Thank you ThioJoe, I kinda forgot how useful editing the "send to" folder is. I have often built song libraries onto removable storage devices and using send to vs drag and drop is so much cleaner a process. The information you provide on this channel is often above my paygrade, but it is always straight forward, concise and thought out. Thanks again.
I just learned about OpenRGB when i looked at your startup programs, total game changer for me, no more bloated RGB Softwares.. Thanks ThioJoe for the unintentional suggestion!
@@Vysair yes and not even a firmware fash make it work. The RMA guy told me that they had ASRock intervention and not even they could fix it... or maybe they didn't care enough so they sent me another board, but I live in Argentina so the board took roughly 6 months to arrive
@@Chris.Brisson Not really needed as any media file will have "Open with VLC" in the context menu anyway. But, putting HxD there? Now that's very handy.
As an IT Pro I knew that a couple of these folders existed because of your previous clips, but it's good to put them in this context. Definitely keeping in my favorites.
What I love about TJ this is a perfect example, is that even though I knews about them and the CSIDL, I didn't though about some of the usecase he mentioned so I still managed to learn something 🤓 he does that every time, awesome
Re: The Automate/UWP no shortcut option -- That was an issue with Windows 10 as well. For some reason, Microsoft never added that functionality to UWP programs (send to desktop), so you had to do work arounds to get shortcuts outside of their auto-created areas. I think it has something to do with how UWP apps are installed, if I recall, they install to a special ID folder that includes a version suffix or subfolder, so when they update, their path changes .. the UWP store handles the lookup for the active path, but a user created shortcut reduces that to a defined logical path which doesn't update. So it's why you have to do the workaround and create a shortcut to the virtual path the UWP store uses. Other apps like Fusion 360 use a similar system, but don't provide a symbolic / virtual path. I'm surprised they didn't address this in Win11, as I believe they acknowledged the limitation years ago.
Yeah I noticed UWP shortcut refer to some empty exe files in my appdata folder, that redirect to the correct app. So I just created a desktop shortcut of those exe files and it worked.
This is an amazing video. Being a power user, I only used shell:startup since Win8 release (because the autorun folder was simply too far to remember the path). And I'm quiet surprised how many of them are there
It's interesting to see history through that path. Quickl Launch is the predecessor of pinning to taskbar before Win7. I also learned that Quick Launch can be used if you install Internet Explorer. I guess it was first targeted toward launching webpages even though you can launch any shortcut there.
The shell: shortcut for the startup folder is a godsend, thanks. I remember when it made sense to be where it is, back when the startmenu was a folder structure, but nowadays that path doesn't make sense anymore. And it always is a pain to find it manually.
With Shell:Programs you can use it to pin steam games to your taskbar. normaly they pin to the steam shourtcut in the taskbar, meaning you have to right click steam to access the shourtcut
I knew half of them. Got to some more through you. Thanks. 👍 The other day I wanted to assign a shortcut to spotify through the extra keys using icue. It wasn't a simple process. I had to create a shortcut on desktop of the app from apps folder and then create a batch file to link it with icue. Situations like these do help to explore hidden folders and features 😅
I have not had a video filled with such useful information in such a long time, I am probably going to use every single one of these folders on a near daily basis.
Some I knew and a few I had a hunch. But a lot I had no idea about. Good video, very helpful with my MSP work. I can setup environments way more personalized.
2:34 The Apps Folder is especially useful for getting a shortcut for the new Minecraft Launcher on your desktop, because it is a Microsoft Store app now, which is very annoying.
That SendTo is going to be so useful for me. I have HxD installed but there is no easy way to open a file in it without dragging it on, but adding a shortcut to it there will be a game changer
Great video Joe! I learned some new shortcuts. I didn't know about quite a few of the apps such as: Quick Assist. I am currently playing Tetra Blocks. I forgot I installed it months ago. I found it in the Apps folder! Now I can play while watching your Adv Win Features Video. Thanks again!
As a web developer who uses macOS and Linux across several different devices, I’ve been pretty much completely off Windows for a few years now. But after watching this video and others like it, I realized how weird and fundamentally different of an operating system Windows is. It’s like peering into an alternative universe. Edit: this isn’t a comment on whether Windows is good or not. I think overall the way it does things is fine. But in a world where basically every type of device (except desktop computers) runs some form of Unix-like OS, I find it fascinating that something as fundamentally different as Windows exists.
