25 replies to this topic

[DAT]

Links to Ver. 2.0.2 added - see post dated 02-11-2011 in this thread

Edit 02-01-2011: When I first tried to include the listing in Sept 2010 the website would not accept it and I thought perhaps there was a limit on how long a listing could be. However I just tried again and it was accepted without any problem. (It's also still available at ahk file). The program seems to be ok. I've used it daily for three months in XP and Vista without any issues.

Further edit: I spoke too soon. When I include the full listing, it all looks fine in Preview, but when I use Submit the posting that appears has a lot of the code missing. So looks as if there is a maximum code size limit. Anyone know what it is?

Edit 03-10-2012: The original illustrations and downloads for this thread were stored at autohotkey.net and are no longer accessible. As an alternative I've posted the following items at Google Docs. Download as required from here.

1. The latest version of the source script (v. 2.0.3 dated 02-10-2012).
2. The compiled exe file. Click on it to run the program. Delete it to remove it.
3. A complete Setup file. Click on it to install the program. Use Add-Remove to uninstall it. [Recommended].
4. Change record. File opens in Wordpad. (If you store it in the same folder as the exe file, the right-click option on the Tray icon will open it).
5. The three screen shots mentioned below. (They apply to v. 2.0.2 so don't show all the latest context options).

If you have the classic version of AutoHotkey installed, then just run the ahk file. If not, I'd recommend installing Show Recent Items by clicking on the downloaded Setup file. It should then run whether or not any version of AutoHotkey is installed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recent Items Filter and Browser - Version 2

This is a much enhanced version of the script that started life here. It gets me back to recently-used files or folders very quickly and it's the first place I look when I'm going back to previous work.

The format is minimalist but comprehensive and the search box allows search-as-you-type, with or without wild-cards, or you can elect to search with regular expressions. Here are three screen shots to illustrate a few aspects. The top two show Full mode, and the third shows Minimal mode with default settings.





Main Features:

• Fast response to search inputs allows ‘search-as-you-type’.
• Shows icons for all items in the list.
• Window now resizable by corner dragging.
• Search box accepts * and ? as wild cards, with option to use regular expressions.
• List View responds properly to scroll wheel.
• Now has a proper Menu Bar.
• Option to Select Folder allows use with other link-containing folders such as Favourites.
• Works even if the user selected the folder option ‘Hide extensions for known file types’.
• Status bar shows items found out of total available, status of filtering options, and allowed search formats.
• Two display modes, Minimal and Full, selectable from View menu. Each stores all program settings independently. By default Minimal mode has just a search box and the File Name column, but it’s all customisable.

Other Features:

• Non-working links marked by special icon (a red ‘x’) plus ‘!’ appended to file-type.
• New context option to copy path and filename to clipboard.
• Inapplicable context options, such as Explore for a url, are greyed out.
• Ignores duplicate links and shows only the most recent one.
• Can add links to Recent by dragging and dropping file(s), folder(s), or link(s) into the List View.
• Typing into the Search Box makes it go full-width, disabling and hiding all other filtering options.
• Can hide unwanted columns (View menu).
• Can now sort from the View menu, duplicating the effect of clicking on column headers.
• Tools menu item opens Recent folder in Explorer.
• Help menu now works from Tool Bar instead of Tray icon.
• Current hot key shown as reminder when mouse hovers on Tray icon.
• Now stores ini file in current user's application-specific data folder (A_AppData) to suit multi-user situations.

Behind the Scenes

The biggest change from the original version was making it work when the user has 'Hide extensions for known file types' switched on. With no extension visible in Recent I had to apply FileGetShortcut to every item, but this command is relatively slow and it could take a second or two to update the display when Recent contained hundreds of items. The solution was to get the data from Recent as a background activity and store it in a file (%ScriptName%.dat) in the same folder as the ini file. I used Shimanov's method to detect changes in the contents of the Recent folder and then trigger an update to the dat file. Spin-off advantages included very fast response time to typing in the search box, and chance to identify bad links and mark them with a special icon.

