IDEA: Change folder icon colour when folder empty

[Rills]

Also once a folder has been changed to a different icon to show it's empty will be automatically change back when a file is put in the folder?  Or does the software have to be run again?

Many thanks!

[Rills]

Hello!  I have now read all your posts and worked out how to locate and use an icon (I should have done this before posting my last message - my apologies). 

I have also run the application on a test folder and the results are very good!  I was initially very excited! Alas when I put a document in one of the empty directories it the icon doesn't automatically change back to full. I suspect I have to run the software again for this happen?

I was wondering if anyone has had any success running this software on say a daily basis so that the folders are constantly refreshed?  We are architects and have a huge amount of data kept in a standard folders structures set up for each project we are working on.  Being able to see which folders have content in them and which do not on a live basis would be incredibly useful for us.

If anyone has any thoughts on this it would be hugely appreciated.

[magician62]

You have to run the util to update the folders.

One issue known in Win7-64 and possibly 32, is that windows, does not always refresh immediately, in fact it can take some time.

I have run this utility and someone looking at the same folder from another PC will sometimes see the updated icons well before I do, and I ran the util. Its not perfect, but it is better than nothing. And I believe windos is a limiting factor here.

If you use windows prior to vista look for a util called Folder Size. It adds an extra collumn in explorer shell with a reasonable figure for the size of files in the folder.

Ideally you need a Compliance Management system, but they don't come cheap

[skwire]

One issue known in Win7-64 and possibly 32, is that windows, does not always refresh immediately, in fact it can take some time.

-magician62 (June 27, 2012, 11:12 AM)

I added a small tweak to the code to, hopefully, fix this issue.  Can you please download the archive again and re-test it?  Thanks.

MT Icon Download

[Rills]

The latest version works loads better!  Thanks.  I had noticed that the icons take a while to change.

Has anyone tried using this regularly on a lot of data?

[Rills]

Just testing this some more.... Is it meant to work on sub folders too?  It doest appear to....

[magician62]

It was only concieved to check the top folder and change if there was content, which can include sub-folders, but not the icons of the sub folders.

I have used it regulary on over 10000 folders, seems to work ok to me.


Will give the latest version a spin and report back

[magician62]

Hi Jody, just tested the latest version, refreshes a lot quicker
Still a refresh issue exists

Total folders processed 1845
Added 3 empty folders.
Run MT icon
1 folder changed immediately
The other two took 30 seconds, though this varied to longer on several tests.

All folders had the desktop.ini generated immediately

As mentione, I suspect it is related to this issue Windows Explorer doesn't refresh when moving/deleting

[Rills]

Hi there

Thanks for your feedback.

The software works great on a local drive but less successfully across the network.  I too am experiencing a delay on this.  I will try some more test folders....

[skwire]

I'm not sure there is much more I can do about the refresh delay except tell you that many third-party file managers do NOT have this issue.  I use Altap Salamander and see the changes immediately (even with the original version that didn't have the refresh tweaks).  *shrug*

[magician62]

Jody, its all down to the  "improvements" they made in windows Even F5 doesn't always get them, you just have to wait. But if its used so that you run the util, then come back later, everything has usually refreshed.

One feature that may benefit some is allowing for multiple locations to be processed, maybe from a config file. This is especially useful for those finding they are repeating the same groups of locations regularly. Maybe even the user could create several config files and select which they want to process.

Another feature would be to extend functionality to change the icon if the folder does or does not containg a specific file type. Say has ".jpg" or does not have ".nfo".

[ezio_vr]

Hi all, i was looking this function many time!
Is it possible to enable multi level from a start folder?
I know this is dated post, but is a very interesting function for me!!
Thanks

[eddablin]

I have a good idea: I am looking for a program that could colour my last accessed folder (or two) within Windows Explorer just to make navigation a bit quicker. This looks the closest thing to it. Anyone want to take this on?