Q-Dir (File Manager)

Submit portable freeware that you find here. It helps if you include information like description, extraction instruction, Unicode support, whether it writes to the registry, and so on.
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Island Boy
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Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:56 pm

Q-Dir (File Manager)

#1 Post by Island Boy »

size = 373KB

Publisher's Description


Q-Dir makes your files and folders easy to manage. Fast and easy access, with an amazing Quadro-View technique. You don´t have to renounce the usual, Drag and Drop, all Views, and other functions of your system. No! Q-Dir gives you other nice functions, that make you happy. One can save many hand moves and also time!

Q-Dir does not have to be installed and can be executed easily from the desktop. Rename Q-Dir_Installer.exe to Q-Dir.exe and GO.
It´s a small famous utility for Windows PC-s and also an USB-stick friend :).

Features:
Favorites: - Quick access to most often used folders.
Drag&Drop: - Move files by dragging in Q-views, and other programs such as MS Explorer.
Clipboard: - Copy/ Paste between the Q-Dir directory views, and other programs such as MS Explorer.
Folder-Type: - ZIP-, FTP-,cabinet-,network-, system - folders, shortcuts ...
Views: - Large icons, tiles, list, detail, thumbnail (Vista: extra large symbols) .
Export: - to XLS, CSV, TXT, HTML.
Popup Menus: - Desktop, My Computer.
Screen magnifier: - anything on the screen can be enlarged.
Color Filter: - Different colors for different item types (e.g. *.log;*.txt).
Highlight-Filter: - Effective way for fast items highlighting.
File-Filter: - Allows for quick and easy filtering of the items.
Columns: - All columns support, and save function .
Quick-Link´s: - For fast folder access.
Folder-Select: - Fast & flexible folder selection address-bar/ desktop menu/ my-computer menu/...
Multi-INI: - Several INI files for Q-Dir.
Tree-View: - Simple and quadruple.
Preview: - Allows a quick preview.
Portable: - from 2.77 is Q-Dir portable.

What´s New in version 2.99
English translation.
View transferor right mouse button on the Q-Icon.
Quick Links folder problem resolved
Portable Install corrections.
ALT + LEFT / RIGHT = Back / Forward navigation.
The marker filter can be used as file filter
Unicode version: support of Asian, Arabic, Hebrew, ... Writings.
Speed and other optimization;).

http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Softwa ... ge=english
http://www.softwareok.com/Download/Q-Dir_Installer.zip

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joby_toss
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#2 Post by joby_toss »

How is this portable since it saves all the settings to Application Data/Q-Dir folder ? Is there a workaround or something ?
And yeah, the application has great potential, thanks.

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Queue
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#3 Post by Queue »

It's pretty freaking swanky, but certainly not stealth, at least not when run from my desktop.

It writes its settings to the registry at:
HKCU\Software\SoftwareOK.de\Q-Dir
HKCR\.qdr
HKCR\qdirdoc

It also writes a file to the Application Data folder:
%APPDATA%\Q-Dir\start.qdr

And it writes to the Windows folder:
C:\Windows\Q-Dir.ini

Is there some trick to making it write to a local config file?

Queue

Onesimus Prime
Posts: 133
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 8:42 pm

local config file...

#4 Post by Onesimus Prime »

I tested it out in Sandboxie - if you make a blank "Q-Dir.ini" file in the directory, it will actually say "%UserName% (Portable)" on the bottom of its window and make local copies of the two files Queue mentioned. However, it does seem to still write to the registry, as he stated.
I tried copying some of the stuff from the registry (lizenz=1 and lng=1) to the first few lines of the .ini, but to no avail. It's sure not as easy as "Rename Q-Dir_Installer.exe to Q-Dir.exe and GO", as the program author claims! But I hope this program can become completely portable...

Slightly off-topic, Queue, what method of testing do you use while still protecting your system? Virtual Machine/RegShot combo, Sandboxie, something else?
Thanks!

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fenixproductions
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#5 Post by fenixproductions »

Not stealth for sure.
In my machine it writes unwanted things to the registry only. The rest settings are stored in Q-Dir.ini file located in application's directory. Important thing to do is to check "Portable mode" during installation.

Onesimus Prime
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installation?

#6 Post by Onesimus Prime »

Wow - fenixproductions, interesting discovery! The .EXE behaves differently, depending entirely on what it's called. I didn't get an "installer" before!

OK, it works slightly better with the installer. The internal layout of the .INI is much different when it's done this way, and it remembers the license agreement inside the .INI, which it didn't before. I had to switch the language after it was installed, for some reason. That didn't show up in the same registry key as before, but I didn't see it in the two local files either. Don't know where the language setting is saved then.
So it looks like it makes the same 3 registry keys, but is slightly more .INI friendly, when you actually "install" it instead of just renaming the file...

Oh, and it also makes a folder in the app directory called "Favoriten" when "installed," which has a sub-directory "Quick-Link." These paths are in the .ini file, so I'm guessing you could probably change it to "Favorites" or whatever else?

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Queue
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Re: local config file...

