This is an improved version of the QuickSwitch script v0.5 from Gepruts. DaWolfi, NotNull and Tuska first improved it to v0.5dw9a.

New versions displays all open tabs and contains new powerful options.

About

Imagine you want to open/save a file. A dialog box appears, allowing you to manually select the directory on your system. QuickSwitch lets you automatically switch to the path you need if it's open in any of the supported file managers (File Explorer, Directory Opus, Total Commander, XYPlorer).

Menu displays a list of opened paths (tabs from file managers). Select any path to change path in file dialog:

Enable Auto Switch option to automatically change path in file dialog. If the file manager was active before opening the dialog, QuickSwitch opens it's directory immediately:

You can add specific file dialog to the Black List to disable QuickSwitch in web browser or another app. Use Ctr+Q to access the Menu if needed.

These options work separately for each window, which makes it possible to customize the application for each dialog.

And of course you can customize the display of paths in the Menu:

As an addition I recommend the BigSur or CakeOS themes from Niivu and XYplorer file manager.

Keyboard

Each option and button in the settings has a corresponding key. Take a closer look: each name has an u̲n̲d̲e̲r̲l̲i̲n̲e̲d̲ l̲e̲t̲t̲e̲r̲. Press this letter on the keyboard to jump to the option. For example: C̲ancel – C; Path s̲eparator – S.

Here is a short list of the main keys:

• Path: 0-9.
• Auto switch: A
• Black list: B
• Settings: S
• Hide menu: Esc / click anywhere

You can select keys or mouse buttons on Settings > App tab. You can even select the CapsLock or Win key in the settings or the middle mouse button to show the Menu. While the file dialog is open, keys such as Space, Win, CapsLock and so on will not work as usual so that you can use them.

Appearance

Short path

Any path can shortened to a specified number of directories with limited name length. For example, enter number 2 in the Number of dirs field on the ShortPath tab. If the path to the menu will contain more than 2 directories (C:\Windows\System32\Resources), it will be shortened to 2 directories: System32\Resources

Note

By default ShortPath cuts the beginning of the path. Option Shorten the end cuts the end of the path.

Enter number 3 in the Length of dir names field on the same tab to limit the length of each directory in the path to 3 symbols: Sys..\Res... Increase this number to see their full names.

Also you can include the disk letter at the beginning or change the separator between directories to anything, e.g. tilda ~: W:~Windows~System32

The first letter of the path (or selected tilda ~) will be underlined in the menu if Menu > Paths numbers with shortcuts option is turned off or the number of paths in the Menu is greater than 9. Press the underlined letter or symbol on your keyboard to activate this path in the menu and change file dialog path (see more about keys here).

Underlined letters examples

C̲:\Windows – press C to activate this path and change file dialog path.

W̲indows\System32 – press W to activate this path.

.̲.̲Windows – press . to activate this path.

~̲Windows – press ~ to activate this path.

The path shortening settings on the ShortPath‬ tab allows you to completely change a path structure. Experiment with this settings to change which letter will be underlined in your Menu.

Menu sections

In addition to the paths from the file managers, you can add additional paths to the Menu on Settings > Theme tab.

Pinned paths (that are always visible)

If you want some paths to appear permanently in the Menu, you can pin them. To do this, enable the Settings > Theme > Show pinned paths option and select a key or mouse button at Settings > App > Pin path.... Close the settings and open the Menu. Hold down the selected key and left click on any path. Now it is pinned and it will be stored in the configuration. You will see this path on every restart.

If you turn this option off, the paths will no longer be displayed. If you turn it on, all pinned paths will be displayed again. If you want to delete all pinned paths, check Settings > Reset > Delete favorite paths and press Enter.

If you want to see the same paths in the list of fixed paths and from file managers (for example, it is easier for you to find a path by knowing the icon of a file manager), disable the Settings > Menu > Delete duplicate paths option.

Paths from clipboard (temporary, for a single file dialog)

You can copy any file or directory path (or any variable) and it will appear in the Menu. All copied paths will remain in the Menu until you open the file dialog in another application. If you switch between file dialogs of different applications, the copied paths will disappear after switching. If you do not want a path to disappear, pin it.

