What is ShortPopUp?
Why was it written?
How does it work?
How do I use it?
Commandline / inifile flags
Example commandlines / inifiles
What does it work with?
Known bugs
Contact details
Version history

What is ShortPopUp?
 It's a small application that allows you to remove some of the icons from the taskbar, or the desktop.

Why was it written?
 It was written because I (Orm) was running out of space on my taskbar to display the tasks that were actually running. I had a few shortcuts to .mp3 playlists and they were taking up far too much space. I hunted around various shell extension sites for something that would remove these extra icons and tidy them up, but couldn't find anything to do what I wanted. 20 minutes later and a 20k .exe was written to do it. (But since it's now linking into a windows .dll to avoid missing .dll problems, it's just a little bit bigger)

How does it work?
 When ShortPopUp is run, it scans it's starting directory for all files, and then displays those in a popup menu. Once you select a menu item, it will execute it. It's that simple. If it comes across a filename that ends in '.pif', '.lnk' or '.url', it will remove the '.pif', '.lnk' or '.url' so the menu looks a little bit neater. You can now also specifiy via the command line, which extensions to remove too.

How do I use it?
 1. Put it anywhere you like on your system.
2. Make a shortcut to it on your taskbar.
3. Change that shortcut's start directory to be the folder in which you have all your shortcuts. For example, if your shortcuts reside in c:\MyShortCuts, then change the start directory to be c:\MyShortCuts.
4. Change the shortcut's icon to whatever you wish.
5. Away you go.

Commandline / inifile flags
At the moment, ShortPopUp knows about the following commandline / inifile flags :
  -sort [number]'Sorting'
  -revsort [number]'Sorting'
  -showonly [extensions]'What to display'
  -removeext [extensions]'What to remove'
  -removeallext'What to remove'
  -display [number] (xp) (flat) (rounded) (nobackground) (nooutline)'Menu layout'
  -resolve'Shortcut'
  -makepretty [number]'Text labels'
  -appearwhererun'Menu appears where?'
  -shiftrun [path]'Shift Running'
  -revshiftrun [path]'Shift Running'
  -appearatx [position]'Forcing menu position'
  -appearaty [position]'Forcing menu position'
  -block [filenames/extensions]"Blocking"
  -blockfolders [foldernames]"Blocking"
  -onlyfolders [text]'Only directories'
  -onlyfiles'Only files'
  -dotitles (gradient) (usedrivenames) (clicktoopenfolder) (nobackground) (nooutline)'Menu titles'
  -dotitleimages [imagename] (usefirst | noclick)'Menu title images'
  -foldertitle [path] [title]'Folder titles'
  -transparent [amount]'Vanishing menus'
  -dieonmouseout [time]'Termination'
  -menusforshortcutstofolders'Menus for folders'
  -addexplore [text] (absolutetop | top | bottom | absolutebottom)'Exploring'
  -addopenall [text] [extensions] (hidefilesfrommenu) (absolutetop | top | bottom | absolutebottom)'Opening'
  -iconsforfolders'Unique icons'
  -noshowhidden'No showing of hidden'
  -maxmenuwidth'Maximum menu width'
  -menuxalignment (left | centre | right)'Menu X alignment'
  -menuyalignment (top | centre | bottom)'Menu Y alignment'
  -onlyonemenu'Only one menu'
  -foldersatbottom'Folders at bottom'
  -noavilablecheck'Availability check'
  -dothumbnailsontooltip'Thumbnails'
  -dothumbnailsontooltipsizex [number]'Thumbnails'
  -dothumbnailsontooltipsizey [number]'Thumbnails'
  -useinifile [filename]'ini file'
  -imagereductionx [number]'Image reduction'
  -imagereductiony [number]'Image reduction'
  -startdirectory [path]'Starting directory'
  -separatorbetweenfilesandfolders'Separate files and folders'
  -separatorbefore [path/name/filename]'Separator before and after'
  -separatorafter [path/name/filename]'Separator before and after'
  -barbreakbefore [path/name/filename]'Break before and after'
  -barbreakafter [path/name/filename]'Break before and after'

The commandline flags are to be placed AFTER the path to ShortPopUp.exe in the 'Target' field when you right-click and select properties on a shortcut to ShortPopUp.exe, for example:
'Target' = c:\ShortCuts\ShortPopUp.exe -display 3 xp -resolve

