Explorer Listings

Is there an easy way to take file list in Windows Explorer straight into text or document file? For both Win10 and WinXP.

I can do it using a command (CMD) window with Dir > filelist.txt but navigating up and down, especially with long directory names, can be a pain.

At the command prompt, navigate to the required directory itself using the cd command. Then do your dir > filelist.txt

filelist.txt is created in that directory.

How you get there using cd if something in the path has a space in its name off-hand I don't know.

Or is the problem getting down to the required directory using cd?

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 05-Jun-17 13:21:34)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

How you get there using cd if something in the path has a space in its name off-hand I don't know.

Or is the problem getting down to the required directory using cd?

Spaces are normally fine however the problem navigating to a directory several levels down where the final directory name can be a series of pseudo random characters potentially 40, 50 or 60 characters long and occasionally non-standard characters such as � could appear.. Copy and paste can work but not with all non-standard characters, but I was hoping for a nice way in Explorer.





That is the problem ... spaces a

In Windows 10 explorer under the File menu there appears to be an option to open a command prompt - does that allow you to open it from the current folder (that way you can navigate through windows to the folder and then use the command prompt from there to run the dir command)?

The only way I know to do this without using the command prompt is:

1. Select All (either from the Home menu) or with Ctrl-A.
2. Copy Path (from Home menu).
3. Paste the clipboard into a Notepad document.

This works for Windows 10. I can't help you with XP as I haven't used that for years.

PS. It appears that you can also get the "Copy Path" option in a context menu by shift-right-clicking on the Explorer pane. That's slightly easire than the "Home" menu option.

Edited by TinyMongomery (Mon 05-Jun-17 13:52:01)

The problem with using the command prompt is when there are names with spaces. The method that I outlined puts quote marks round the file names, which accounts for that problem. It also gives the full path, including drive letter,so the names are usable from wherever you are in the directory tree.

Maybe not what you are looking for; however, you could open the folder in Firefox, then copy and paste the details into excel (it will paste as a table) then copy the information you need. It will not show you the details of files in a sub folder (only the sub folder name) and these folders would need to opened individually.

Can't see any way but don't forget to do 'dir /a' to see all files.

In a text editor paste

dir >C:\WINDOWS\Temp\file_list.txt
start notepad C:\WINDOWS\Temp\file_list.txt

Save it somewhere as plain text as filelist.bat (Or whatever name you choose as long as the extension is .bat)

In Windows Explorer copy or move the bat file to the required directory/folder and click on it. It will open notepad with a full listing. Which you can then save or play with.

There are options you can play with. For instance

dir /a /b /-p /o:gen >C:\WINDOWS\Temp\file_list.txt
start notepad C:\WINDOWS\Temp\file_list.txt

gives a simple list of names.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 05-Jun-17 14:05:37)

Was looking for the option you mention but didn't notice it on my machine (was because it was using the baby icon sizes rather than the proper big icons for that option). That does look like the best option for Win10 - can't remember it being an option with XP but like others it has been a long time since I last used it.

My method should work for XP.

In reply to a post by MHC:

but navigating up and down, especially with long directory names, can be a pain.

As long as it's unique at the current folder level, you can always abbreviate folder names, e.g to get to, say, "C:\Users\XRaySpeX\Documents\Kindle Backup\Documents\Mankell, Henning" you could:

• CD C:\Users\XRay*
• CD Docu*
• CD Kind*
• CD Docu*
• CD Mank*

or all together:
CD C:\Users\XRay*\Docu*\Kind*\Docu*\Mank*

In reply to a post by ian72:

In Windows 10 explorer under the File menu there appears to be an option to open a command prompt

No longer in the Creator Edition. They've removed that and left just an option to open a Powershell. Grrr!

The command works just as well in powershell.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by ian72:

In Windows 10 explorer under the File menu there appears to be an option to open a command prompt

No longer in the Creator Edition. They've removed that and left just an option to open a Powershell. Grrr!

If I right-click on the Windows icon in the system tray mine is showing two Command Prompt options. One "Command Prompt" that takes me C:\Users\Bob and one "Command Prompt (Admin)" that takes me to C:\WINDOWS\system32.

