Miscellaneous Software

This is a place for some of the smaller Windows programs I've writen which you may find useful, and may not. They are all free and include C++ source. Larger programs have their own, separate pages.

Use this stuff at your own risk and remember that these are quick hacks so don't expect much.

• auto m3u
• UniqueNames
• DirFlatten
• LoadString
• ListPFRO
• OpenContainer
• ScreenSave
• SetClip
• WaitDel

auto m3u 1.0.0.4

autom3u1004.zip (49k) (PGP Sig)

Within the "current" directory, autom3u will scan sub-directories for files. (It does NOT scan recursively.) Any directories which have "music files" but no .m3u file will have a simple .m3u generated inside of them. This .m3u file will be named the same as the directory and will contain a sorted list of found music files. A shortcut to the .m3u file will be made in the "current" directory.

The program considers these extensions to be "music files":

• .mp3
• .ogg
• .flac
• .wma
• .aac
• .mp4
• .shn
• .mp2

Easier than making playlists and shortcuts by hand after ripping a load of CDs. It does exactly what I needed but not much more so let me know if there's any minor changes that would make it more useful to you.

UniqueNames 1.0.0.1

UniqueNames.zip (36k) (PGP Sig)

UniqueNames will scan a directory hierarchy and ensure that all filenames within it are unique. If this isn't the case then clashing files will be renamed by adding "_x" to their end (before the extension if there is one) where x is a number. It's a bit like DirFlatten, below, except that it keeps the directory hierarchy and renames things differently.

DirFlatten 1.0.0.1

DirFlatten1001.zip (51k) (PGP Sig)

DirFlatten will recurse through a directory structure and move all files to the initial directory, renaming them in a way which means they will not clash with each other. This is something I hacked together so that I could use wget to mirror bits of web sites and then not have to sift through directory hierarchies.

Example:

LoadString 1.0.0.1 (Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista only)

LoadString1001.zip (46k) (PGP Sig)

LoadString.exe will print a string resource from a DLL file.

For example, if you see something like @%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-9227 in the registry and want to know what that string actually is you can use this tool to find out. Strings like that are common in the registry on Windows Vista, due to the way localisation works, which can make things difficult when you are trying to diagnose what's in the registry.

Usage:
 LoadString.exe <path to dll> <resource id>

Examples:
 > LoadString.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll -9227
 String resource = "Documents"

 > LoadString.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll -30598
 String resource = "PNG Image"

ListPFRO 1.0.0.2 (Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista only)

ListPFRO1002.zip (25k) (PGP Sig)

ListPFRO will list the pending file rename operations, showing you which files will be moved or deleted during the next reboot. Win9x users can get similar information by looking in WININIT.INI in the Windows directory but NT-based operating systems store this in a registry value which you can't read properly with pre-XP RegEdit.

Normally you should run ListPFRO with no arguments to see details of pending moves and deletes. You can also add the "terse" argument,

ListPFRO terse

OpenContainer (By Jonathan Potter)

opencont.zip (14k) (PGP Sig)

Command-line program which, when given a .lnk (shortcut) file, will open the parent directory of the pointed-to file.

I used to use this on an Opus filetype context menu so that I could jump to the file a shortcut points to:

(Unlike the other things on this page, I didn't write this. Jon made it a while ago and I find it useful and figure other people may too, so here it is.)

This functionality is now built-in to Opus (8.0.3.2) which also allows things like "Go NEWTAB=nofocus OPENCONTAINER=target" to open the containers of all selected shortcuts into new tabs.

ScreenSave 1.1.0.0

ScreenSave1100.zip (64k) (PGP Sig)

Command-line program which can immediately start the screen saver or put your monitors into a low-power or power-off state. I've put this on an Opus toolbar button for when I go out or go to bed. The delay arguments mean I can use the light from my monitors to see my way into bed before they switch off a few seconds later to allow me sleep.

Usage: ScreenSave [/delay [number of seconds]] [/screensaver] [/lowpower] [/poweroff]

/delay defaults to 10 seconds if no number given.

