday, November 19, 2005 6:40 PM by Johnny Thomsen
Maybe this will help you,:
http://www.wincorner.com/home/fmview.html

# re: Looking for something

Saturday, November 19, 2005 10:53 PM by Bil Simser
Johnny,

Thanks for the link and close, but no cigar. While it does support viewing files it requires to right click and select a menu option which isn't any different than double-clicking the file or sending it to Notepad (or some universal viewing program).

# re: Looking for something

Monday, November 21, 2005 10:49 AM by James Kovacs
Can't say that I've seen anything quite like this, but the CommandPromptExplorerBar (http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/CommandBar.asp) on CodeProject would be a good start on writing your own. You would just have to figure out how to receive notification of a selection change from Explorer. Sounds like an interesting little pet project. I might look into this more...

# re: Looking for something

Monday, November 21, 2005 12:27 PM by Bil Simser
Thanks James. I did take a look at that. There is a button to retrieve the currently selected file and folder name so it's all doable. Just wish there was something already out there but hey, what's another night writing a new tool huh?

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