Sorting
 If told to, ShortPopUp will sort the menu entries it generates according to a given flag.
-sort
sorts normally, ie 'f0.exe' to 'f9.exe', and -revsort is a reverse sort, ie 'f9.exe' to 'f0.exe'.
-sort [number]

[number] ranges from 0 to 5 inclusive:
0 = by creation date
1 = by last access date
2 = by name
3 = by name (case sensitive)
4 = by extension
5 = by extension (case sensitive)
so if you wish to sort the menu entries according to their name, and in reverse, you would add onto the command line:
-revsort 2
the full command line might look something like this :
"c:\Program Files\Digi Tallis Developments\ShortPopUp\ShortPopUp.exe" -revsort 2

If you don't provide the sorting part of the command line, it will pick by creation date as a default.

What to display
 If told to, ShortPopUp can be told exactly what file types it will display on the menus.
-showonly [extensions]
lets you provide a list of extensions, and ShortPopUp will only display the files with one of the given extensions. For example
-showonly .m3u mp3
would only display .m3u's and .mp3's. Notice that the 'mp3' doesn't have a '.' on the front. ShortPopUp can spot this and add one on automatically.

If you do not provide any particular extensions to display, it will pick up every file in the starting directory.

What to remove
 By default, ShortPopUp removes the '.pif', '.url' and '.lnk' extensions, but you may want to be able to remove more.
-removeext [extensions]
lets you provide a list of extensions that you wish to remove from the displayed text that appears on the menu. For example
-removeext .m3u
would remove '.m3u' from all the files it has been told to display. So coupled with the -showonly command line flag, you could set ShortPopUp to display only '.m3u's and also remove the '.m3u' from them.

Sometimes setting up all the extensions you wish to remove can be tedious, so you can add
-removeallext
to make ShortPopUp remove the extension from all files encountered.

Menu layout
 ShortPopUp can now display bitmaps on the menus correctly. In order for ShortPopUp to do this you must provide the right flag on the command line.
-display [number] (xp) (flat) (rounded) (nobackground) (nooutline)
lets you specify what to display.

[number] ranges from 0 to 4 inclusive:
0 = just the file name
1 = small icon only (16x16 image)
2 = big icon only (32x32 image)
3 = filename and small icon
4 = filename and big icon
(xp) = a special keyword should you want the popup menus to look like WindowsXP.
(flat) = another special keyword that instructs ShortPopUp to remove the raised 3d border on a menu.
To get a fully XP-like menu, you should specify this as well as (xp).
(rounded) = another special keyword that instructs ShortPopUp to 'round' the corners of the menus.
(nobackground) = stops ShortPopUp from rendering anything on the menu background, effectively making it completely see-through. This can make overlapped menu's rather horrible! (And it doesn't work very well with -dothumbnailsontooltip!)
(nooutline) = stops ShortPopUp from drawing the menu border.

So if you wish to display just the small icon associated with the file, then you would add onto the command line
-display 1
and for the big icon and the filename, you would add
-display 4
If you wanted the menus to look like WindowsXP and have a small icon, then you would add
-display 1 xp flat
If you wanted the menus to look like the new AmigaOS, you would add
-display 3 rounded
If you wanted the menus to look like a cross between the new AmigaOS and WindowsXP, you would add
-display 3 xp flat rounded

If you don't specify the -display flag, then ShortPopUp will default to displaying just the filename.

If the file it has encountered is a shortcut (.lnk), a URL (.url) or an executable file of some kind (.com, .bat or .exe), it will, theoretically, correctly display the right icon. Everything else will all get one icon. Ie, all .dll's will get the same icon. The only reason it uses the same icon is to reduce overal memory consumption at run-time. Also, in order for ShortPopUp to display the bitmaps correctly, it has taken over the drawing of the menus. So if you run something like WindowBlinds that makes Windows look pretty, then the menu's that get displayed from ShortPopUp will look like ordinary system menus. Sorry about this!

Another pseudo-feature is that if the file that ShortPopUp encounters is a shortcut to something on a non-local drive (for example a server) then if the drive is 'alive' (ie you can see it), then the icon displayed will be correct, otherwise if the drive is 'dead' then the icon might not be exactly what you were after.

Shortcut
 In previous versions of ShortPopUp, when it was told to go and look for an icon associated with a file, it would 'resolve' the shortcut and retrieve the icon from there. This is good for some things, but bad if you've assigned your own icon to the shortcut.
-resolve
lets you turn ON the shortcut resolution.
(Old versions did this automatically, but now the default operation is NOT to do so.)

