Ed , your a life saver, I’m always in and out of the ”hidden” system as I use the desktop.ini file to control my customised folder icons.
I haven’t a clue why this started happening but all of a sudden (i.e. yesterday a.m) if I tried to hide/show either files or extensions as soon as I hit the ”apply” tab my PC froze with the only way out was the good old power off button.

Any ideas why this would suddenly start happening ?

Now… on to MY question.
I can edit the script to only toggle the show hidden files & folders, but I want modify the script to change the icon of it’s shortcut (we’ll assume it’s on the desktop) to be either a folder (when showing hidden) or a transparent icon (when hideing) thereby giveing me a visual que of if hidden is toggled ON or OFF before I run the file. Can anyone assist?

Thank’s for Ed Bott

Are any of your members willing to supply what I’ve been unable to locate for myself? (Before proceeding further, I should add that, not only am I not a member, at a week away from my sixtieth birthday, I feel I am just a little long in the tooth to start learning new tricks). Anyway, what I’m seeking is a script that will emulate/call upon the mouse right-click refresh command in Windows Explorer (Windows XP Pro File Manager). Please note that neither “F5″ nor “Ctrl+R” are satisfactory since they are more than a little spasmodic in their responses, so I assume that the mouse command is calling upon a different function.

The reason for desiring this script is that I’d appreciate a more elegant alternative to my existing system. Thanks to Google (and its creator, of course), I’ve found a script that will toggle “Show/Hide File Extensions”. This operates practically instantaneously but its effect cannot be seen until the window is refreshed (repainted?). I’ve tried various things to complete the change smoothly, none of which have been successful (NirCmd and modifying the Registry amongst others).

At present, I’m using an executable (created from a macro) to show the change, but this relies on the Explorer window being in a central position and the area beneath the called-for mouse position being blank. The command file runs from a shortcut on the Quick Start bar that in turn runs a two-part command, the first part being the extension toggle script and the second, the refresh executable.

(If it’s of any assistance, the toggle script I’m using, slightly modified to remove its original message panes, is:
Option Explicit
Dim RegValue, strFileExtKey
Dim strKey, WshShell
On Error Resume Next

strKey = “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced”
strFileExtKey = strKey & “\HideFileExt”

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
RegValue = WshShell.RegRead(strFileExtKey)

If RegValue = 1 Then
WshShell.RegWrite strFileExtKey, 0, “REG_DWORD”
WshShell.Run “%windir%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters”, 1, True
Else

WshShell.RegWrite strFileExtKey, 1, “REG_DWORD”
WshShell.Run “%windir%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters”, 1, True
End If
)

So, can you help me? I appreciate that my needs are far from urgent but I’m enough of a “geek” to want things to be as neat as possible. Finally, I apologise for being somewhat long-winded (I plead my age as an extenuation!) but I wanted to ensure that there is no confusion about exactly what it is I’m searching for.

With grateful thanks in advance,

Dave Weightman

WS = CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
WS.RegWrite(”HKCU\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Update\UpdateMode”, 0, “REG_DWORD”)

does not update the screen “immediately.”
why? or how to update the screen immediately?

Thanks

My PC uses XP and the confusing thing is that your approach refresh and is in agreement with one of MS’ articles. I guess that what MS called Refresh (Right Click on Desktop and Press Refresh) is not really the same Refresh as yours. Probably, MS Refresh is something else but MS calls it (whatever that is) Refresh anyhow.

Is there a way to do using VB what one of your readers raised … that is: to update the PC screen, or re-apint the screen, or update the list of folders in the Windows Explorer (files & subfolders)? I feel that is the solution.

Thanks

May I ask if you had the chance to look into answer #21 above. Thanks.

20. Simon H says:
Hi,
I’ve tried this script, and it does change the values it is supposed to in the registry, but the change isnt reflected in explorer, not even after pressing F5, switching folders or restarting explorer. The change only comes into place if i go tools>folder options, select the view tab then click OK, then press F5. Any ideas how to get around this? I’m using XP x64 Pro if that helps.

Thanks, Simon

21. Ed Bott says:
Simon, this tip was written before the launch of 64-bit Windows XP, so it doesn’t reflect that product. I honestly have no idea how to make it work, and don’t have the time to research it. Sorry.

Posted April 29, 2007 @ 9:12 am