Show contents of Directories

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tony01
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Show contents of Directories

Post by *tony01 »

Hi everybody:
I executed the TC command cm_OpenControls, and it opens Control Panel in Total Commander, but I want to show the contents of all directories,
the CTRL+B Directory branch, does not work. How can I solve this problem?, any help will be appreciated
Thanks
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Dalai
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Re: Show contents of Directories

Post by *Dalai »

IIRC Ghisler explained this several times. The type of control panel items are determined by Windows. Unfortunately this makes the cm_OpenControls command become increasingly useless because most of them are directories, although they shouldn't be. The only thing one can do is to right-click such directory and select "Open". TC then opens it in an Explorer window.

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Usher
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Re: Show contents of Directories

Post by *Usher »

Dalai wrote: 2020-06-05, 17:03 UTCmost of them are directories, although they shouldn't be.
Wrong. They are virtual folders, and only some of them are mapped to the real directories in the file system. That makes the difference.
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Dalai
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Re: Show contents of Directories

Post by *Dalai »

Then tell me: Where's the item Keyboard mapped to anything in contrast to Power Settings? The former is listed as a file in TC while the latter is not. I don't see any control panel item mapped to anything, let alone real directories (with one or two exceptions). The whole thing named control panel is fully virtual. Not even all "files" behave the same way since some of them launch the classic CPLs, but others launch EXE files or MSCs.

The only common thing I'm able to see is that all directories open an Explorer window when opened the way described above. But then again, the Fonts folder in control panel can be seen as a representation of the real %SystemRoot%\Fonts directory, and Administrative Tools can also be found in the file-system. But why are the Power Settings shown as folder when there's a powercfg.cpl in %SystemRoot%\system32? It's not so simple as declaring one thing as virtual...

Anyway. For me, the usefulness of the cm_OpenControls command is pretty limited because of the way its presented and the way it needs to be used, and I don't think I'm the only one with that opinion.

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Usher
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Re: Show contents of Directories

Post by *Usher »

Dalai wrote: 2020-06-07, 00:06 UTC Then tell me: Where's the item Keyboard mapped to anything in contrast to Power Settings? The former is listed as a file in TC while the latter is not.
Well, it all depends on OS version.
They are applets in the Control Panel. As you have written the Control Panel is virtual, but it uses some objects (files or directories) from the file system. I've already written about folders and dirs, now it's time for "files". Some applets shown as files in TC are mapped to the real executable *.cpl files, some other to a specific tab/dialog window/option in some cpl file.

It's Microsoft that created such a mess. I never liked it and never will. And I don't like any text which follows this mess and uses "directory" name for virtual folders or "file" for applets.
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Re: Show contents of Directories

Post by *petermad »

I don't think there is so much TC can do about it - TC's sends a call to Windows, which then provides the data for virtual folders.

Using cm_OpenControls is the same as using cd ::{26EE0668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}\0 - calling Windows' GUID
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