Text labels
 A rather pointless option, but one that helps out a little nevertheless.
-makepretty [number]
lets you tell ShortPopUp how to display the text labels on the menus.

[number] ranges from 0 to 3 inclusive:
0 = As given back from Windows.
1 = All lowercase. (i.e. "a file.exe")
2 = All uppercase. (i.e. "A FILE.EXE")
3 = First characters after space uppercase, all others lowercase. (i.e. "A File.exe")

Menu appears where?
 By default, ShortPopUp displays it's menu at the location of the mouse AFTER it has built up the menu. This is not always what you want. For example, you might want the menu to appear at the location of the mouse when you clicked on ShortPopUp, so that you can move the mouse to a location onscreen where you know a particular menu option WILL appear.
Specifying
-appearwhererun
on the command line will make ShortPopUp display it's menu where the mouse was when it was run, and not where the mouse is after it's built up it's menus.

Shift Running
 By default, ShortPopUp displays all the files in a given directory in a menu and lets you run them. Shift Running introduces a slightly different concept, but one that's a very good idea!
It works something like this.
  1. You specify, via the command line, the path of something to run. This path is local to where ShortPopUp was run from! Ie, if you have ShortPopUp in c:\utils and you supply the path "morestuff\app.exe" it will try and open c:\utils\morestuff\app.exe, but you can always specify the full path if you wish, ie e:\morestuff\app.exe.
  2. You run ShortPopUp and it automatically opens the 'something' you've specified in stage 1. But, if you held one of the SHIFT keys down when you ran ShortPopUp, the menu appears as normal.
But you might want this feature to work in reverse, ie, always pop up the menu, but if you hold any of the SHIFT keys down then open the 'something' you specified on the command line.
This is why
-shiftrun [path]
-revshiftrun [path]
exist. -shiftrun is the first way (Holding SHIFT makes the popup menu appear) and -revshiftrun is the second (Holding SHIFT makes the 'something' appear instead).

[path] = the path of the application to open.

Examples of where this could be used.
It's quite a flexible system, and it's up to you to abuse it as you see fit!

UPDATE : 09.12.01 :
Forcing menu position
 There are certain occasions where you want to tell the popup menu where to appear.
Specifying
-appearatx [position]
on the command line forces the popup menu to appear at that X location, similarly, putting -appearaty on the command line, forces the popup menu to appear at that Y location. Why two seperate command line flags? It gives you more control!

Blocking
 By default ShortPopUp stops the filename "shortpopup.exe" from appearing anywhere on the menu.
There are a few cases where you want to stop certain files from appearing at all.
Specifying
-block [filenames/extensions]
on the command line lets you do this!
It can take in extensions or full filenames, ie ".ini" or "hidemeplease.ini". In the first case, (".ini") all ".ini" files wouldn't appear on the menu, and in the second case, ("hidemeplease.ini") all ".ini" files, apart from "hidemeplease.ini" would appear on the menu. It's like -showonly in one sense, but can be used where you want stop certain files from appearing and you don't know what else is on the disk..

UPDATE 01.02.03 :
ShortPopUp used to hide folders that it deemed where 'empty' of files, to make the menu look cleaner. This functionality has recently been changed due to it causing ShortPopUp to be slow at appearing (Not to mention the bugs the code had).
ShortPopUp now displays ALL folders, empty folders getting an 'Explore' option by default. This might not be what you want, so
-blockfolders [foldername/fullpath]
lets you stop specific folders from appearing on your menus.

[foldername] = A generic name, ie 'bin'.
[fullpath] = A specific path, ie 'c:\dev\bin'.


Only directories/folders
 Should you wish to use ShortPopUp to display your directory structure, and NOT display any files, then you can do so by adding
-onlyfolders [text]
to the command line.

[text] = optional text to use instead of 'Explore'

If you wanted to display only folders, then you would add:
-onlyfolders
If you wanted to display only folders and change the default text to something else, then add:
-onlyfolders "Open me"

Only files
 By default ShortPopUp will automatically display directories as subfolders. If you want to stop this from happening, then add
-onlyfiles
to the command line.