Another issue appeared when I made the window resizable by dragging. Whenever the List View was too small to show all the columns, it showed an unwanted horizontal scroll bar. I couldn't find any way to turn off scroll bars so ended up dynamically resizing the column widths to ensure there's never any hidden section.

The icons are more useful than I thought they would be and I now run it with the Type column hidden most of the time. But this forced me to add alternative access to column sorting and that's really why there's now a menu bar. Again this proved nicer to have than I expected so I moved most user options there instead of having them on the tray icon as before. ('Restore settings' remains there as a safety route back in case the gui ever becomes inaccessible).

I added the File/Select Folder option when I realised that effectively I'd made a browser for folders-that-contain-links. It struck me that the script could also have application for browsing folders such as Favourites as well. So I added the drop-and-drag function as well to make it easy to add new links manually.

How to Run It:

Minimum hassle method: Download the setup file to a new folder in My Received Files and then click on it. A standard installer window will appear. Follow the instructions and it will install the exe file and be ready to run. Use Add/Remove in the normal way to uninstall it.

If you have AutoHotkey installed: Download the ahk file into a convenient folder and click on it to run it.

If you don't have AutoHotkey installed and don't want to use the installer: Download the compiled exe file and click on it to run it.

In all cases, when it runs it will add ini and dat files to the folder C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\DATApps\Show Recent Items\ in XP or to C:\Users\<user name>\App Data\Roaming\DATApps\Show Recent Items\ in Vista. When it closes via Exit, the program deletes the dat file but leaves the ini file ready for next time.

The listing below contains a lot of preamble about modifications etc. I was going to delete them, but then I thought it might possibly be useful to somebody else besides me so I've left it in. Same applies to the lavish documentation. It's there because I tend to forget the details very quickly.

I think it's a pretty useful working program as it is, but no doubt more bugs will emerge in due course [but not so far - see 02-01-2011 edit at beginning of post] :-).

[Chicken Pie 4 Tea]

Thanks, going to download and try it out, looks very well done and much thought has gone into the layout. I love the filetypes boxes!
Edit:
hmm now that i try it... it doesnt show any files,
this may be because my system is odd. for instance I use an alternate shell "Talisman"
Where does it collect info from? Does it check the registry or just the "recentfolder" and where does it look for your recent folder?
I ask this because the NirSoft utility you mention does work on my system - but I know it checks the registry. Can I ask where in the registry your prog. checks. Then i can see if I have that key(s)
Oh I see my recent folder was called recent2 for some reason, so now it shows what is in there, which is only 20 links. It doesnt seem to be checking the registry. Nirsoft shows about 100 files

[DAT]

Thanks for trying it :-)

You're right that Show Recent Items (SRI) doesn't check in the registry yet. I plan to look into this now that I've got the main program working ok, but originally when I compared with what Nirsoft's app does on my main computer I didn't feel I was missing much by using only the contents of Recent.

As a comparison with your results, I just checked and here's what I find on my main computer:

SRI with *.* in the Search box finds 317/385 items. 21 out of the 317 are invalid links (red 'cross' icon). The difference between 385 and 317 is the number of duplicates (some of which are actually triplicates). Explorer shows there are 385 links in Recent, so SRI is definitely seeing all that are there. (You can Explore 'Recent' from SRI using Tools/Open 'Recent' Folder).

Nirsoft finds 367 in Recent. I don't know why it doesn't see all 385. Some of the ones it sees are duplicates and 22 of them are invalid links.

Nirsoft also finds 136 in the registry (of which 33 are invalid links). Many (but not all) of these are the same as ones in Recent.

Conclude:
1. SRI is reporting correctly on the contents of Recent.
2. Nirsoft is under-reporting the contents of Recent, but this may be connected with how it treats duplicates.
3. Looking in the registry as well is probably worth pursuing.

