April Tutor
Controlling Internet Explorer ●
CONTROL
YOUR EXPLORER
Many users of Windows 95, 98 or even NT 4.0 often wish that they could have greater control over
Windows Explorer—not realising that they can, and easily to boot. In this guide we show you how,
by means of simple switches, you can launch multiple explorers, specify the drive or folder to be
explored, specify the route of explorer—or all of these things simultaneously.
hether you’re running Microsoft
W Windows 95, Windows 98 or Win-
dows NT 4.0, you access the files
and folders on your system using
Windows Explorer. You launch it from the
Start menu or from a shortcut on the desk-
top and it typically displays the contents of
drive C:. Readers frequently ask how to
make it start with a different drive, or start
with no drives open. If you know the com-
mand line switches for Windows Explorer,
you can make it start anywhere you want.
You can use these switches in the command
portion of a shortcut, at an MS-DOS prompt
90 April 2000
or even in a batch file. This article will ex-
plain how the command line switches work
and how some of them don’t always work.
WINDOWS EXPLORER’S COMMAND
LINE SWITCHES
Figure 1 shows the command line switches
for Windows Explorer. They control the
type of display Explorer will use, the initial
folder and selection and the scope of the Ex-
plorer window. Explorer can display the
contents of a drive or folder in two different
ways. If you right click a folder and choose
Open, you get a single pane view (Figure 2).
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In this open view, each file or folder is rep-
resented by a large icon and a title. By de-
fault, Explorer “recycles” windows of this
type. That is, if the desired folder is present
in an existing open view window, Explor-
er will activate that window rather than
opening a new one. If you right click a fold-
er and choose Explore, you get a two pane
view (Figure 3) called the explore view.
Here, the folder tree appears in the left hand
pane and the right hand pane lists details
about each file or folder, including the name,
size, type and last modified date. If neither
the /n switch nor the /e switch is present,
Explorer uses the open view and recycles ex-
isting windows. The /n switch disables win-
dow recycling, forcing a new open view
window. The /e switch forces explore view;
when using this view, Explorer does not
recycle existing windows. If both switches
are present, /e is ignored.
The subobject and /select,subobject
switches control Explorer’s initial display.
When you add a folder name to the Ex-
plorer.exe command line to open that fold-
er, you’re using the subobject switch. If you
precede the full pathname of a file or fold-
er with /select, Explorer launches with the
specified file or folder highlighted and its
parent opened. The command explorer
/e,/select,c:\windows\system would open
the c:\windows folder and highlight the
system folder within it.
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FIGURE 2: The open view shows files and folders as large icons in a single
pane display.
The /root,object switch is powerful but
used less often. The root folder is the one
at the top of Explorer’s folder tree—the one
that has no parent (Desktop, by default). By
using the /root switch, you can specify any
drive or folder as the root for Explorer’s dis-
play. For example, you could create an Ex-
plorer window that displays only drive C:,
with no direct access to virtual folders like
Printers and Control Panel.
PUTTING THE SWITCHES TO WORK
Here’s a quick trick to get you started. Open
an MS-DOS prompt, navigate to any folder
that interests you and enter the command
explorer /e,. (That’s explorer, space, slash,
e, comma, period.) The single period rep-
resents the current folder, so you get a two
pane Explorer window showing that fold-
er. The command prompt is the best place
to experiment with Explorer’s command
line switches. When you work out a com-
bination you like, you can create a shortcut
using that exact command, or you can insert
it into an existing shortcut. Here are sever-
al switch combinations to try:
Explorer /e,/select,c:\
This opens a two pane Explorer view with
none of the drives expanded. This is handy
if you have multiple drives and use them all
frequently.
Explorer /e,d:\
This opens a two pane Explorer window that
initially displays the contents of drive D:.
Explorer /e,/root,d:\data
This switch combination opens a two pane
window that initially displays the contents
of the data folder on drive D: and from
which the user cannot navigate anywhere
other than in or below that folder.
Explorer /e,/root,d:\,d:\data
This opens a two pane window that initial-
ly displays the contents of the data folder on
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● Controlling Internet Explorer
FIGURE 3: The explore view shows the folder tree on the left, file and folder
details on the right.
drive D: and from which the user cannot
navigate anywhere other than drive D:.
To create a new shortcut using a particu-
lar command line, right click the desktop
and choose New | Shortcut from the pop-
up menu. Enter the full command line in the
Create Shortcut dialog. If you have just tried
the shortcut at an MS-DOSprompt, you can
copy it from the prompt and paste it into the
dialog. Click Next and give the shortcut a
name such as Explorer rooted on D. Now
click Finish; you’ll find the new shortcut on
your desktop. To move it to your Start menu,
simply drag it onto the Start button. This puts
the menu item in the main body of the Start
menu, above the Programs menu. To move
the item into the Programs menu, right click
the Start button and choose Explore. Win-
dows Explorer will display the shortcuts
and folders that define the Start menu; just
drag the shortcut into the Programs folder
FIGURE 4: The Target field holds the command line
executed by a shortcut.
Tutor April
or into one of its subfolders.
To change a desktop shortcut’s com-
mand line, right click the shortcut and
choose Properties. The Target field on the
Shortcut tab of the resulting dialog is the
command line you want (Figure 4). Enter
your new command line. If the shortcut
you want to change is in the Start menu,
right click on the Start button and choose
Explore from the pop-up menu. Now nav-
igate to the menu folder that holds the
shortcut you want and modify it as de-
scribed here.
WHEN THEY DON’T WORK
In some configurations, the /select,sub-
object switch seems to fail. The subob-
ject’s parent folder is opened in the left
pane and highlighted in the folder tree, but
nothing is visibly highlighted in the list of
files and folders. If you press Tab to move
the focus to the detail list, however, you’ll
see that the subobject is indeed selected.
Microsoft’s Knowledge Base notes sev-
eral occasions where switches truly don’t
work. According to article Q208114, “Win-
dows Explorer /N Switch Does Not Open
a New Window” (http://support.microsoft.
com/support/kb/articles/Q208/1/14.asp),
the command Explorer /n fails to disable
window recycling under Windows 98 and
Windows 98 SE. Microsoft recommends
using the /e swi tch inst ead . Art ic le
Q237494, “The Explorer Command Does
Not Select the Correct File” (http://sup-
port.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/
Q237/4/94.asp), states that under Win-
dows 98 SE, the /select switch without /n
or /e may not select the correct file if the
folder that contains it is already open. No
work-around is offered. These glitches are
minor, though, and don’t affect all sys-
tems.
April 2000 91