Menu titles
 ShortPopUp is now capable of displaying a little title on the top of each menu should you wish one. You activate it by adding
-dotitles (gradient) (usedrivenames) (clicktoopenfolder) (nobackground) (nooutline)
to the command line.

(gradient) = optional keyword that tells ShortPopUp to fill the title with a gradient fill like an ordinary window.
(usedrivenames) = optional keyword that tells ShortPopUp to use the name you assigned to a drive instead of c:\, d:\ etc.
(clicktoopenfolder) = optional keyword that tells ShortPopUp to open an Explorer on the folder when you click on the title.
(nobackground) = optional keyword that tells ShortPopUp not to fill the background of the title. (This should really be used along with nobackground on the -display param, but it's entirely up to you.)
(nooutline) = optional keyword that stops ShortPopUp from drawing the thin outline around a title.

If the menu has too many options to be displayed on one screen, Windows will jump in and place up/down scroll arrows on the menu, this has the rather funny side-effect of letting you scroll the menu title off the screen so it isn't visible. Yes it's funny, no it won't be fixed. ;p
The text that gets placed into the menu is the name of the directory that the menu corresponds to (Unless of course you are using usedrivenames and the directory is a drive root).

Menu title images
 Similar to menu titles are menu title images. Putting
-dotitleimages [imagename] (usefirst | noclick)
onto the commandline will tell ShortPopUp to put an image at the top of a menu, if it can load one.

[imagename] = optional name of the image to load from each folder ShortPopUp scans. This is defaulted to 'folder.jpg', but can be anything (index.jpg, menu.bmp, folder.ico etc).
(usefirst) = optional keyword to tell ShortPopUp to use the first image it encounters per directory.
(noclick) = optional keyword to ShortPopUp letting you click (with either mouse button) on the title image.

Folder titles
 ShortPopUp takes the name of the folder to display as the title. This isn't always what you want, so by using
-foldertitle [path] [title]
on the command line lets you set the title for a particular folder.

[path] = the complete path to the folder you want to change the title of.
[title] = the title you wish to use.
If either [path] or [title] has spaces in it, then you will need to enclose them in speech marks (").

You can specify multiple titles with one foldertitle command like so:
-foldertitle [path] [title] [path] [title] [path] [title]

Vanishing menus
 Not vanishing, but transparent! It is now possible for ShortPopUp to display transparent menus!
And the level of transparency is completely down to you!
Adding
-transparent [amount]
onto the command line will turn this feature on. Sadly it's only available to Windows 2000 and Windows XP users.

[amount] = a number between 0 and 99.
0 -> no transparency. The menu appears solid.
99 -> Nigh on invisible.
Notice that you cannot set it above 99% because then you wouldn't be able to see the menu!

Termination
 Sometimes you might want ShortPopUp to terminate the moment the mouse pointer is outside ANY of the open menus. Putting
-dieonmouseout [time]
on the command line will do this.

[time] = how long to wait before terminating. It is in milliseconds, i.e. a time of 1000 would mean ShortPopUp terminates after 1 second

Menus for folders
 If you have made a shortcut to a folder, then ShortPopUp can be told to follow it, and turn it into a normal menu, but adding the
-menusforshortcutstofolders
command line flag.
For example:
If you had a folder 'c:\folder', and inside that, you had, a shortcut to 'c:\another', then you would get a sub-menu for 'c:\another', and not just a menu entry.

WARNING : It is quite legal, but very silly, to have a shortcut inside a folder to itself.
Ie, c:\folder\shortcut points back to c:\folder. If you run ShortPopUp inside c:\folder, then you will get a sub-menu for c:\folder, and a sub-menu for c:\folder on that sub-menu and so on.
You will eventually run out of memory to display all the menus!

Exploring
 This option is very similar to the -onlyfolders option, but where -onlyfolders limits ShortPopUp into displaying only folders, adding
-addexplore [text] (top | bottom | absolutetop | absoluetbottom )
onto the command line will make ShortPopUp add an 'explore' menu entry to the menu.

[text] = optional text to use instead of 'explore'
(top | bottom | absolutetop | absoluetbottom ) = keywords to make ShortPopUp position the 'explore' entry at either the top, or the bottom, of the list of files, or at the absolute top or bottom of the menu

For example, if you wanted to add an 'explore' menu entry, with the text "Open me", you would add
-addexplore "Open me"
onto the command line.
If you wanted to add an 'explore' menu entry, with the text "Open me", and position at the bottom of the menu, then you would add
-addexplore "Open me" bottom
to the command line.
If you wanted to add an 'explore' menu entry, with the text "Open me", and position it at the absolute top of the menu, above the folders, then you would add
-addexplore "Open me" absolutetop
to the command line.

