How to locate the file in Windows 10 file explorer through TC (+ setting up Lister to display GIF and WEBP files)

[UchuuStranger]

I use Total Commander because it has powerful search capabilities. It has features that allows for very detailed ant precise queries, and the runtime of the search is orders of magnitude faster compared to Windows file explorer too. But for reasons described in this post, I still prefer to use the file explorer when I'm browsing pictures. I understand why the decision described in the post was made: apparently, forcing the old Windows Photo Viewer on the user was the only way of enabling the cycle-through feature for pictures opened through Total Commander. But the problem is, even Windows Photo Viewer is only capable of cycling through them in an alphabetical order, while I usually prefer to view my pictures in the "date modified" order. Plus it does not play gif files, which I find unacceptable.

For reasons above, I'd like to be able to run a search in Total Commander to locate a particular file, then right-click on this file and select a drop-down option "Locate in file explorer", so I could proceed to view this and all the neighboring pictures from the program I like in the order I like. Of course this is just an example. If there's any other way to quickly locate the file in the file explorer that is already found in Total Commander, it will most likely work too. So can anyone give me advice on how to do that? Alternatively, can anybody resolve the issue described in the first paragraph, to make picture viewing viable in TC itself? Either way works for me.

[Hacker]

UchuuStranger,
While I am sure there is some solution using the right-click menu, you could always use Everything for your searches instead of TC.

Roman

[Horst.Epp]

The following button will open Windows explorer with the current selected file or dir from TC

Code: Select all

TOTALCMD#BAR#DATA
C:\Windows\explorer.exe
/select,"%P%N"
C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Selected file in Explorer


-1

[petermad]

2UchuuStranger

...to make picture viewing viable in TC itself

TC's Lister View is perfectly able to show pictures itself - just select the pictures and press F3 (or Shift+F3 or Alt+F3 depending on your configuration of TC - see below) - then you can cycle through the selected pictures in the sort order of the file panel. If you have file formats that TC cannot display intrinsically, there are several plugins for TC that probably can - or you can use the Explorer Preview, or IrfanView or XnView with TC's Lister View.

You configure which key combination to use for displaying all selected files in "Configuration" -> "Options..." -> "Edit/View" -> "Viewer for F3".

When viewing selected files you can go back and fourth between the selected images by pressing P or N or by pressing Alt+LeftArrow or Alt+RightArrow or by clicking << or >> in the right side of the menu bar.

[UchuuStranger]

The following button will open Windows explorer with the current selected file or dir from TC

Code: Select all

TOTALCMD#BAR#DATA
C:\Windows\explorer.exe
/select,"%P%N"
C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Selected file in Explorer


-1

Thanks! I must admit that I never created the button before. Found these instructions, am I on the right track? Do I paste your code in the "command" field? It seems to only have one line though. And what do I fill all the other fields with?

[Horst.Epp]

The following button will open Windows explorer with the current selected file or dir from TC

Code: Select all

TOTALCMD#BAR#DATA
C:\Windows\explorer.exe
/select,"%P%N"
C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Selected file in Explorer


-1

Thanks! I must admit that I never created the button before. Found these instructions, am I on the right track? Do I paste your code in the "command" field? It seems to only have one line though. And what do I fill all the other fields with?

Select All then right click and Copy to clipbord
Right click and Paste on free space of TC toolbar.

[Stefan2]

Thanks! I must admit that I never created the button before. Found these instructions, am I on the right track? Do I paste your code in the "command" field? It seems to only have one line though. And what do I fill all the other fields with?

People reading "these" instructions also read that:

FAQs: Button-code: How-to Copy Share Paste a button ('TOTALCMD#BAR#DATA')
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=50633&p=335879

[UchuuStranger]

Oh wow, that simple? Thanks a lot Horst.Epp! Stefan2, didn't know the right keyword. And having a bit of trouble locating the page that contains the links to all FAQ threads. The only relevant pinned thread I found is this one, and it leads to TC's official FAQ rather than these forums.

2UchuuStranger

...to make picture viewing viable in TC itself

TC's Lister View is perfectly able to show pictures itself - just select the pictures and press F3 (or Shift+F3 or Alt+F3 depending on your configuration of TC - see below) - then you can cycle through the selected pictures in the sort order of the file panel. If you have file formats that TC cannot display intrinsically, there are several plugins for TC that probably can - or you can use the Explorer Preview, or IrfanView or XnView with TC's Lister View.

You configure which key combination to use for displaying all selected files in "Configuration" -> "Options..." -> "Edit/View" -> "Viewer for F3".

When viewing selected files you can go back and fourth between the selected images by pressing P or N or by pressing Alt+LeftArrow or Alt+RightArrow or by clicking << or >> in the right side of the menu bar.

As for this, indeed, I managed to make it work, though the way of opening it is not straightforward. It indeed follows the sort order displayed in TC, and I can indeed cycle through them by pressing P or N, but Alt+LeftArrow or Alt+RightArrow don't work for some reason. Is this customizable? And while it does play GIF animations, it seems to distort them. Tried looking up the plugins you mentioned, downloaded Imagine. Imagine seems to be more of a separate program than a plugin for TC though. I'll try to look into IrfanView/XnView some more, but the solution of Horst.Epp works for me.

[tuska]

Imagine seems to be more of a separate program than a plugin for TC though.

If you have downloaded the ZIP Version, e.g. Imagine_1.1.1_x64_Unicode.zip then make a double-click on the zip-file.
Then the wlx-plugin "Imagine" is installed. [See also: http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=31786 - 4 kinds of plugins]
Imagine (Lister plugin for viewing img files) - Discussions

[petermad]

but Alt+LeftArrow or Alt+RightArrow don't work for some reason

Those key combinations might not work if the plugin/program "steals" the keybord input. Some Video card applications are also known for "stealing" Keybord presses with Alt-key involved.