#7 Post by Queue »

Guess I'll try the install procedure on this one; seems worth a second chance.
Onesimus Prime wrote:Slightly off-topic, Queue, what method of testing do you use while still protecting your system? Virtual Machine/RegShot combo, Sandboxie, something else?
Thanks!
Protect my system, heh heh... It depends on the software I'm testing. For software I'm convinced is legit, sometimes I open Process Monitor and just let the program rip; I just undo any file system/registry changes manually. Occasionally I'll run Regshot as well if I want a clearer view of what's changed.

I'm not worried about registry entries, copied files or registered DLLs, those can all be undone. I'm only worried about software with a malware payload or that heavily modify (usually replace) system files.

For anything I'm worried about I'll either use a virtual machine or boot from a CD. Typically though, I simply avoid malicious software.

---

Edit:
This is all basically mirroring what Onesimus Prime posted above; just posting my results as well to show things match up.

Well, installing with the portable checkbox checked resolved the file system problems but not the registry problems.

Q-Dir.ini is now located alongside Q-Dir.exe (instead of in the Windows folder) and has relative path settings by default (I changed both to .\ to keep things all in one folder rather than using subfolders). The file start.qdr is now located alongside Q-Dir.exe (instead of in %APPDATA%\Q-Dir) thanks to the relative path in Q-Dir.ini.

HKCU\Software\SoftwareOK.de\Q-Dir
HKCR\.qdr
HKCR\qdirdoc
are all still created.

So, a simple registry wrapper should be able to handle that.

My thoughts? I'm gonna pass on this one for now; it's got the size (372 KB) and functionality I want but it's too hard on the registry for the slim explorer alternative I seek. It automatically associates itself with an extension (.qdr) and saves 2 trivial registry entries (license acceptance and language selection? why couldn't those go in Q-Dir.ini?). If those two things change in a future version (it saves ALL settings to Q-Dir.ini) and it doesn't automatically register a file extension, I'll pick it up.

Queue

nutellajunkie
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#8 Post by nutellajunkie »

New in 2.99 / 04/07/2008

1. English translation.
2. View transferor right mouse button on the Q-Icon.
3. Quick Links folder problem resolved
4. Portable Install corrections.
5. ALT + LEFT / RIGHT = Back / Forward navigation.
6. The marker filter can be used as file filter
7. Unicode version: support of Asian, Arabic, Hebrew, ... Writings.
8. Speed and other optimization;).

Onesimus Prime
Posts: 133
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 8:42 pm

#9 Post by Onesimus Prime »

I wonder what was corrected for the portable install? It still writes to the same places in the registry...Actually, I may have tried the corrected one the first time even; I'm not sure how its time of posting relates to when I downloaded it.

Figured out the language setting: instead of lng (the registry key), the .INI has "m_lang_id=1" under its [Start] section (1 for English, 0 for German).

Alright, laters!

Island Boy
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:56 pm

What´s New in version 3.03

#10 Post by Island Boy »

What´s New in version 3.03

File filters corrections.
Color filter correction .
Marking filter corrections.
Tree-view corrections.
The view-settings will be saved in the INI. For portable also everything else.
Q-Dir is 100% portable.

Optimization and fine-tuning;).

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Queue
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#11 Post by Queue »

Woohoo, this'll get a look later today. Thanks for the update!

Queue

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Queue
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#12 Post by Queue »

Looking good. I used the installer and did a ''portable install.''

I then tweaked the Q-Dir.ini file so that the folder names pointed to .\ (I don't like subfolders).

I then ran Q-Dir and set things up.

I then opened the newly created start.qdr file and emptied it out then saved and set it to read-only.

I then cleared window position settings out of Q-Dir.ini, saved, and set it to read-only.

No registry writes are happening, no automatic file association, and Q-Dir isn't choking on the read-only config files. Hurray!

Queue

Island Boy
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:56 pm

Q-Dir 3.05

#13 Post by Island Boy »

What´s New in version 3.05
Corrections: Popup-Menue, Tree-View scan for subfolder,Color-Filter

ashghost
Posts: 384
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:55 pm
Location: South Carolina

* Q-Dir 3.43

#14 Post by ashghost »

TPFC (3.33): http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1431
Homepage: http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freewa ... ge=english
Direct downloads
Unicode: http://www.softwareok.com/Download/Q-Di ... nicode.zip
ANSI: http://www.softwareok.com/Download/Q-Dir_Installer.zip

Changes in 3.43 since 3.33
Corrections:
Tree View
Popup Tree View
Drag&Drop
Quick-Links
Color import from file
Addressbar select the item over [F4] key and [Enter] key!

New R-Mouse click:
Move selected to [Cut]
Copy selected to [Paste]

New:
changing background color and 11 color themes.
Optional navigation click sound.
Translations tool for Q-Dir (Beta).
When reinstalling the directories for Favorites and Quick-Link's will be automatically created.

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Cornflower
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Location: Canada's capital

Q-Dir v3.47

#15 Post by Cornflower »

Updated twice since last TPFC listing (permalink http://portablefreeware.com/?id=1431)

Q-Dir is a 4-pane windows explorer-like utility (I have not tried it as a shell) with portable install.


The main updates since 3.43 are:
-Keyboard shortchuts for moving between windows
-Autocomplete for file filtering
- other small fixes

Home Page
http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Softwa ... ge=english

Download:
ANSI:
http://www.softwareok.com/Download/Q-Dir_Installer.zip
Unicode:
http://www.softwareok.com/Download/Q-Di ... nicode.zip

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