If you click on this 'explore' menu entry, an Explorer will appear, viewing the directory.
Some people might need it, hence it's been added. =]

Opening
 There are occasions when you just want to open every file in a menu. Putting
-addopenall [text] [extensions] (hidefilesfrommenu) (absolutetop | top | bottom | absolutebottom)
onto the command line will make ShortPopUp place a menu option that lets you do just that.

[text] = optional text to use instead of 'open all'
[extensions] = a list of all the extensions you want to be able to open.
(hidefilesfrommenu) = optional keyword to instruct ShortPopUp to not display the files on the menu.
(absolutetop | top | bottom | absolutebottom) = where to position the new menu entry.

If you do not provide a list of extensions, then every single file displayed on the menu will be opened in whatever application (if any) is associated with it.
If you -block any files, then they cannot be opened as they were ignored when ShortPopUp built the menu, so it doesn't know about them to open them.

For example:
-addopenall "Open my mp3's!" *.mp3 hidefilesfrommenu
This would let you open ALL .mp3's in a directory, but not display them on the menu.
-addopenall "Open my mp3's!" *.mp3
This would let you open ALL .mp3's in a directory, and display them on the menu.

Unique icons
 By default, the icon that ShortPopUp uses to display for folders is one singular folder icon. Sometimes you may have assigned your own special icon to a folder on your disk, to make it look better than the default Windows one.
If you add
-iconsforfolders
onto the command line, then every folder that ShortPopUp comes across will get it's own unique icon that you have assigned, if you have assigned it one.
The best example of this would be to run ShortPopUp in the same directory as the Start Menu, add on the -iconsforfolders command line flag, and what appears should look exactly the same, or near as damnit, to what appears when you click on the 'Start' button.

No showing of hidden
 ShortPopUp displays every file/folder that it comes across, even if the file/folder is marked as 'hidden'.
You can make ShortPopUp hide 'hidden' files/folders from it's menus by putting
-noshowhidden
onto the command line.

ShortPopUp should really check to see what you have told Explorer to do with 'hidden' files (ie, display them or not), but doing it the way it has been done gives you more flexibility in the end.

Maximum menu width
 Because ShortPopUp uses your directory structure, and because Windows allows directory structures that can be a maximum of 256 characters, and because ShortPopUp uses the font you've chosen for menu's, there are the odd occasions where you want to restrict the width of the displayed menu's (So they don't cover up your entire screen for example). Adding
-maxmenuwidth [width]
on the command line lets you do this.

[width] = a number between 0 and whatever you feel like.

Notice that even if you chose to limit the menu width to 5 pixels, ShortPopUp will always make enough space for an icon and some part of the menu text to be displayed.

Menu X alignment
 To give you more control over where the menu appears, you can now specify
-menuxalignment (left | centre | right)
on the command line.

(left | centre | right) = a specific keyword as listed below :
left = the left edge of the menu will be at the mouse pointer X position.
centre = the menu will be centred horizontally about the mouse pointer X position.
right = the right edge of the menu will be at the mouse pointer X position.

Menu Y alignment
 Just like the -menuxalignment option, you can specify where on the Y the menu should be positioned, by adding
-menuyalignment (top | middle | bottom)
on the command line

(top | middle | bottom) = a keyword from the list below :
top = the top edge of the menu will be at the mouse pointer Y position.
middle = the menu will be centred vertically about the mouse pointer X position.
bottom = the bottom edge of the menu will be at the mouse pointer Y position.

Only one menu
 There have been a few requests through from ShortPopUp users to recurse all the subdirectories but not display them as submenus, but rather, display them all on one menu. Adding
-onlyonemenu
on the command line will make ShortPopUp do this.

Folders at bottom
 Another commen feature request is to change the order of how the menu appears. So instead of having all the submenu's grouped together at the top, they can appear at the bottom. Adding
-foldersatbottom
will force ShortPopUp to locate the submenus for subfolders at the bottom of any popup menu that appears.

Availability check
 Do you feel that ShortPopUp is wasting time checking to see if a drive is active or not?
Does ShortPopUp take a little time to appear for no real discernable reason?
Then add
-noavailablecheck
to the command line and ShortPopUp won't perform any availability checking, instead it'll be left to the OS when you select something.

