Alt+F1/F2 select drive request

[vlado]

Hi (Christian),

when selecting drive using Alt+F1/F2, combobox with drive letters appears. Separate textbox (editbox) with drive descriptions opens right of it.
Clickable are just drive letters, not descriptions.

Should it be possible to join these two controls into single combobox with two columns - drive letter and drive description?

Thus drive descriptions became clickable too. They are useful (especially with many network drives connected) and one tends to click them.

Thanks.

Vlado

[ghisler(Author)]

I know, this has been suggested a lot, but unfortunately the combobox (which shows the drive letters) cannot be expanded as we would like it, and then show the decriptions aligned as they are now...

[djk]

2ghisler(Author)
It's a pity. I also often try to click on the description field

[SanskritFritz]

2ghisler(Author) How about a simple list box for the descriptions? Disable all scrollbars and synchronise with the combo.

[pdavit]

I have to admit that I find the drive combobox a bit dated both in the way it works and aesthetically. The selection limitation as mentioned here by vlado in addition to this "underground" old DOS-type look makes the feature look like a leftover functionality.

As Christian mentioned here, it's not possible to apply any change but probably this is because the code is dated at that specific part of TC and probably needs a thorough rewrite. If the drive combobox is to be considered in pace with the remaining TC functionality it should look and function similar to the Directory Hotlist or History.

If a rewrite is finally followed we could even see an improvement as well say displaying the list within the drive combobox in a similar manner to WinXP where entries can be grouped and displayed in categories e.g. Hard Disc Drives, Devices with Remote Storage, Network Drives, Shared/Mapped Folders etc. Of course the latter should be configurable to cover all needs and tastes!

[deckard]

If the drive combobox is to be considered in pace with the remaining TC functionality it should look and function similar to the Directory Hotlist or History.

I agree totally. It would be a very nice improvement. I usually have a hard time coming up with improvements as I find TC extremely competent, but this would be welcome.

The look could get inspiration from the regular Windows explorer's Address bar, but maybe that's what you meant.

Cz

[VadiMGP]

2ghisler(Author)

but unfortunately the combobox (which shows the drive letters) cannot be expanded as we would like it,

Why not? List portion of combobox is separate window and it can be resized to any width as you wish. All you need is reflect WM_CTLCOLOR message for combobox. In message handler you have to call GetComboBoxInfo to retrieve HWND of list portion of combobox and then call MoveWindow with desired RECT.
If you need I can provide source code in C++ (MFC).

[wanderer]

I know, this has been suggested a lot, but unfortunately the combobox (which shows the drive letters) cannot be expanded as we would like it, and then show the decriptions aligned as they are now...

< Part of message from http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=5193&sid=b96ad50f1b9cebdbd27953322b9f3c21 follows>

Yes, CB_SETDROPPEDWIDTH is a good idea, but to my knowledge, it doesn't work on all Windows versions.

I tried it under Win98 and Win2K and it works though so only Win3x and Win95 users may have a problem. Sorry i can't check it at the moment for those OSs.

Regarding the "and then show the decriptions aligned as they are now" part you mention above, i know about a utility which can produce VB code in order to set "tabstop columns" in a listbox (calling SendMessage with LB_SETTABSTOPS parameter). Here are some links (which have VB samples but i believe it won't be difficult to extract the info you need from them). It has some nice explanations on the matter.

http://vbnet.mvps.org/code/listapi/cooltabs.htm

It works OK in listboxes but you must do a little trick for combo-boxes (haven't tried it):

http://vbnet.mvps.org/code/subclass/combotabbedlist.htm

Another interesting idea:

http://vbnet.mvps.org/code/subclass/combolistview.htm

I hope it helps you to overcome all the problems you mention above and finally merge those to lists into one.