Copied paths will not disappear if you force the Menu to appear using Ctrl+Shift+Win+0 combination. It can help you open the copied paths in multiple applications. If you copy the path to a file, QuickSwitch will use the directory with that file by removing everything after the last slash \.

The option works in the background and analyzes the clipboard for the presence of a path when changing it. If several paths separated by line breaks (multi-line text) have been copied, they will be added to the Menu individually.

Background analysis is temporarily disabled when requesting paths from other file managers (if the Settings > Theme > Show file managers paths option is enabled), as their data is exchanged via the clipboard. If the request takes a very long time (e.g., QuickSwitch creates the configuration for Total Commander), clipboard analysis will be turned off until all paths are fully received.

Favorite paths (with customizable icons and names)

If you have many paths and want to customize how they are displayed in the Menu, enable the Settings > Theme > Show favorite paths option. The option works with .lnk shortcuts (links) from the directory you specified in the input field next to it. Create a shortcut to any directory or file in it (in this case the directory it is in will be used). From the context Menu, open the shortcut's "properties" and click on the "shortcut" tab.

You will see editable fields that will directly affect the display of the shortcut in QuickSwitch:

• Target
• Start in (working dir.)
• Comment
• Change icon (button)

The "target" field is the main path you will see. The "start in" field will only be used if the "target" field is empty. Even if the "target" points to a file, QuickSwitch will use the file directory by removing everything after the last slash \. You can change the displayed path and give it any name you want in the "comment" field. This field takes precedence over displaying the full or short path (Settings > Short path). All fields support variables.

Let's put the ScriptName variable in the "comment" field. The Menu will show the internal QuickSwitch name for the shortcut named "MyFavoritePath".

If you leave the "comment" field empty, the Menu will show the Temp variable value from "target" field (e.g. path to C:\Temp).

You can put the path to ICO, CUR, ANI, EXE, DLL, CPL, SCR and other resource that contains icons. For example I chose the system icon "shutdown" from shell32.dll, however I could choose ICO from the "Icons" folder. You can create as many shortcuts as you like and customize each one.

If you have many shortcuts, you can give them names (e.g. "MyFavoritePath") that will not be visible in the Menu and arrange them in directories. Regardless of the directory structure of your favorite paths, QuickSwitch will display all .lnk files from all directories.

You can hide some shortcuts by changing or removing their extension. If there are a lot of shortcuts and you don't need them anymore, check Settings > Reset > Delete favorite paths. After pressing the Enter button, your shortcuts will be placed in the trash. You will be able to restore them before emptying the trash can.

Variables

In the settings you can select the paths to the desired directories (e.g. icons). You can use an absolute path (C:\QuickSwitch/Icons) or a path relative to the current QuickSwitch location (Icons) as the path. You can use variables in paths: environment variables; built-in AutoHotkey variables; declared QuickSwitch variables. Enclose the variables in percent signs %.

Examples

Icons
%AppData%\Icons
%A_ScriptDir%\Icons

%SYSTEM_PATH%\%IconsDir%\SubDir

C:\%IconsDir%

If you have enabled the Settings > Theme > Show paths from clipboard, all copied variables will also be expanded. For example, if you have Cmder or ConEmu installed you can copy the %ConEmuDir% text to always see the path C:\Users\...\cmder\vendor\conemu-maximus5 in the Menu. For permanent use you can pin this path and it will be visible in the menu always (enable Settings > Theme > Show pinned paths).

Feedback

I really need your feedback! If something is not working for you, please let me know. If you think that app can be improved, write to me.

You can enforce the Menu in any application using the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Win+0. The menu will display the paths obtained after the last opening of the file dialog and will not change them until the next opening. The menu will be empty the first time it is opened.

You can use this feature to test whether QuickSwitch is working correctly in the (target) app in which Menu appears. If it really works, click "Settings > Debug > Export" to export the app info file. Open a suggestion to add this app to QuickSwitch, attach exported file.

Limitations

To ensure that the correct current paths always appear in the menu:

• Disable localized folder names (e.g. C:\Users, C:\Användare, ...).
• Periodically open the file manager you need (a big number of windows makes it difficult to find the last open manager).
• Do not keep virtual folders open (e.g. coll://, Desktop, Rapid Access, ...).