Thumbnails
 ShortPopUp is now capable of displaying, on a tooltip, thumbnail images extracted from files. To do this, you would add
-dothumbnailsontooltip
to the command line.

You can control the size of the thumbnail image that gets generated by using
-dothumbnailsontooltipsizex [number]
-dothumbnailsontooltipsizey [number]
These two command line params control the X size and the Y size appropriately, if you do not provide them, the default values are 320 and 240.

ini file
 Because ShortPopUp now has a large amount of commandline parameters, and it's beginning to get a bit ugly typing all the available options on one line, ShortPopUp can now load an .ini file!
To tell ShortPopUp what inifile to load, you add
-useinifile [filename]
to the commandline.

The inifile should be a text file, with all the parameters that you would normally put on the commandline. For example:
-menusforshortcutstofolders
-display 3 flat xp
-addexplore "Open here..."
-block .ini
-addopenall
-dothumbnailsontooltip
-dotitles
-dotitleimages

Image reduction
 By default the -dotitleimages takes the real size of the image it is meant to display. Sometimes, this may be too big for your liking, adding
-imagereductionx [number] or
-imagereductiony [number]
to the command line lets you reduce either the X or the Y size of the image by a given amount.

Start directory
 If you are using ShortPopUp with a Dock, sometimes it isn't possible to set the 'start in' directory. Adding
-startdirectory [path]
to the command line lets you set the 'start in' directory.

[path] = the path to the directory you wish ShortPopUp to start in. It must be enclosed in quotes, for example -startdirectory "c:\my shortcuts\internet related".

Seperate files and folders
 To make your menus look nicer, you might want to separate the folders from the files. You can do this by adding
-separatorbetweenfilesandfolders
to the command line.

Seperator before and after
 As well as separating files and folders on the menu, you might also want to separate various folders/files from each other. Adding
-separatorbefore [path/name/filename ]
to the command line will place a separator before the identified menu item.
Similarly adding
-separatorafter [path/name/filename]
will place a separator after the identified menu item.

[path] = an absolute path to the file or directory.
[name] = the text that appears on the menu.
[filename] = a filename, with extension.

Break before and after
 You can break the menu into individual columns by adding
-barbreakbefore [path/name/filename ]
to the command line will break the menu into another column before the identified menu item.
Similarly adding
-barbreakafter [path/name/filename ]
to the command line will break the menu into another column after the identified menu item.

[path] = an absolute path to the file or directory.
[name] = the text that appears on the menu.
[filename] = a filename, with extension.

Example command line flags
 -display 3 -sort 2
Will display small bitmaps, with menu text and will be sorted by name.
-display 2 -sort 1
Will display large icons, NO menu text and will be sorted by last file access date.
-display 3 -showonly m3u .mp3 -removeext .m3u mp3
Will display small bitmaps, with menu text and be sorted by file creation date.
Will only show mp3 and m3u files and will also remove the mp3 and m3u file extensions.
-display 3 -resolve -makepretty 1
Will display small bitmaps, with bitmaps that don't have the 'arrow' overlay image, and the text labels will all be lowercase.
-shiftrun "c:\program files\winamp\winamp\winamp.exe"
Would run Winamp by default, but would display the menu if you held down the shift key when you ran ShortPopUp.
-appearatx 50 -appearaty 200 -block .mp3
Would make the popup menu appear at 50,200 and also block every single .mp3 from appearing.
-block .ini .dll .tmp
Would block all the .ini, .dll and .tmp files from appearing on the menu.
-display 3 xp -resolve
Would display small bitmaps, with menu text in a WindowsXP style menu.
Would resolve the shortcuts for files, meaning that they wouldn't have the little arrow icon on them.
-display 3 xp flat -dotitles -transparent 50
Would display small bitmaps, with menu text in a fully WindowsXP styled menu, with a title for each menu and all the menus would be 50% transparent.
-dieonmouseout
Would cause ShortPopUp to quit the moment a mouse left ANY of the open menus.
-menusforshortcuttofolders
Would cause ShortPopUp to display submenus for every single shortcut to a folder that it came across.

