setting to see a description of what it's for. Type in the search box to find a setting by name.

Every setting has a default value. The default value can be constant, or it may depend on the
current system settings. Once you edit a setting it becomes "modified" and is shown in bold. To
revert to the default value, right-click on the setting.

You can save the settings to an XML file, and later load them back. Press the Backup button to
access these functions. From there you can also reset all settings to their default value.

Press OK to store your settings. Most of the settings will be applied the next time you open a new
Explorer window. Small number of settings will require a log off before you can see the change.

Note: All Settings windows are resizable. Resize them and place them where you want them to
be. They will remember the new position.

Here's one example of what can be customized:

Click on the Toolbar Buttons tab to customize the toolbar:

The column on the left shows the current buttons in the toolbar, and the column on the right lists
the buttons you can add to the toolbar. You can drag and drop buttons from the right column to
the left. You can rearrange the buttons by dragging them up and down. If you drop one button
inside another you will create a sub-menu.
Hover over each button to see a short description of what it does. Right-click on each button to
access more functions (like Delete, Rename, etc). From the right-click menu you can also reset
the toolbar to the original state.
Each item in the left column must have a unique name. This is the identifier of the item and can
only contain English letters, digits and underscore. Some items (like SEPARATOR) cannot be
renamed.

Important Note: Not all available commands have default icons or text. That's because Windows
doesn't have icons for things like Undo, Select All, etc. If you want to use such buttons in your
toolbar you will have to provide your own icon. See below how to do it.

After you place a button in the toolbar, you can edit it's attributes. Double-click on the button to
edit:

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Here you can select a command for the button, its text and icon. Press the Restore Defaults
button to get the default text and icon for the chosen command.
The command can be:

l left blank - then if the link attribute is used, it will act as a command
l one of the predefined commands - from the dropdown
l open <some folder> - this will open the folder in the current browser
l sortby <property> - this will sort the folder by the given property - name, type, size or
date. Use '-' in front of the property to sort in descending order: "sortby -name". You can
use other properties if you know their code. For example "sortby {B725F130-47EF-101A-
A5F1-02608C9EEBAC}, 10" is the same as "sortby name". For more property codes refer
to the file propkey.h in the Windows SDK (also found here - scroll down to the "Full property
table"). Not all property codes are valid or supported (for example the album year property
{56A3372E-CE9C-11D2-9F0E-006097C686F6}, 5 only works when showing music albums)
l groupby <property> - similar to sortby, but groups the files by a given property. Use the
command groupby with no property to disable the grouping
l custom executable string - this can be a name of a program and its arguments, or even a
URL (like http://www.google.com). You can use environment variables like %
SystemRoot%. You can also use the placeholders %1, %2, %3, %4 and %5:
¡ %1 is the path of the current folder. Keep in mind that if the current folder is a root of a
drive it will end with a backslash (like C:\)
¡ %2 is the path of the selected file (only when a single file is selected)
¡ %3 is a name of a temporary text file that contains all selected files. Each line in the
text file contains one file with its full path
¡ %4 is the same as %3, but the file is in Unicode (UTF16) format. The file contains no
byte order mark. %3 and %4 can't both be used by the same command
¡ Note to developers: When %3 or %4 is used, it is the responsibility of the command
to delete the temporary file when it finishes. Otherwise the temp file will be left behind
and waste disk space. Also if the command is a console application or a batch file it
will be launched in silent mode with no console window
¡ %5 is a name of a temporary text file, which can be used to return a command back to
Classic Explorer. If the first 2 bytes of the file are 255 and 254, the file is treated as
Unicode. Only one command can be used at a time. The command can be:
n open <folder name> - causes Explorer to navigate to the given folder
n select <list of file names> - selects the given files, deselects the rest. The file
names must be separated by a tab or a newline character. The files should not
contain a path. If they do, the path will be ignored
n refresh - refreshes Explorer
¡ Note to developers: commands using %5 will run in silent mode (like commands
using %3 or %4) but also Explorer will wait for the process to finish. The process must
finish as quickly as possible, because Explorer will be frozen during the execution of
the command
¡ See the next section for a few examples how to use these parameters

The link can be a path to a file or a folder. If it is a file, that file will be executed. If it is a folder, that
folder will be opened as a sub-menu (only for top-level buttons).

The icon can be:

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 l left blank - then if the link attribute points to a file or a folder, the icon of that file or folder will
be used
l resource file,icon ID - for example %windir%\notepad.exe,2. Do not leave space between
the file name and the comma. Make sure you are using the icon's resource ID, and not
the icon's index. For best results use the [...] button next to the icon box
l ,icon ID - same as above, but the resource file is the ClassicExplorer.dll itself. This is
useful when referring to Classic Explorer's own icons
l icon file - for example C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\Email.ico
l none - this will use a blank icon

If the label or the tip attribute start with $ (dollar sign), then the system will treat it as a name of a
string in the ExplorerL10N.ini file. The actual text will depend on the current language setting.
This is useful when creating a toolbar that can be used by multiple languages.

Note to developers: Buttons for custom commands can be checked or disabled. The toolbar
checks the registry key HKCU\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicExplorer for a DWORD value with the
name of the button (the name used in left column). 0 means normal, 1 is disabled and 2 is
checked. The toolbar reads the registry keys on startup. To force the buttons to update their state
after that you need to find all Explorer windows, locate the child window with class
ClassicShell.CBandWindow, and post a message WM_CLEAR. This is useful if you are
developing a custom exe to be used by the toolbar.

Examples for Custom Commands

In order to support paths that contain spaces, you should use quotes around the path parameters.
The quotes are not always required, like in examples 1 and 2 below. Make sure you test your
commands with paths containing spaces to avoid surprises.

1) Print the current folder

Use this command: cmd.exe /k echo %1. %1 will be replaced by the path of the current folder.

2) Open the selected file in Notepad

Use this command: %SystemRoot%\notepad.exe %2. %2 will be replaced by the full name of
the selected file. It doesn't need to be in quotes because Notepad uses the whole command line
as a file name.

3) Copy selected files to the parent folder

Create a batch file called C:\CopyParent.bat:

Use this command: C:\CopyParent.bat "%3". %3 will be replaced by a text file containing the full
names of all selected files. The batch file will read each line of that text file, and copy each of the
selected files to the parent folder. At the end the batch file deletes the initial temp file. The first two
set commands remove the quotes from the %1 parameter.

4) Select all text files

Create a batch file called C:\SelectText.bat:

Use this command: C:\SelectText.bat "%5". %5 will be replaced by a blank text file, where the
command must output the word "select" and a list of files it wants to select. The "dir *.txt /b"
command provides that list.

Administrative Settings

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