FileVoager as Default File Manager

[SwissCharles]

Hey Folks!

New here, found FV through the ‘Portable Apps’ site.

Before and above all: FileVoyager is absolutely amazing – congrats to the author for a job very well done!

Used Directory Opus before, but FileVoyager wins hands down!

I know, that’s probably no easy task, but to launch FV through, say, [Win]+[E] would be absolutely fantastic.

I will certainly put it in Autostart though.

OK, it’s more of a comfort issue (no problem if it’s not practical to do) but that would really rock – imho 😉

Kind regards from Switzerland!

Charles

[FileVoyager (Author)]

Hi Charles,

Thank you for your kind words and welcome to this forum!

To answer your question, I considered the possibility of replacing the default File Explorer. However, replacing File Explorer is challenging and can compromise some core Windows’ functionalities.

A better approach, as you suggested, would be to override the [win]+[E] shortcut.
I came across an easy and safe way to do it by reading a StackExchange.com article.

It is highly likely that I will implement this approach in FileVoyager in the futur
Alternatively, you can also follow the steps below:

1. In your favorite text editor, create a .reg file. Say FileVoyagerWinE.reg
2. copy and paste these commands into the file :
   

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1}]@=””
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1}\shell]
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1}\shell\open]
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1}\shell\opennewwindow]
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1}\shell\opennewwindow\command]@=”C:\\Progam Files (x86)\\FileVoyager\\FileVoyager.exe”
   “DelegateExecute”=””

3. Replace the path, in bold above, with the path on your system. Be sure to use double backslashes “\\” instead of a sigle one “\”.
4. Execute FileVoyagerWinE.reg

No need to reboot, your [win]+[E] shortcut is launching FileVoyager now.

To reset the default [win]+[E] behaviour, just delete the CLSID key from your registry:

1. Launch Regedit.exe
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1}
3. Delete the key

No need to reboot, your [win]+[E] shortcut is launching the default File Explorer.

[SwissCharles]

Hi Keymaster

Many thanks for your thorough answer plus the Registry-Key provided – much appreciated!

I created this file and ran it against the registry, which, based on a message, seemed to be successful.

Trying it out, the following happened:

When entering [Win]+[E], the still installed Directory Opus (DOpus) launched. What is remarkable is, that even though I had configured DOpus’s Settings to replace the standard Windows File Manager, it never worked – only after your registry script. Isn’t that funny 😀?

I then removed said setting in DOpus and when entering [Win]+[E] again, it was Windozes lousy standard file manager that opened. I guess, that the same will happen, when I go and un-install DOpus…

I also stopped DOpus completely but that didn’t help it either. With said setting it launched DOpus and without it M$’s file manager was launched …

I then checked the registry to see if the above registry script did show up correct by searching for said class ID {52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1} .

Well, it did show up in several instances under the ‘\CLSID\’ hive. but most entries were set to ‘Standard’ and a few referred under ‘DelegateExecute’ to the class ID, mentioned above.

I also tried to place the last line of the script (@=”C:\\Progam Files (x86)\\FileVoyager\\FileVoyager.exe” ) on a separate line (as in the linked example from superuser.com, bur that didn’t help either..

So, what did I miss 🤔 Thanks for your further thoughts on this matter!

And please let me know if I can help with some more troubleshooting on this!

Kind regards from Switzerland!

Charles

 

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