What does it work with?
  Windows 3.1probably not, but you never know!
  Windows 95you can't put shortcuts on a 95 taskbar, but you can on the desktop.
  Windows NTyou can't put shortcuts on a NT taskbar, but you can on the desktop.
  Windows 98no problems.
  Windows MEuntested, but it's the same codebase as 98, so should be ok.
  Windows 2000tested with no problems.
  Windows XPworks ok, allegedly.

Known bugs
  1. Scrolling offscreen of the menu title.
    It's not a bug, it's a feature. ;p
  2. Running from a directory that has a lot of subdirectorys and then proceeding to open each submenu might cause ShortPopUp to crash.
    The innards of ShortPopUp have been jiggled about a bit, so instead of creating all the menus that it needs before displaying them, it creates them when it needs them.
    BUT, it doesn't destroy menu's it's already created if they aren't being shown anymore.
    The result of this is that the more menus you open, the more memory you will consume.
  3. Slow 'discovery' of unavailable networked machines
    The code used is standard Windows code, and it's Windows that's being slow. Grr.
    When you try and use a shortcut to a networked machine, if the machine isn't available, then Windows takes forever to figure it out and return.
Contact details
 This small application is completely and utterly free, all that we ask is that you email us and let us know that you're using it. If you could also let us know where on the planet you are, then that would be nice too.
If you wish to make a donation to the 'keep Digi Tallis in beer and ice-cream' fund, then also get in touch, and we'll see what we can sort out.

The email is
orm@digitallis.co.uk

The website, where we'll release newer version with extra things in (if you ask for them) is
www.digitallis.co.uk

