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Fold 2.2.1.0

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MilesAhead:
Fold 1.0.0.0  Fold.exe is a command line Windows utility for XP and later.  Although it really shines on Windows Seven.  It reads a plain text file of folder names, then opens and places them on the desktop.

You may download from this page:
http://www.favessoft.com/downloads.html

I found even though I wrote several hotkey tools for opening recent folders, that there were combinations of folders I used many times and I still had not come up with an easy way to open them as a set.  File managers with quad windows may be a solution but I haven't found a free one that seemed stable and predictable.

The basic idea of Fold is you feed it a file of folder names.  If the number of folders is 4 or less the vertical space used is limited to 95% of the vertical desktop work area.  This should leave enough room for stuff like RocketDock and other gizmos kept just above the TaskBar.

At the moment it's hard wired with TaskBar at the bottom.
If there are more than 4 folders, all windows are minimized first, to avoid app windows being resized, then the folders are opened and placed using the OS horizontal tiling API.

See the Readme for details.
Before gasping in horror at the thought of typing at the command line, see the Suggestion in the Readme.  If you are on Windows7 it's very easy to associate .fld extension with Fold.exe and pin folder sets to the Fold icon on SuperBar.  Once you make a few sets of folders you can just right click, then click and Bingo!!  A set of folders you use together comes up.

If you don't want to register a file type association then I suggest putting a shortcut to Fold.exe in your SendTo folder.

Another nice feature of using this on Windows7, when you're done right click the Explorer shortcut on SuperBar and click Close All Windows.

Anyway, here's a screen shot of 4 folders opened just by clicking an .fld file.

MilesAhead:
Fold 1.1.0.0 Added PercentMargin .ini file setting to set the TaskBar gap.  Valid range is 0 to 25.  Note that if the TaskBar is not set to Stay On Top then GetWorkArea will be the same as the screen res, meaning the folders will take up the entire desktop.

I only have a single monitor setup so that's all I can support for Fold.

If anyone has TaskBar set to Stay On Top positioned at the top of the screen or one of the sides, would you try Fold.exe?  Default PercentMargin is 5.

I have an over sized TaskBar and if I move it, sometimes it's impossible to get it back without resetting my registry hives. Sometimes I can spend hours trying to grab the damn thing with the mouse! :)

MilesAhead:
Fold 1.2.0.0 Now resorts to Tile Window API only if folders greater than 6.  Up to 6 folders it should leave the percentage gap if TaskBar is set to Stay On Top.

See Readme revisions list for details.

MilesAhead:
Fold 1.3.0.0 Now manually places up to 8 folders.

mouser:
I wonder if you couldn't convert this into a very useful general purpose tool, that took a list of files, or even better commandline lines, and opened each one and resized it/tiles it.

For example, my file might list:
C:\Program Files\irfanview.exe "e:\mypicture1.jpg"
C:\Program Files\irfanview.exe "e:\mypicture2.jpg"
C:\Program Files\irfanview.exe "e:\mypicture3.jpg"
C:\Program Files\irfanview.exe "e:\mypicture4.jpg"
C:\Program Files\photoshop.exe "e:\mypicture5.jpg"
and have it tile these launched applications?

just an idea.

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