SOLVED: Dropbox "Desktop"

[Hyphen]

I use Dropbox for a lot of things, including well over 200 portable applications. Almost everything running on my hard drive right now is thinstalled and not touching my Windows registry or drivers and services, which I love. Here is my dilemma though: Of these 200+ portable applications I have, I use 15-20 of them very frequently and it's a pain to clutter the desktop with my all-purpose Dropbox applications. At one point, I had the bright idea to make a "Shortcuts" folder in my Dropbox, but adding shortcuts will not work when synced universally, because paths to shortcuts are "hard" defined and I can't assume that every single Windows computer I sync them to will have that same username/folder structure.

What I had in mind was a "Dropbox Desktop" application that would basically be one program that you could launch, that would basically be a pop-out menu or holder for shortcuts. As it is to be used specifically for Dropbox and Dropbox's synced folders cannot be changed or take their own shape, computer-to-computer. So in this way, "shortcuts" can work and sync universally proplerly, by just assuming the path is "%DROPBOX_FOLDER%\whatever_the_folder_is_thereafter". Does anyone think something like this is possible?

[cthorpe]

Not a solution, as I have no clue how to write the program behind it, but all the folders you need are at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders in the registry.  Find a way to read the keys to a script or program, and you are on your way to what you need.


C

[doctorfrog]

Would a portable launcher that uses relative directories work for you? I use PStart: pegtop.net/pstart It launches directories, programs, files...

[Hyphen]

Would a portable launcher that uses relative directories work for you? I use PStart: pegtop.net/pstart It launches directories, programs, files...

-doctorfrog (July 11, 2011, 02:25 AM)

Something with relative paths would work but I only see the U3 and installable versions of PStart on their website, is there any standard portable version I can throw in Dropbox?

[Hyphen]

http://www.cylog.org...tilities/toolbox.jsp is doing the trick!

[doctorfrog]

Sorry for the late reply. The install of PStart essentially extracts PStart.exe to wherever you want it. After that, it's totally portable and you can even delete the installer and copy PStart.exe anywhere and start using it. It's so useful, I use it in Dropbox, USB drives, to organize task-based programs I have, and even launch games.

I'm going to also check out Toolbox, it looks pretty neat.

[Tuxman]

Maybe a little late, but:
Tried to replace "shortcuts" by "hard links"?

[limelect]

Well i started to write an application that is basically a desktop (short cut) viewer.
I shows all the short cut and one can execute them.
The reason is my Desktop is over spilled with icons and i could not find where they are.
Unfortunately i do not have too much time so i work on it fairly slow.
By now the basic works. But i want to include many more things in side.
So i am planning to put it on NANY.
I hope this is the program you meant.

[app103]

I have an app I made a long time ago called Clutterbuster that could work for this. But it only works with exe files and if the exe file doesn't contain an icon, the button will be blank.



Place it at the root of your Dropbox folder. Set it up by right clicking a button and selecting an exe file to associate with it. Once you have set all the buttons you desire, close the app and it will save the settings in an ini file. Open that ini file in Notepad and edit the paths to be relative.

It will hold a total of 100 apps, but you can use multiple copies if you need more. Just name it something different (ex: Clutterbuster1.exe, Clutterbuster2.exe, etc. or Web Apps.exe, System Utilities.exe, etc.) Each copy will create its own ini file.

Keep in mind that this is no longer being actively developed by me. It is given as-is. If it works for you, great...if it doesn't, delete it and forget I suggested it.

I originally whipped this up to shut my daughter up when we shared a PC with a single user account and she started complaining about all my apps she wasn't interested in cluttering up the taskbar. It was created without writing a single line of code. If you want the Delphi "source" PM me.   

[Hyphen]

Both of those look really good guys!

[esvin]

I never thought of such a shortcut idea. If anything can be done for these shortcuts, it will be a great achievement for frustrated users like us. But I don’t think, it is so easy. It is really a pain for all of us to cover our desktop with frequently using applications.  Now I am too busy to even think about it. Next month, I think I can come up with some idea or help.