Version history
v4.1 - 06/09/03
  • Fixed bug with /addexplore opening the wrong folder.
  • Fixed bug with /dotitles causing /addexplore on submenus to get incorrect icon.
  • Fixed bug with disabling of menu entries for links to non-existant network machines.
  • Fixed bug with multiple .pif's all getting the same icon.
  • Massive speed increase in SPU appearing.
  • Subfolders -always- get added to menus.
  • Added /dotitleimages command and params to display an image at the top of a menu.
  • Added /blockfolders command and params to remove certain folders from appearing.
  • Added /openall command and params to open all files detected in a folder.
  • Added /dothumbnailsontooltip command to display thumbnail contents on a tooltip.
  • Added /removeallext command to remove all extensions from files.
  • Added /imagereductionx and /imagereductiony command to automatically reduce title images by a certain amount.
  • Added /useinifile command to let you stick all options in an .ini file.
  • Added 'clicktoopenfolder' to /dotitles to open the folder when you click on a title.
  • Added 'gradient' to /dotitles to draw a normal gradient fill in the title background.
  • Added 'usedrivenames' to /dotitles.
  • Added 'nobackground' and 'nooutline' to /display and /dotitles.
  • Added 'left' to /dotitles to draw the title on the left of the menu.
  • Added /onlyfiles to stop subfolders from appearing on a menu.
  • Added 'by extension' options to /sort.
  • Added /separatorbetweenfilesandfolders command to let you make prettier menus.
  • Added /separatorabove and /separatorbelow commands to make the menus prettier.
  • Added /barbreakbefore and /barbreakafter commands to let you split the menus up into columns.
  • Added /startdirectory command.
  • Added a timer parameter to /dieonmouseout to control when SPU dies.
  • Added right-click context menu functionality.
  • Added 'noclick' to /dotitleimages.
    • v4.0 - 20/12/02
  • Fixed 'quirk' with -noshowhidden.
  • Being able to -addexplore at the absolute top/bottom of a menu.
    • v3.9 - 18/12/02
  • -onlyonemenu option added.
  • -foldersatbottom option added.
  • -noavailablecheck option added.
  • Being able to handle shortcuts to folders on a networked machine.
    • v3.8 - 03/09/02
  • -menuxalignment and -menuyalignment options added.
  • rounded menu option added.
  • Double clicking on folders to open an exporer on that directory.
    • v3.7 - 04/07/02
  • Back to only adding sub-menus if there are files in it.
  • Fixed a graphical glitch with the XP style of menu.
    • v3.6 - 24/05/02
  • Removal of some test code that I'd left in which was causing problems with icon sizes..
    • v3.5 - 23/05/02
  • -maxmenuwidth no longer chopping off the last few pixels of text in certain situations.
  • Automatic disabling of shortcuts to drives working ok.
  • Removing {...} text from menu titles.
  • Small icons are always 16x16 now.
  • Possible fix to a reported resource leaking problem on Windows95.
    • v3.4 - 12/05/02
  • -maxmenuwidth now working with -sort option. Oopsie.
  • Automatic disabling of files/folders that aren't available working again.
    • v3.3 - 10/05/02
  • Really quick update to stop disabling files that don't exist since the detection code seems to be a little bit broken and is having knock-on effects.
    • v3.2 - 09/05/02
  • -dieonmouseout working for all menu types.
  • Addition of -noshowhidden.
  • Non available files/folders dealt with better (disabled menu items).
  • Obtaining the correct icon sizes to fix drawing bugs.
  • Changing mouse cursor when working.
  • Removing {...} text from entries by default.
  • Not terminating instantly if using -dieonmouseout from a quicklaunch.
  • Addition of -maxmenuwidth.
  • Extra options on -addexplore to position the 'explore' menu entry.
  • HTML version of the documentation.
    • v3.1 - 23/04/02
  • WindowsNT menu drawing bugs fixed.
  • New -addexplore option.
  • Unique icons for folders covered.
  • Smaller memory footprint than before.
    • v3.0 - 08/04/02
  • Terminating ShortPopUp if the mouse leaves an open menu.
  • Proper 'flat' menus with no 3d border.
  • Submenus for shortcuts to folders.
  • Menu transparency.
    • v2.9 - 29/03/02
  • WindowsXP style menus for non-icon menus, ie -display 0.
  • Menu titles added in.
  • Much quicker at booting and consumes far less memory.
    • v2.8 - 10/02/02
  • WindowsXP style menus.
  • Slightly faster menu drawing.
  • A few tiny optimisations which might help out execution speed.
  • Displaying only folders option added in.
  • When 'opening' a sub-folder, the icon changes accordingly.
  • -resolve is MUCH quicker now.
    • v2.7 - 01/01/02
  • Last menu appearance bug squashed. Hopefully.
    • v2.6 - 31/12/01
  • Spotting drag and drop and 'opening' the drop-ee.
    Folders will appear as a popup menu, and files will just 'open'.
  • Stopped menu appearing at top of screen. Doh. [Head smack sound]
  • .exe, .com, .bat all should get the right icon.
  • If the menu appears with something selected, it's state will show correctly now.
    • v2.5 - 18/12/01
  • Forcing menu position.
  • Blocking files and extensions from appearing.
    • v2.4 - 09/12/01
  • Double commands for shift-running added.
    • v2.3 - 02/12/01
  • New shift-run stuff added.
  • "Appear where mouse was when run, not at location of mouse now" done.
    • v2.2 - 26/11/01
  • The menu should never go off the screen ever again. (In theory! )
    • v2.1 - 18/11/01
  • MakePretty options added in.
  • Only resolving the links if it has been told to.
  • Fix for opening shortcuts to dial up networking things.
    • v2.0 - 28/10/01
  • Menu drawing on Windows 2000 working ok now!
    • v1.9 - 17/10/01
  • Better menu handling which should fix the bad icons for folders bug.
    • v1.8 - 16/10/01
  • Bitmap's on menus aded in.
    • v1.7 - 11/09/01
  • More command line flags added to give you more control of what is displayed.
  • Will now work from C:\ too. (Silly bug fixed)
    • v1.6 - 02/06/01
  • Some sorting options added.
  • Filters out ShortPopUp.exe from the menus.
  • Also gets rid of .LNK and .URL (as well as .lnk and .url).
    • v1.5 - 07/05/01
  • Oops, mistake on code below, I'd added it to the directory searcher, but not the file searcher. Oops.
    • v1.4 - 01/05/01
  • Any file that starts with '.' won't be displayed. (This should get rid of the '.' and '..' appearing too.)
    • v1.3 - 29/04/01
  • Removal of the .url extender as well as the .lnk extender.
    • v1.2 - 07/04/01
  • This version tells you why a link hasn't be opened. (If windows tells ShortPopUp that is!).
    • v1.1 - 05/04/01
  • New version that can handle directories, so it'll do cascading menus.
  • Bigger executable size to make sure the 'missing .dll' problem doesn't crop up and bite you on the bum.
  • Supplied with nice DT logo icon's.
    • v1.0 - 01/03/01
  • Basic functionality.

    • Cheers, and say goodbye to taskbar clutter!

    ()rm..
    Digi Tallis.
    6th September 2003