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.