But I already have an icon in the system tray that is one of the first things I add to it on a new machine.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 05-Jun-17 18:33:36)

That may, but some I tried didn't

What Windows icon in the System Tray? I don't have 1. Do you mean a Command Prompt icon in the Task Bar?

What is it that you add to a new PC?

What you describe still doesn't take you to a place you've drilled down to in Explorer.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 05-Jun-17 18:53:15)

Yes I mean the task bar, and I mean the Windows icon at the extreme left.

Have you read the batch file solution I gave the OP? That works and is dead simple. You use File Explorer or Windows Explorer depending on how old the version is, navigate to the required folder that you want a listing, copy the batch file into that folder from wherever you saved it, and click on it once inside the folder.

Job done. I ran it a few times to test it with different parameters in the DIR command.

Edit: and yes, I add a Command Prompt icon to the Task Bar on all new machines, but that is irrelevant to the OP. Only to your concern about this Powershell which I have never used.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 05-Jun-17 19:12:56)

Have you tried using the tab key to autocomplete directories/file names?

In my home folder I have a folder named "3d Objects" (note the space)

To change to that directory I would type

cd 3<tab>

and the folder name would be autocompleted.

The file/folder doesn't need to have a space to use this method.

Edited by IanBB (Mon 05-Jun-17 19:26:34)

But he doesn't want to use the command prompt. That means a lot of scrolling up and down the command window to find the exact name of the next level down that he wants.

Even when you've altered the command window settings to open with a decent sized window.

He just wants to navigate in File/Windows Explorer and get a contents listing into a text editor.

Is there an easy way to take file list in Windows Explorer straight into text or document file? For both Win10 and WinXP.

I can do it using a command (CMD) window with Dir > filelist.txt but navigating up and down, especially with long directory names, can be a pain.

It's dead easy! As I have posted twice now.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 05-Jun-17 19:37:38)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

But he doesn't want to use the command prompt. That means a lot of scrolling up and down the command window to find the exact name of the next level down that he wants.

Even when you've altered the command window settings to open with a decent sized window.

He just wants to navigate in File/Windows Explorer and get a contents listing into a text editor.

Is there an easy way to take file list in Windows Explorer straight into text or document file? For both Win10 and WinXP.

I can do it using a command (CMD) window with Dir > filelist.txt but navigating up and down, especially with long directory names, can be a pain.

It's dead easy! As I have posted twice now.

Autocomplete gets round the long directory name problem and scrolling was never mentioned.

What does "navigating up and down" in a command window mean?

So many of you seem to be talking about how to get round difficulties in the command prompt. He asked for an easy way to get a listing into a text editor direct from File Explorer.

I have done that. Nobody else has even tried except TinyMongomery, whose method I expect will work and gets close. But still then leaves the highlighting and copy and pasting to do to get the result into a text editor. With garbage to be excluded as well.

[shakes head]

Who [censored] on your cornflakes this morning?

You used to be a reasonably friendly and helpful member of this forum, recently you are coming across as a grumpy old git who will start an argument with anybody and everybody that posts here.

Anyway, navigating a folder structure is quite easy with autocomplete, try it someday.

Ian, I look at the Subject, I look at what is requested. Two people, TM and myself, have answered it. I suggest my method is better.

Autocomplete in a command window is not what was requested. It also requires remembering the precise first few letters of the required next level down for where you are. Which isn't necessarily easy. It means you already know the path to the target.

I even quoted the full OP in my previous but one post.

I am not a grumpy old man. If you are referring to the sustained attacks on me by the remnants and recruits of an old clique elsewhere, yes. I argue with them. But we don't need that discussing here. I think from the content of this thread that is perfectly evident.

Back on topic, have you tried the method I gave to the OP, about using a simple batch file that only needs creating once, taking all of three minutes if copied from here? Which for test purposes can be saved directly into any chosen folder.

Please try it, then tell me if any other solution proposed here is easier, quicker or better in any way than mine.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 05-Jun-17 20:50:07)

I read the full post and identified the issue of navigating the folder structure which can be a real pita if you are unaware of the autocomplete functionality in command prompt and also powershell.

