Double the trouble - in Windows XP

September 7, 2008 3:45 PM

Double the Windows problems - creating a shortcut to CMD at a specific folder, and what's up with Desktop horizontal selecting?

My Google-fu failed me once again! I'm asking two questions, not entirely related to each other, but both dealing with Windows XP

1. I remember making a shortcut on my Desktop that opens a CMD window, that starts off at a specific folder. I've Googled around to find the steps for making that shortcut, with no luck. There's a similar way - tweaking the Registry to have an "Open CMD here" option when you right-click on an item - but I want an actual shortcut on my Desktop that does the same thing. This is because I don't want to open a bunch of folders just to right-click on something to open CMD - I want to get there now. Anyone know the steps (or what I'm talking about)?

2. Usually when you Shift-select items in Explorer, it selects vertically down the list. Even in thumbnail mode, it selects according to however you sort it in Details mode. So why, for the love of God, does Shift-clicking on the Desktop result in horizontal selecting, out of sort order? I see that my Desktop folders and shortcuts are sorted by name vertically, yet Shift-clicking goes horizontal. That just boggles my mind. Is there any way to change this?

posted by curagea to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

1. is part of the Windows XP PowerToys.
posted by disaster77 at 3:55 PM on September 7, 2008

Here's how I made the cmd prompt open in a folder of my choosing:

- Start, Accessories
- Right-click on Command Prompt, click Copy
- Right-click on desktop (or wherever), click Paste
- Right-click on new Command Prompt shortcut, click Properties
- Change "Start in" (2nd white box) to the folder of your choosing
- Click OK

That worked great on Windows XP Pro for me. Still reading up on the 2nd question, but I don't think there is off the top of my head.
posted by fireoyster at 3:57 PM on September 7, 2008

Also, you can create a shortcut with the command line set to "cmd.exe /k cd c:\path\to\directory".
posted by teraflop at 4:04 PM on September 7, 2008

disaster77: PowerToys has the tool that creates an command in the context menus (aka the right-click menu), which I already have. That's not what I'm looking for.

Thanks, teraflop! That did the trick (for #1, that is). fireoyster's method actually doesn't work for me; I tried it before, but regardless of the path, it kept starting in the root directory.
posted by curagea at 4:11 PM on September 7, 2008