This is an improved version of the QuickSwitch script v0.5 from Gepruts. DaWolfi, NotNull and Tuska first improved it to v0.5dw9a, and I've now released v1.0, where I've made some really significant improvements!

About

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

It has two modes:

1. Menu mode: displays a list of opened folders. Selecting one switches the file dialog to that folder. The menu won't appear if no folders are open.

2. AutoSwitch mode: the file dialog automatically opens the last active folder in the file manager when you Alt-Tab between them. If the file manager was active before opening the dialog, it opens that folder immediately. You can still use Ctr+Q to access the menu if needed.

AutoSwitch can be disabled using the Never option. There's also Never here option to disable QuickSwitch for specific dialogs, like web browsers, which manage their own folders.

Installation

1. Download the latest version.

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

2. Run .exe for your CPU architecture and check it's existence in the tray.

3. Open different folders 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 downloading any file.

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

From any similar dialog box, from any application, you can quickly navigate to these folders using this menu and save\open a file from them.

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

Scripting

This script is written in the Autohotkey language.

1. Download Autohotkey v1.1 and install it.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND: Autohotkey v1 is an outdated version. If you want to start learning the language, install v2. Do not learn autohotkey v1 yourself and use it exclusively to run old scripts. This script needs to be updated from v1 to v2 !

2. When the installation is complete, you are presented with another menu. Choose Run AutoHotkey. Once the AutoHotkey help file opens, you can read or close it now.

3. Download the latest version of QuickSwitch.

4. Unpack .zip and run QuickSwitch.ahk. Check it's existence in the tray.

Compiling

QuickSwitch.ahk can be automatically compiled using ahk2exe which is here by default: C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\Compiler\Ahk2Exe.exe It can be downloaded from here: https://github.com/AutoHotkey/Ahk2Exe Or installed from here: C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\UX\install-ahk2exe.ahk

7-zip is also needed to automatically create an archive with the required files:

"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7zG.exe" a "%A_ScriptDir%\Releases\QuickSwitch 1.0".zip -tzip -sae -- "%A_ScriptDir%\QuickSwitch.ahk" "%A_ScriptDir%\Libs" "%A_ScriptDir%\QuickSwitch.ico"

For compilation, you need to select the .exe AHK v1.1.+ with Unicode support. They can be found here:

C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\v1.1.37.02\AutoHotkeyU64.exe
C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\v1.1.37.02\AutoHotkeyU32.exe
# version may vary

Directives are used for compilation, but it can be set manually at each compilation using the ahk2exe GUI. But this is inconvenient because you will need to manually perform different actions each time you run it and you lose the benefits of directives:

Script compiler directives allow the user to specify details of how a script is to be compiled 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.

To-Do

• auto-check for update (lib and setting)
• AutoSwitch on clipboard change
• drag and drop any file field
• change main hotkey in settings
• Xyplorer history
• Pin favourite paths
• Explorer:
  • QTTabBar tabs
  • Win11 support
  • MRU

Need help with:

• Autohotkey v2 port

• File managers:

  • tabs from all panes
  • new commands to avoid using clipboard

  XYplorer receives a command using DllCall and sends the XYdata directly to RAM, from where Autohotkey reads it