@@angrysocialjusticewarrior he’s right though. Windows is the only current OS (desktop, server, IoT, phones, etc.) that isn’t a descendant of UNIX. If you limit yourself to desktop towers for personal use, yes sure Windows might have a 80% market share, but that’s merely the surface of the iceberg. Truth is, Windows is not only an oddity, it is a minority, the vast majority of OSes in use on ALL computers is based on UNIX
Linux will never be the mainstream operating system. People are lazy and the vast majority of them will not have the slightest desire to study books or websites to learn how to use Linux. And even if Windows costs a fortune, it will still be the leading operating system because it communicates with the user visually. In the 1990s, I mastered dos to perfection because I wanted to and had to. My adventure with Linux recently lasted a week. And since I'm over 40, I have no desire to learn and this week effectively discouraged me from continuing my adventure with Linux.
Thio, not sure if you know this but you can type \*username* (with no \) into file paths as a placeholder for the user's username. This also works in batch/cmd script files too
This might have been more useful at least two decades ago before I completely ditched Windows and moved to Linux. Honestly, Windows' filesystem and special directories are so needlessly convoluted and confusing, and this video only highlights that... if anything, thanks for the reminder of just all of the quality of life improvements I've been enjoying all these years since leaving Windows XP.
@@-ari - The problem... is that @UltraZelda64 is bemoaning his Casio HL4 Calculator (WINDOWS) for not dealing with Inferential Statistics, Graphing 3D Parametric Plots and calculating Linear Regressions... as he's now happily doing with his HP Prime G2 Calculator (LINUX). They are two very different tools for very different audiences. It is understandable that many starting out in Windows may reach a point where what they need to do takes fancy workarounds, such as those in this video (at least, there ARE workarounds... there's that), and realise that they need the Scientific Graphing Calculator of the Operating System world. Just don't get salty when the 'Everyman' system doesn't actually turn out to be for EVERY MAN. They are two different things.
I knew most of them using the literal path, but it's nice to see a quicker way to them. Some might even be exploitable with Group Policy for a more refined end-user experience.
Makes me appreciate Unix where everything is in one large hierarchy of files with the mount points and configuration files elegantly spread around in different places.
I definitely learned some stuff even after decades of being a Windows user. Thanks. I've always wondered how to change the SendTo folder in particular.
Already know most of them because I love to explore an OS by going around in directories and settings and see what's hidden. That's essentially how I learned to use Linux.
I'm frequently using a batch file that creates a folder with foldername based on the originating files, and having the batch file stationed in shell:SendTo, I can just select multiple files that I wanna separate per folder, right click them, and just hit that batch. Super neat way to organize my movies into its own folder.
Hello how do you access the games that being downloaded from ms store like i meant to access the folder what permission do i need to set? not sayint about the xbox app store.
Thank you for another informative and useful video! On a side note: I can really appreciate your effort to provide proper subtitles. I find those very useful. But are you aware that the hard coded captions you also show in some places in your videos are often (partially) obscured by the subtitles? If I want to read those in full I often have to rewind a few seconds and momentarily turn of the subtitles and then turn them back on again. It's just a minor annoyance, but maybe you could place the hard coded captions somewhere else in frame? Just a little bit higher up would suffice.
Thank you Thio. One adition to the Video. There is actualy also a Shell command to navigate to the Taskbar Pinned Folder. It is "shell:User Pinned" 🙂 Great Video as always.
You can mostly get into any windows folder by "Taking Ownership" as they call it... Also, may I inquire as to what exact settings you're using with Rainmeter + Jax Core widget? I'm on Win 11 also and for me whenever I first installed it, it would pop up for a split second when I enabled it then disappeared each time. I asked the discord for help but even the Dev said he has no clue like wow nice help. Didn't even ask me for logs nothing lmao. I even stated I have no problems providing any necessary info to help find a solution but I guess they don't care about Win 1q dude said something about Win 10 I just said screw that I just had to setup 11 AGAIN! Because if a damned BIOS flash that wouldn't let me login to Windows cuz it detected a hardware change from the TPM I think.... That's a lesson guys DO NOT login to your Microsoft account onto your PC only login to "Microsoft Apps only" option. Especially if you have a custom PC you don't want to have to deal with it trust me. Just keep your account as Local (Admin) User (a normal account) so this doesn't happen to you. 😢😂 At least I didn't loose anything, copied my old User folder right back haha.