Is this customizable?

No.

Imagine seems to be more of a separate program than a plugin for TC though.

It is both, but fully works as a plugin - it is my first choice (but maybe I'm biased being the Danish translator)

[tuska]

I can indeed cycle through them by pressing P or N, but Alt+LeftArrow or Alt+RightArrow don't work for some reason.
Is this customizable?

If you are using the 'Imagine'-Plugin, you can use P or N or ALT+Right Arrow or ALT+Left Arrow
or set all the aforementioned settings directly in the 'Imagine' settings under "Shortcut keys".
----
A simple way to preview images is to use the Quick View in TC (Menu "Show" - "Quick View Panel Ctrl+Q"):
- Position the cursor on the image file
- Press Ctrl+Q: Switch on Quick View
- Move the cursor to the next image file... [multiple times - Mouse or cursor-down/up key]
- Press Ctrl+Q: Switch off Quick View
----
Click with the right mouse button in the preview window to get more options of 'Imagine'.

[UchuuStranger]

A simple way to preview images is to use the Quick View in TC (Menu "Show" - "Quick View Panel Ctrl+Q"):

Wow, this is actually very helpful! Now I can browse files and see their contents at the same time! Thank you

And I also figured out why the GIF files were distorted: turns out that Lister already used Imagine to render pictures, and the distorted GIF files were its fault. Strangely, simply uninstalling Imagine in the "Lister plugins" menu fixed the problem, GIF animations are no longer distorted (even if some of them are playing a bit slower than they should).

Also discovered that I somehow already had a whole bunch of other Lister plugins. Went through all of them to try and figure out which one is currently responsible for Lister picture rendering. At first I thought it's uLister, but deleting it did not affect how pictures are shown in Lister in any way. I even try backing up Wincmd.ini and then deleting all the Lister plugins - the files that other plugins were responsible for indeed can no longer be displayed, but nothing changed for pictures! Even GIF files are displayed correctly. How is that possible? Lister doesn't have native picture rendering (other than BMP), does it?

I also tried installing XnView and adding the path to it in the "Configure Lister" menu, but it does not seem to change anything about how Lister displays images either. I know this for a fact because XnView is capable of opening pictures in WEBP format, yet TC's Lister still isn't. It doesn't matter whether "Use IrfanView/XnView to load graphics other than BMP" is toggled on or off, it still behaves the same. Something else renders my images in Lister, and I don't know what it is. I'm confused.

Also, this discussion kind of moved away from the thread name. Am I supposed to create another one? I can move this post there if necessary.

EDIT: reading up on the topic here. My Wincmd.ini file did not have a [Lister] section, only [ListerPlugins] and [ListerPlugins64], which is not what I need I assume. Added the lines

Code: Select all

[Lister]
IviewAdditionalTypes= *.webp

at the end of the file, didn't help.

[Hacker]

UchuuStranger,

Went through all of them to try and figure out which one is currently responsible for Lister picture rendering.

The currently used plugin is in the Lister window's title bar in parentheses, e.g. "Lister (imagine) - image.gif".

Lister doesn't have native picture rendering (other than BMP), does it?

It does.

HTH
Roman

[petermad]

And I also figured out why the GIF files were distorted: turns out that Lister already used Imagine to render pictures, and the distorted GIF files were its fault.

It could be a faulty gif image - usually Imagine shows animated gif's fine.

Lister doesn't have native picture rendering (other than BMP), does it?

Yes, Lister can show gif, bmp, png and jpg files internally (using GDI+ libraries)

My Wincmd.ini file did not have a [Lister] section

Very unlikely - the first time you open the Lister Configure dialog and click OK, this is written to wincmd.ini:

Code: Select all

[Lister]
textwidth=81
binwidth=75
SearchGoBack=3
BmpStartup=1
Multimedia=1
RTF=1
IView=0
IViewPath=i_view32.exe
HTMLasText=1
LinkBraces=1
ModeByfileType=1
PreviewHandlers=1
ThumbnailProviders=1

So try and look again for another [Lister] section, than the one you made manually.

You have to set the correct IViewPath= to your xnview.exe file.
And set IView=1

[UchuuStranger]

The currently used plugin is in the Lister window's title bar in parentheses, e.g. "Lister (imagine) - image.gif".

Yes, I noticed that. But at the moment no plugins are shown (not surprising, since I disabled them all for now). But if Lister has native GIF support, then that answers my question. I guess if I knew about Lister earlier, I'd not have a GIF playing problem in TC in the first place. But I'm still glad I dug into this, because now I figured it all out and also got full WEBP support too.

Turns out that the best way to do this is through IrfanView. It's better than XnView because in combination with WebP.dll it is able to play WEBP animations too, not just pictures. And no GIF distortion either (I know that Imagine not being able to handle it is probably the animation's fault, but it appears that some programs are better at rendering GIF than others). And yes, petermad, thank you for your help, I found the [Lister] section. Turns out it was not in Wincmd.ini, but rather in the neighboring WincmdUser.ini. Adding the line

Code: Select all

IviewAdditionalTypes=*.webp

right after IViewPath variable worked!

Now Lister shows all pictures and animations. It displays WEBP animations as static pictures (just like MichelBeauchamp said here), and it plays GIF animations slower than it should, but it's ok for preview purposes, because it turns out that when I set up IrfanView as a default picture viewer in my system, TC started to open pictures in it on double-click too! Looks like only the "Photos" app is redirected to "Windows Photo Viewer", while IrfanView is acceptable for TC. And most importantly, even though IrfanView does not respect the sorting order of Windows Explorer, it has its own "sort by date" setting, so it all works out perfectly!

Thanks to everyone for your help, will be using all these tools in the future!