Mine does not require the use of a command window at any stage so no need to open one in whatever way you have configured that, which you don't seem to have sorted to do by a simple icon click in the task bar.

Nor does it require the actions to obtain the File Explorer full path in the clipboard, opening the command window, typing cd [space] then right-clicking in it and pasting the url, then clicking Return to action the cd, then clicking in the command window again and highlighting the full or selected contents of it then clicking again to copy the contents to the clipboard then opening the target text editor then pasting from the clipboard into it .

Mine is navigate in File Explorer to wherever the batch file is stored, which should be as high in the structure as possible, copy it to clipboard, navigate to the target directory, (which we both need to do), paste, click on the batch file. Finished.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 06-Jun-17 09:37:58)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

requires no copying of Batch files around.

A requirement to copy batch files is suboptimal. It won't work in the case that the user does not have write access to the folder being listed. And it includes a spurious file in the listing, so is not accurate. A good solution should cover as many cases as possible; of course there is the case of a directory that the user doesn't have read access to. In that circumstance no method will - or should - work.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Mine does not require the use of a command window at any stage

What is a Batch file but a command window masquerading as a file!

That's rubbish. It's an executable as is an .exe. You may as well say that exes all run in a command window!

Plus, this morning I tried your suggestion of the highlighting in File Explorer then picking up the URL from the Home Menu and pasting that into a command window. The output was dreadful. My File Explorer view is "Detail" and my method produced exactly that.

The result from your method was a double-spaced list of the full path of each entry with no further information. I very much doubt that the OP would find that much use. Though "doubt" obviously implies an assumption.

Why are people insisting on repeatedly arguing with me and raising other objections to my method? I don't believe they have tried it. I'm certain you haven't otherwise you would not have made this post.

Note I didn't post earlier about having tried your method and found it sadly lacking. I decided it was better just to let the OP decide. Several methods are out there. We don't need to have flame wars or arguments.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 06-Jun-17 13:45:25)

Correct.

A batch file is just a text file, not a Windows PE executable. When Windows sees the .bat extension it loads the command processor (cmd.exe) and runs the commands in the batch file as if they had been typed in.

This is very different from the way that a PE executable is loaded and run.

The "Home" method is not my method. It is @TinyMongomery's method and I can't see you are even following that. There is no picking up of a URL & pasting it to CMD.

You're the only 1 arguing. This is a forum. The idea is to bring diff minds & approaches to bear on the same problem. We've had 6 responders here & had 6 diff valid ideas. As a forum it is working! It is up to the OP to decide use them or discard them or combine parts of them. None of us can say which fits the OP's bill best.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 06-Jun-17 15:54:14)

Given "What is a Batch file but a command window masquerading as a file!", you are agreeing that a batch file is not a file. It is a window. You use strange versions of English at times.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Please stop this irritating habit of putting words into other people's mouths and then insulting them because of something that you, not they said.

I did not mention Windows PE executables. Do you have to continue your long-standing trolling against me in the technical forums?

Try this:

A batch file is a kind of script file in DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. It consists of a series of commands to be executed by the command-line interpreter, stored in a plain text file. A batch file may contain any command the interpreter accepts interactively and use constructs that enable conditional branching and looping within the batch file, such as "if", "for", "goto" and labels. The term "batch" is from batch processing, meaning "non-interactive execution", though a batch file may not process a batch of multiple data.

Similar to Job Control Language (JCL) and other systems on mainframe and minicomputer systems, batch files were added to ease the work required for certain regular tasks by allowing the user to set up a script to automate them. When a batch file is run, the shell program (usually COMMAND.COM or cmd.exe) reads the file and executes its commands, normally line-by-line.

That is the broader definition of an executable file, that has been around since before MSDOS was created, never mind Windows.

It is also the reason all Internet Security systems vet them as executables, because by definition they cause specific code to be executed.

Your version would mean that non-compiled Basic would not be called a program, because it has to be fed by the OS to a Basic interpreter. In the same way as Windows feeds a batch file to its own built-in interpreter.

[Edit]

Unlike Windows 98 and earlier, the Windows NT family of operating systems does not depend on MS-DOS. Windows NT introduced an enhanced 32-bit command interpreter (cmd.exe) that could execute scripts with either the .CMD or .BAT extension.

[/Edit]

Leave it and let the OP decide on which method he wishes to use. There is no good reason for any of these attacks on me or my method. I maintain mine is the best, but accept that the propounders of other methods prefer theirs.

Just cool it, the two of you .

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 06-Jun-17 16:13:08)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

None of us can say which fits the OP's bill best.

+1

The navigation is the fiddly bit; I don't know if this will work in Windows, but it works on a Mac.

Using Finder (Windows Explorer) navigate to the parent folder of the one you want to list. Open a command window, type cd followed by a space and a double quote ("), drag the target directory from the Explorer window to the command window (it puts the full path to that folder on the command line). Type another double quote and hit Enter. The double quotes take care of any spaces in the folder names.

Then Dir > filelist.txt or whatever turns you on

Edited by billford (Tue 06-Jun-17 23:22:58)

In Windows you can Open a command or Powershell window directly from Explorer already at the level of of folder you are already positioned at in Explorer. No dragging path needed!

I have already suggested this approach.