I learned most of this when I was creating batch files to run emulation directly. So I learned how to add shortcuts to them to the start menu so that search would show them. And I learned the taskbar one because when I reinstalled windows I copied my old user account contents to a new user and my pinned apps weren't there. When I pinned them again they had (2) in the name. So I found them and deleted the old ones and then renamed them.
I've been organising my start menu since windows vista and oh man did I feel like I was in control of the universe. Would sit there and just admire my work.
If you want to prevent a shortcut in the Startup folder from running but don't want to delete it, checking the hidden attribute (or Attrib +h) will do that. Also, I've found that shortcuts marked to run as administrator won't launch from Startup--not sure if lowering UAC changes that. I bummed you can hide fonts but you still cannot hide printers (which would be helpful for users at my workplace).
Really cool video. Saw a few apps you had installed and got interested by their name.. perhaps you can make a video with your most useful tools/apps you have installed? Would be cool :) Also I see LoL, poor soul!
putting this in a reg file gives you the ability to do "open with" on folders, so you don't have to click show more for programs not in the new menu: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers\Open With] @={09799AFB-AD67-11d1-ABCD-00C04FC30936}
Good information, and I appreciate it. Maybe next time can you put the directory paths in the description so I don't have to pause the video and then hope I don't mistype. Please and thank you! 😀
relating to the shell:send to folder, if you wanna write a batch file or some script for the send to menu, the file being selected (or dragged) is passed in as the first argument (as in, command line argument)
I did not know about the all apps thing… i was trying to make a shortcut for the terminal on my desktop and had to takeown the windows apps folder because I didn’t know how to do it… definitely going to save me next time!
About the Pinned Task bar. IF you want to look to the properties of the pinned app. just right click the app in the task bar. then right click the name of the app from the menu. Example Notepad++ in pinned taskbar Right click notepad++ icon from the taskbar then a 2-3 menu will popup (Notepad++ and Unpin from Taskbar) rightclick notepad++ then you can view its properties
I am using the Send To folder trick to with .bat files to perform useful custom actions on files, such as create an archive or suffix with a new version number, very useful
I've watch your videos here and there over the years and always enjoyed the info you provide. One thing that puzzles me, I tried to find where the pinned Items (documents), per application on the Task Bar is located. For example, right click an app on the Task Bar, where the hell do those shortcuts live?
Biggest mind-blown from this video is learning that Power Automate exists. Now I've fallen down a rabbit hole learning how to automate some browser stuff I do
It's a shame you didn't mention when having to manually navigate to appdata you can just type %appdata% to get there quickly rather than having to manually drill down a long path. Also useful when talking somebody else through doing something or sending instructions as it will work for everybody whatever their actual username.
Apps installed from the Microsoft store can end up in the WindowsApps folder even if they aren't UWP. There are multiple packaging formats - APPX for UWP, MSIX for UWP and Win32, MSIXVC for GDK, etc. and barring unusual circumstances they typically go into WindowsApps or a subdirectory of it. On an Xbox console you can actually view information about which packaging format is used, on Windows I'm not sure if there's a way to see it specifically without knowing the particular signs. For example, Win32 and GDK apps generally require full system permissions, which the Microsoft Store lists as having access to all files and system resources. UWP apps are sandboxed and don't have such invasive permissions. Microsoft is working on making it possible to sandbox Win32 apps as well, but I don't think that's generally available yet.
you didnt mention godmode folder. i iknow you mentioned it in another vid but yeah... also, i made a program that inserted registry files into my registry which made a shortcut where i could take control of any folder, including windowsapps, because i wanted to edit some files of one of my windows apps. im pretty sure i saw someone else online doing it too, so maybe make a vid about that ;)
