Shortcuts Made To Order

A shortcut with the command line explorer.exe /e,d:\work will open a two-pane Explorer window with the 'work' folder on the D: drive selected in the left pane. To open the same folder on the left but with the file 'My Picture.jpg' selected on the right, use the /select switch: explorer.exe /e,/select,d:\work\My Picture.jpg. In Windows 98 you can use the /select switch only with folder names, not files. Also, the folder path you use will be selected on the right in Windows 98 only after you press Tab to move the focus to that pane.

To make a shortcut that opens a folder window with no tree pane, enter the command line explorer.exe d:\work (without the /e switch), or just d:\work. This command line launches the folder in a new Explorer window the first time you run the shortcut, but subsequent launches will move you to this folder in the Explorer window that's already open. To open a new window each time, use the /n switch: explorer.exe/n,d:\work. (This switch doesn't work in Windows 98.) If you use the /e switch, you don't need the /n because a new window will open each time in any case.

The /root switch is useful when you're working with network drives. To avoid cluttering the tree pane with dozens of shared network folders, enter a command line similar to explorer.exe /e,/root,\\server\work (your path will differ). In this example, the network 'work' folder on the server named 'server' will appear at the top of the tree as if no other drives existed.

These switches sometimes work in mysterious ways, their wonders to behold. You can use these quirks to make shortcuts to the Windows Desktop. In Windows 9x, use the /root switch without specifying a folder: explore.exe /e,/root, (be sure to include that final comma). In Me, 2000, and XP, add the /select switch and a folder path as well: explorer.exe/e,/select,/root, c:\ (see FIGURE 3). Oddly, you can replace 'c:\' in this command line with any folder path and the shortcut will still display the Desktop, complete with My Computer, the Recycle Bin, and all your other Desktop items. Remove the /e to see the Desktop folder with no tree pane.

Opening an Explorer window to My Computer or My Documents sometimes requires special codes to represent these objects. Depending on your version of Windows, however, you may be able to use a workaround that requires less typing. Again, Figure 3 lists the appropriate command lines to use in these cases. As before, omit /e if you don't want to open a two-pane Explorer window.

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