I'm surprised that you only have 20 links in Recent. Also it would be useful to know how many of the 100 links that Nirsoft finds in your registry are 'missing' links?

It might be an idea to try browsing using File/Select Folder in SRI to make sure you're not missing another Recent folder. I wonder why yours became Recent2?

Edit: I should have said that the observations above apply only to XP. I just found that the app Nirsoft doesn't collect any recent items from the registry in Vista. It does so only in XP.

[DAT]

I just tried again to add the listing to this post. Everything seems ok when I use Preview, but when I click Submit the posting that appears has a lot of the code missing. So looks as if there's some limit on the length of a post. Anyone know what the limit is?

[DAT]

I just tried again to add the listing to this post. Everything seems ok when I use Preview, but when I click Submit the posting that appears has a lot of the code missing. So looks as if there's some limit on the length of a post. Anyone know what the limit is?

Thank you for this ingenious work, I'm impatient to try it.
Is this link, your first link in your first post, the only one which gives the full .ahk script (on autohotkey.net)? :
(It's also still available at ahk file)

Thanks for your interest. Yes, until today the only location for the script was at the link in the first post. That was version 2.0 from 23-09-2010. I use the script daily on computers running XP and Vista and I find it's a real time-saver. I've also installed it on a 64-bit Windows 7 laptop, so now I know it installs and works nicely on Windows 7 as well.

Do let me know how you get on with it...

The current version of the script is 2.0.2 and you can download a full Setup program, a compiled version, or the actual ahk script from these three links:

ShowRecentItemsSetup v2.0.2.exe
Show Recent Items v.2.0.2.exe
Show Recent Items v.2.0.2.ahk

Three main changes since version 2.0 are:

02-06-2011 Renamed as ver 2.0.2
Added ability to delete invalid links on the display with one command.
Bugfix - now ignores links to objects on networked computers. This stops a long hang if the computer is no longer active on the network.

02-10-2010 Renamed as ver 2.0.1
Added 'Send to Dialog window' option, if available, to context menu for folders.
Stopped showing Edit and Print context options for folders.
Corrected 'Copy path and name' for urls.

01-10-2010
Altered Status Bar to also show number of duplicates.
Updated Help to explain the Status bar.
Added 'Gosub , Incl' after gui on first run so that any filtering is applied.

How to run the Script if you don't have Autohotkey installed:
1. Simplest is to use the installer version. Click on the Setup.exe link, accept the download and store it on the desktop (or anywhere you like). The file you get will be "ShowRecentItemsSetup v2.0.2.exe". Click on that and the usual sort of program installation windows will appear and guide you through the installation. To uninstall, first stop it running, then use Add/Remove Programs as with any other program.

2. Next easiest is to click on the exe link, accept the download and store it in a new folder somewhere. To run it, go to the folder and click on the file "Show Recent Items v.2.0.2.exe". To remove it just delete the folder and the exe file.

If you already have Autohotkey installed:
All you need is the ahk file. With Internet Explorer as browser, click on the ahk link and accept to download the file "Show Recent Items v.2.0.2.ahk" to a new folder. Then click on the file to run it. With Opera as browser, clicking the ahk link will display the script. To download and store the file use 'File/Save As'.

[xpclient]

Hey DAT, your Recent Documents manager script is SIMPLY BRILLIANT!! I was looking for something like this for so long. Especially for Windows XP, Vista. Windows 7 has jump lists which come close but still they don't have the powerful filtering, nor sorting nor per extension customization. This is what I was always looking for since Windows 95 to manage recent docs. Yes jump lists are good enough for simplicity lovers but for someone looking for more powerful functionality, this perfectly fits the bill. My only suggestion is to make the GUI more descriptive: "Clear" instead of C, "Weeks" instead Wks, radio buttons should be called "Show" and "Hide". -- should be called "Folders". I did that and now I have the best Recent Docs Manager Microsoft would have never built.