QuickSwitch interacts with other applications, but the system may restrict its access. To avoid this, run QuickSwitch as an administrator, copy it to the C:\Program Files (just paste %ProgramFiles% to the addressbar). You can also disable UAC to avoid similar problems with all applications.

Details

QuickSwitch is written in AutoHotkey, which uses WinAPI. It sends messages to other file managers and receives information about the current file dialog and its contents. For these actions to work correctly, it is required that the target process is not running as an administrator or QuickSwitch is running with UI access (if it is not a compiled .ahk file) or as an administrator. The reason for this is UIPI:

User Interface Privilege Isolation (UIPI) implements restrictions in the Windows subsystem that prevent lower-privilege applications from sending messages or installing hooks in higher-privilege processes. Higher-privilege applications are permitted to send messages to lower-privilege processes. UIPI doesn't interfere with or change the behavior of messages between applications at the same privilege (or integrity) level.

You can also disable UAC and use low-level or powerful antivirus (Crowdstrike, Eset Endpoint Security) for full control over running applications. Modern viruses does not require admin privileges to interact with the system. However, they can obtain admin rights by exploiting Windows vulnerability.

Installation

Subscribe to releases so you don't miss critical updates!

1. Download the latest x64 or x32 archive depending on your system architecture. If you don't know it, start with the x64 version. It is not recommended to run the x32 version on an x64 machine!

2. Create a directory, copy downloaded archive here and select "extract here" from the context menu. With each subsequent update, select "extract here" to update the old files with the new ones. The configuration is never deleted or replaced. Run QuickSwitch.exe.

3. Open different directories in a supported file manager. E.g., open C:\ in Explorer.

4. Open any application and try to open\save a file using it. E.g., open Notepad then File - Open.... Or try to download any file.

5. Press Ctrl+Q and look at the paths in the Menu that opens. All directories opened in supported file managers will be displayed here.

6. Explore the available options in the "Menu settings" and experiment with them. Choose a convenient style and logic of the menu!

Compiling

This script is written on Autohotkey language and cannot be compiled. However, it can be built into a single file using a special script.

Dependencies

Required applications:

• Autohotkey interpreter (v1.1.37.02 Unicode and v2.0.19): https://www.autohotkey.com/download
• Ahk2Exe builder to create EXE from AHK. It's included in AHK installer: C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\Compiler\Ahk2Exe.exe
  
  • Can be downloaded from here: https://github.com/AutoHotkey/Ahk2Exe
    
  • Can be installed using the script: C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\UX\install-Ahk2Exe.ahk
    Directory depends on your autohotkey installation and can be found automatically. See below.
    
    

Autohotkey v1.1.37.02 is an outdated version. If you want to start learning this language, learn v2.0.19+. QuickSwitch needs to be updated from v1 to v2!

Optional 7zG.exe to create an archives with the required files: https://7-zip.org

To build the application, clone or download this repository. Open the .\Utilities\Build.ahk file and assign the necessary values to the variables. You can also leave the default values. In this case, the build script will automatically find the interpreter regardless of its installation path. Detailed documentation on which values to specify is provided in the script comments.

Note

The builder is designed for different scripts regardless of their interpreter. It will automatically select the interpreter based on the script name and its directory, so you can use it in your AHK projects. Unnecessary dependencies can be disabled by commenting out variables with paths to different applications.

You can change application metadata, such as version and description by changing the Ahk2Exe directives in the main file with the name like QuickSwitch-v1.8.....ahk. After completing the configuration process, run the Build.ahk.

Directives allow the user to specify details of how a script is to be builded via Ahk2Exe. Some of the features are:

• Ability to change the version information (such as the name, description, version...).
• Ability to add resources to the compiled script.
• Ability to tweak several miscellaneous aspects of compilation.
• Ability to remove code sections from the compiled script and vice versa.

Need help with

• Auto-check for update (lib and setting)
• New GUI design.
• QTTabBar (get all tabs)
• Autohotkey v2 port
• New file managers support