You don't need to know the "precise first few letters" as pressing tab repeatedly cycles through the current selection.

Try it someday.

I leave it up to the OP to determine which solution best fits his needs. I wouldn't wish to claim that mine was "best", but it might help someone.

Try my solution.

You are answering questions the OP has not asked.

Doing it through a command prompt is de facto not the best way. However easy you make it.

Don't get snidey Tiny. Keep it for elsewhere. I have said yours is the only other solution that tries to answer the OP's original question.

Since the OP pointed out the problem with my first suggestion all that has really happened other than my second solution is people trying to overcome his objections to my first one.

Which in a way is useful in showing tricks of the trade, but doesn't answer "Is there an easy way to take file list in Windows Explorer straight into text or document file? "

They go through an inevitably long-winded trip through a command prompt. Mine does a simple copy and paste or internal move or copy within Windows Explorer of a batch file set up in 2-3 minutes and saved somewhere easily remembered.

It does precisely what was asked for.
_{Edit: Typo.}

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 05-Jun-17 23:25:08)

The solution to navigate in Explorer to desired folder (just as yours requires), open a CMD Windows here & then "Dir /a > filelist.txt" is just as good, ends up with same result & requires no copying of Batch files around.

My original suggestion of CDs was to overcome OP's main concern of navigating long path names in CMD. See:

In reply to a post by MHC:

however the problem navigating to a directory several levels down where the final directory name can be a series of pseudo random characters potentially 40, 50 or 60 characters long and occasionally non-standard characters such as � could appear..

You can Add Back Command Prompt to Context Menu in Windows 10 Creators Update but haven't yet found a way to add it back to the File Menu of Explorer. This is good enough for now.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 06-Jun-17 02:32:21)

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.

Please don't supply any more answers in this thread as the almighty has already granted us with the perfect answer

all hail bob

all hail bob

all hail bob

Fair enough, you can do that on the Mac too, sorry to have duplicated.

I'll take instructions from a moderator- from you I won't.

all hail bill

That's better

NP. Bill. All ideas are welcomed in this thread without dissent .

Somewhat (but maybe not entirely) off-topic, way back in the DOS/Win3.1 days i asked a Microsoft engineer on CompuServe if the DOS command copy <filename> prn (ie send a file directly to the default printer device without invoking a printer driver) could be replicated in the Windows GUI.

After some delay (and, I suspect, consultation) he came back and said, somewhat apologetically, that it couldn't.

Long live the command line

I'll put it down to late night ramblings, but if anyone has problems with a poster don't take things into their own hands, but report the posts.

I'm not sure that you would, or should, take much notice of a report sbout a poster claiming that his solution to a problem was obviously better than everyone else's. That doesn't mean that other posters might not, rightly, want to comment on that claim.

Time for an update ...

Thanks for the various suggestions and ideas ... for various reasons, complex, fiddly, unable to match character sets, compatibility with XP and Win10, idiot proof &c most would not be suitable.

I had hoped for a simple set of keystrokes from Explorer, but no!

The best solution that I have found is: http://www.infonautics-software.ch/directorylistprin... which came to me from two directions including RobertoS. It works in a similar way to Explorer (probably running that underneath), allows selection of specific file info ** and exports direct to Excel - which is where I need it thus removing the need to create and open a CMD window generated .txt file.




** It allows me to select the columns I require, in whichever order I need - removing need for a later edit too. These include: Filenames, Path (not needed), Create/Edit/Access Date and Time, Size in GB, MB or kB

Edited by MHC (Wed 07-Jun-17 10:37:56)

Thanks, it is almost there and would have been one way and fairly simple to use, the only issue I could see way that dates are Modified and I really need Create.

Try saving this as a .reg file and running it:

Text
1 23 45 67	Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\Command Here] @="Command Here"  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\Command Here\Command]@="cmd.exe /k pushd %1"

This will present a "Command Here" entry on your context menu whenever a directory is right clicked.

Then after selecting "Command Here", at the command prompt, enter

Text
1	dir /o /b >filename.txt

This will do a bare, sorted dir and write the result to filename.txt.

You will of course need to remove the line numbering. I can no longer edit the post.