May I request/suggest some improvements:
1. The "Delete dead links" function should have a "Yes to all" button.
2. An option to save the defaults once and then not save settings of the last state on exit.
3. Option to not automatically hide it after opening one document. I may want to open multiple documents. Or select multiple files using the mouse and then do some context menu action.
4. Should compile on the Unicode modern versions of AutoHotkey.
5. Load only in the tray when it first starts so I can put it at Windows startup
6. Can it show a taskbar button when the window is showing and have a minimize button so it can be temporarily minimized to the taskbar?
7. Full button names in non-minimal mode.

[DAT]

Hi xpclient,
Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you find it useful. I use it many times a day because it's usually the quickest way to get back to what I've been working on. Specific Comments:

May I request/suggest some improvements:
1. The "Delete dead links" function should have a "Yes to all" button.
2. An option to save the defaults once and then not save settings of the last state on exit.
3. Option to not automatically hide it after opening one document. I may want to open multiple documents. Or select multiple files using the mouse and then do some context menu action.
4. Should compile on the Unicode modern versions of AutoHotkey.
5. Load only in the tray when it first starts so I can put it at Windows startup
6. Can it show a taskbar button when the window is showing and have a minimize button so it can be temporarily minimized to the taskbar?
7. Full button names in non-minimal mode.

Point 1: Agreed. With hindsight, deleting them all at once would be better than one at a time. In practice though I hardly ever bother deleting invalid links. (Not sure if Windows weeds out invalid links eventually anyway).
Point 2: I prefer it as is, but easy enough to customize.
Points 3 & 6: I considered this, but clicking Alt-x soon becomes second nature and the window appears instantly, so I felt it was better to keep it simple.
Point 4: Hmmm... don't know enough about Unicode to know why I'd need/want to do this. How important is it?
Point 5: Agreed. It was useful like that when I was testing it. But using Standby or Hibernate, reboots are rare, so not much of an issue.
Point 7: I used abbreviations to keep the window as narrow as possible to leave plenty of room for various file types.

Thanks for the suggestions. If a demand for it emerges I'll do an update, but meanwhile it's pretty easy to customize and doing so makes a useful ahk exercise

[xpclient]

#4 is very low priority but AutoHotkey versions can't co-exist so I have to keep the older version installed (which also means no native x64 compiled EXEs).

[DAT]

#4 is very low priority but AutoHotkey versions can't co-exist so I have to keep the older version installed (which also means no native x64 compiled EXEs).

Could you not compile the ahk to an exe file (or use the one that I posted) and then run that as an independent program? I think it should then be independent of whatever version of AutoHotkey you have installed.

[xpclient]

Hey I forgot the most important feature request. Pinning! It would be so awesome if I can pin a recent document (like the Windows 7 taskbar allows) so even if I clear the history, it always remains until I unpin it.

[DAT]

Hey I forgot the most important feature request. Pinning! It would be so awesome if I can pin a recent document (like the Windows 7 taskbar allows) so even if I clear the history, it always remains until I unpin it.

Thanks for the idea. I'll consider it if I do a next version... On the other hand why would you want to clear the history manually? The selection options let you narrow down what you're looking for almost instantly, so isn't that enough? Items seem to stay in Recent Items for long periods. I just checked and some of mine (in XP) have Accessed dates up to 27 months ago.

By the way, did you realise that you can add a file to Recent Items by dragging and dropping it into the window?

[Binocular222]

The link to download is dead, can anyone fix it?

[DAT]

The link to download is dead, can anyone fix it?

It's because autohotkey.net has been put out of action. See for example http://www.autohotke...php?f=5&t=89124 and http://www.autohotke...pic.php?t=89243. I'll try to make the files accessible again when things settle down.

[Binocular222]

The website has been down for months. I don't expect to see it soon.
Can you attach directly here or upload to another file sharing (i.e Mediafre)?