For example,

ScreenSave /delay 3 /poweroff

If you want to turn your monitors off and have the screen locked when you turn them back on then, assuming your screensaver is set to lock the screen, you should run something like this:

ScreenSave /screensaver /poweroff

You can add /delay arguments between the other arguments. For example, to wait 3 seconds, show the screensaver, then wait another 10 seconds before finally turning off the screen:

ScreenSave /delay 3 /screensaver /delay 10 /poweroff

New in version 1.1.0.0: No longer sends broadcast messages to all windows since this is a bad thing to do. Instead it creates its own window and sends messages to that. Also tested under Vista.

SetClip 1.2.0.1

SetClip1201.zip (59k) (PGP Sig)

Command-line program which puts either a file or whatever arguments you give it into the clipboard.

Usage 1: SetClip [-l] [-a] [--] <arg1> <arg2> ...

The arguments will be put in the clipboard with each one on a new line.
Use quotes around arguments containing spaces that you want on the same line.
Use "" for a blank line.
Give the -l argument to output everything on one line instead.
Give the -a argument to append to any existing clipboard text.
Give the -- argument if you want to actually put "-l", "-f", "-e", "-a" or "--" into the clipboard.

Usage 2: SetClip -f [-l] [-a] [--] <filename>

The file will be read and put into the clipboard as text.
Give the -l argument to avoid adding a return when appending to existing text.
Give the -a argument to append to any existing clipboard text.

Usage 3: SetClip -e

The clipboard will be emptied.

If you use SetClip within Directory Opus functions to copy directory paths then you may find you have to add the "noterm" argument to stop Opus from adding a trailing slash to the end of the path. If a path is quoted and ends in a slash it seems to confuse SetClip's command-line parsing. This behaviour is not Opus-specific but a "feature" of either the Microsoft C-runtime used by SetClip or the parsing in the Windows cmd.exe.

If you're using SetClip outside of Opus and actually need a slash at the end then you have to double it up for some reason, if it's before a quote.

Command-Line Result SetClip.exe Moo\Cow\ Moo\Cow\ SetClip.exe "Moo\Cow" Moo\Cow SetClip.exe "Moo\Cow\" Moo\Cow" SetClip.exe "Moo\Cow\\" Moo\Cow\

Note 1: The "noterm" option was added in Opus 8.0.1.0 and won't work in earlier versions.

Note 2: Directory Opus 9 added a new, built-in Clipboard SET command which makes SetClip.exe largely obsolete. SetClip is still useful for a few things (changing the clipboard from outside of Opus; putting files (rather than command-line arguments) into the clipboard; splitting the clipboard text into multiple lines; emptying the clipboard) but for the majority of cases the built-in Clipboard SET command handles the job without the need for an extra exe.

Example Directory Opus button (or hotkey) which copies the contents of the selected files to the clipboard:

@runmode hide
"C:\Windows\System32\SetClip.exe" -e
"C:\Windows\System32\SetClip.exe" -f -a {filepath$}

Here's the Opus button in XML format so that you can paste it straight from your browser to your Opus toolbar, as described in detail at the Opus forums:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button display="both">
	<label>Contents to Clipboard</label>
	<tip>Copies the contents of the selected text files to the clipboard</tip>
	<icon1>#clipcopy</icon1>
	<function type="batch">
		<instruction>@runmode hide</instruction>
		<instruction>&quot;C:\Windows\System32\SetClip.exe&quot; -e</instruction>
		<instruction>&quot;C:\Windows\System32\SetClip.exe&quot; -f -a {filepath$}</instruction>
	</function>
</button>

Both versions of the button assume that SetClip.exe is in C:\Windows\System32; if it isn't then you should make the obvious edits.

WaitDel 1.0.0.1

WaitDel1001.zip (29k) (PGP Sig)

Command-line program which waits a given amount of time for a list of files to appear in a directory, deleting each file as it appears (or immediately if it's there from the start).

I wrote this simple program because every time I logged on to my work computer a load of unwanted shortcut icons are dumped on my desktop. I made a batch file which runs WaitDel on startup so that the files are deleted once they appear.

Usage:

WaitDel <directory> <wait seconds> <filename> [filename...]

Example:

WaitDel "C:\Documents and Settings\LeoD\Desktop" 15 "Acrobat Distiller 5.0.LNK" "Lotus Notes 6.5.LNK" "Microsoft Access.LNK"