ExQueues Shell Queue

ExQueues logo

ExQueues Shell Queue is an application that allows a user to 'queue up' various file operations using the Windows Explorer (through the Context Menu) or in other file managers such as Directory Opus (using DDE). In particular, multiple sequential PAR2 repairs & RAR extractions are supported along with source file deletion, as well as sequential file moves and copies, and deletion.

Version 0.3.9 Released!

Version 0.3.5 Released!

Version 0.3.4 Released!

New Version 0.3 Has The Following Bug Fixes And Enhancements

Main Features

ExQueues Shell Queue was conceived and developed by Slain Jamison Wilde.

Lastest Version

ExQueues Installer

This Installer is what most users will wish to download. After installation, you should restart Windows to activate the context menu extensions. Alternatively, use the Task Manager to kill explorer.exe and restart it (as well as Directory Opus if you are using that). NOTE: This application is currently Windows XP or newer compatible only (cause I'm lazy but I still wanted alpha channel bitmaps).

ExQueues Configuration

While the beginnings of an in-application editor for the XML configuration is in place, it is currently not complete, and may not be for a while. So here are the important changes you need to make to the XML config. This file will be located in your c:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\ExQueues\Config.default.xml file. If you make extensive changes to this file, and wish to keep them the next time you update ExQueues, copy or rename this file to config.xml and the installer will not overwrite your changes.

The config file itself is fairly well documented in comments and tips. The key areas to change are shown below. Setup your basic directories for the Extraction, Copy and Move destinations in the varDests variable. Note that individual paths may be enclosed in double quotes if needed. You may also use the new special folder indicators when specifying folders in either the varDests varaible or any of the <MenuDestination>s in the config file. These special folders are specified by _here _subfolder and _browse. Use commas to separate them from other paths as you would any other folder.

Config pix1

A patched version of par2.exe is now included in the installer. The following paragraph refers to previous versions that did not include par2.exe, or if you are having some conflict with different versions of par2.exe on the same machine.

The only other area that really needs to be set or checked before using ExQueues is the par2.exe location. If it is in the default path already you can leave it as is. Otherwise, you will need to change the path to the par2.exe. par2.exe can be found from the links at the bottom of the page. The current version you would need on Windows is 'par2cmdline-0.4-x86-win32.zip' from the downloads page. At some point I may move more of the par2 code into ExQueues to get rid of this external dependecy. Leave the commandline options alone unless you know what you are doing.

Config pix2

There are a number of other options and changes that can be made by poking around in that config file. You can even add your own custom commandline based action that may be queued in the same way. Additonal info located in the config docs.

Explorer and Directory Opus Usage

The ExQueues application must be running for the right click context menu to work properly in both Windows Explorer and Directory Opus, otherwise the context menu will show a grayed out message indicating it is not running. Simply ensure you have started the application. Using the Drag & Drop features in Directory Opus will automatically start an instance of ExQueues if one is not already running.

When ExQueues is minimized it goes to the System Tray on the taskbar. Click the icon on the system tray to show the window.

Example using the Explorer right click context menu to queue up two par2's for processing. (Note: You don't have to pick the small PAR2 file, any of them will do, including the ones with 'vol01+1' in them. Just pick one from each set though.)

Context Menu Example

For Directory Opus(DOpus) Drag & Drop(DnD) features, my preferred method of using ExQueues, a number of changes can be implemented.

Under Settings->File Types, doubleclick 'All Files & Folders'. I personally use Shift DnD in DOpus to queue up actions in ExQueues. So doubleclick 'dropshift' and paste the following in the text area (the space after {allfilepath} may be important unless they have fixed the bug). Please note this is corrected with the proper line break after 'ddetopc ExQueues'.

ddeexec [queue( {destpath} {allfilepath} )]
ddeapp EXQUEUES
ddetopic ExQueues
"c:\Program Files\ExQueues\ExQueues.exe" /dde

DOpus pix1

Under Settings->Customize, doubleclick or create a key shortcut for Ctrl-Delete. Set the values as indicated and paste the following in the text area (the space after {allfilepath} may be important unless they have fixed the bug). Please note this is corrected with the proper line break after 'ddetopc ExQueues'.

ddeexec [delete( "" {allfilepath} )]
ddeapp EXQUEUES
ddetopic ExQueues
"c:\Program Files\ExQueues\ExQueues.exe" /dde

DOpus pix2

Finally, I find it useful in DOpus to set up a custom toolbar with my favorite paths, so I can easily shift DnD one or more files at a time to be automatically queued up in ExQueues with that folder as the destination. More info can be found in the DOpus manual, but here I have created a new toolbar by right clicking the toolbar area and choosing customize, and then adding and editing a button.

DOpus pix2

At some point I make look at trying to automate some of that setup with DDE calls to DOpus.

Documentation

Build Instructions

Additonal Documentation may be found here.

Support

For general support please refer to our forums.

Bugs

Please report bugs here.

Mailing lists

No mailing lists at this time.

Links

ExQueues Shell Queue: sourceforge project page.

par2cmdline (par2.exe): par2 command line utility needed since no DLL is available from QuickPar.

Bjarke Viksoe's WTL Widgets and Samples: Helpful widgets and examples used in this project .

WTL: The Windows Template Library Sourceforge page .

Windows Intaller XML: The Windows Installer XML Sourceforge page .

PugXML: The pugxml homepage.

Binary Packages



Last modified: Mon Jul 27 10:18:49 GMT 2005