Hint: A more detailed version of the FAQ can be found on our
homepage www.ghisler.com
Q: Where can I find the latest version
of Total Commander?
A: On this page, you can find Total
Commander on the Internet at www.ghisler.com .
Q: Why does it take so long to launch
the 32-bit version on my 486?
A: Total Commander needs to load
the OLE2 libraries to do Drag&Drop from and to Explorer, and to show context
menus and property sheets. These libraries are very big, and take a lot of time
and space to load. You may prefer to use the 16-bit version on a 386 or 486,
since it doesn't need the OLE2 libraries. However, it also doesn't support
Drag&Drop from and to Explorer, and does show its own simplified context
menus.
Q: If I run a DOS program or a DOS
command from Total Commander's command line, I always land in c:\ (or another
fixed directory) instead of the current directory!
A: There is a directory saved in
the PIF file associated with the program. If you use Windows 3.1 or Windows NT,
you can use the PIF Editor to change the files _default.pif and
dosprmpt.pif (or 4dos.pif) in your Windows directory. The line
Working directory must be empty! You can press ALT+ENTER on the
PIF file to change it directly.
Q: From time to time we have a "General
protection fault" in Total Commander. The screen looks funny, the mouse cursor
freezes, etc. What can we do?
A: Often the bug isn't in Total
Commander, but the display driver. This is a component of Windows supplied by
the manufacturer of the display adapter card. First you should see if the same
problems occur with the standard VGA driver. If not, you should ask your vendor
for a new driver, or look on the Internet for an updated driver. Today, most
manufacturers have their own homepage with the latest drivers available for
download.
If you experience the same problems with
the VGA card and no other programs are running when the error occurs, you should
send me a bug report with the version of Total Commander and Windows you use,
the exact error address and the name of the module where the error occurs.
Q: When I delete some files, Windows
95/98 completely freezes!
A: Do you run Cleansweep? On some
computers, the Cleansweep file usage monitor seems to have problems with the
deletion method used in Total Commander. Total Commander uses default Win95/98
functions to move files to the recycle bin, but deletes each file separately
instead of deleting all in one function. The current version should avoid this
problem by using the Explorer method to delete files. You can force this mode by
setting Win95Delete=1 under section [Configuration] in wincmd.ini.
Q: Total Commander cannot access files
containing certain characters like ALT+255. What can I do?
A: DOS and Windows use different
character sets, ASCII and ANSI. Certain characters contained in ASCII such as
DOS line drawing characters do not exist in Windows! You must start a DOS box
and rename the file by hand with RENAME. The same applies to UNICODE names on
Windows NT.
Q: How do I keep Total Commander from
re-reading the directories in the file windows each time I switch to Total
Commander? With network drives this can take quite some time!
A: Put the following line in the
file wincmd.ini below [Configuration]:
Noreread=HIJ
Where HIJ are your network drives. The
directory can always be re-read by pressing F2.
Q: How can I see the contents of
self-extracting archives?
A: Put the cursor on the file, and
press CTRL+PgDn. This works with normal and self-extracting archives as
well as with directories.
Q: How can I add a program to the
button bar?
A: Simply press and hold down the
SHIFT key, then drag the program to the desired position in the button
bar.
Q: How can I delete or change a button
in the button bar?
A: Click with the right mouse
button on the bar and select 'Change' or 'Delete' from the popup menu.
Q: How can I quickly switch to an often
used directory?
A: A button can be created in the
button bar to take you directly to a specific directory, regardless of which
drive or directory is currently selected. To do so, select the directory, press
and hold down the SHIFT key, and drag the directory to the button bar. A new
icon will appear. Clicking on this icon will change the drive (if required) and
open the directory. Alternatively, you can create a menu entry in the directory
menu, which can be reached with Ctrl+D, or by double clicking on the file window
title.
Q: Is there a way to make Total
Commander display the disk space used by all directories in the current
directory individually?
A: Yes! Simply press
ALT+SHIFT+ENTER on a directory. Instead of <DIR> the size of this
directory and all its subdirectories will be shown! This will only work in full
view (i.e. all file details are shown).
Q: Can Total Commander use the 'Quick
View' file viewers in Windows 95/98?
A: When you press ALT+F3 (external
viewer), Total Commander first looks for an internal association specified in
the dialog 'Configuration' - 'Viewer/Editor'. Afterwards Total Commander checks
if the extension is associated with Quick View. If no viewer is found, the
default viewer specified in the configuration dialog is used.
Q: There is no longer a PIF editor in
Windows 95/98. How can I change the settings of my DOS programs?
A: Just press ALT+ENTER on the
application or its PIF file. This will open a property sheet for this
application.
Q: Total Commander saves the last 20
command lines, but since I often enter passwords and other confidential
information, I would like to disable this function.
A: This can be changed in the main
Configuration dialog, page Operation.
Q: Why does the selection around the
current file disappear if I enter something in the command line?
A: Windows doesn't allow an active
marker in two windows at the same time! You can get back into the file list by
pressing the up or down arrow.
Q: How can I easily rename a file? The
current name of the file should be given as the default!
A: Select the file and press
SHIFT+F6. This opens the in place rename box. To rename the file, enter
the new name and press ENTER.
Q: After the execution of a DOS command
such as DIR the window is closed so quickly that the output of the program is
unreadable!
A: You can start the program with
SHIFT+ENTER instead of ENTER. This leaves the window open after the program
terminates. The settings in noclose.pif will be used instead of
dosprmpt.pif.
Q: How can I start Total Commander with
a predefined directory, or even a ZIP file?
A: Total Commander now supports command line parameters to achieve
this.
Q: Is there a way to have different
settings for multiple users on the same machine?
A: You can use a command line parameter to use a different
ini file for each user. Just create multiple Total Commander icons in the
Windows start menu, with a different .ini file for each user!
Q: How can I suppress the splashscreen
when starting Total Commander?
A: Put the following line in the
file wincmd.ini below [Configuration]:
StartupScreen=0
Of course, this will only work in the
registered version.
Q: How about a Linux version?
A: Although this is planned, we
cannot yet give a release date. There are already at least two good
Commander-style tools for Linux:
mc (Midnight Commander) - a console mode
Commander, very powerful
xnc (X Northern Captain) - an X-Window
based Commander
Q: When I connect to my company FTP
server, I get an error that the server isn't supported. Why?
A: Unfortunately the file listing
produced by FTP servers is not standardized. Therefore Total Commander can only
support the most used servers. Currently it supports many styles Unix, DOS,
Windows, OS/2, AS/400 and VMS servers. If your server isn't supported, you can
still see the remote listing with Alt+Enter.
Q: When I try to install a newer
version of Total Commander, I get an error that the configuration file isn't
found. How do I install the update?
A: You probably opened the zip in
Total Commander, and double clicked on install.exe. This will not work, because
all other files in the zip will not be unpacked in this case.
You need to unzip the whole archive to an
empty directory, e.g. c:\install, and run install.exe from there. You can remove
the c:\install directory after the installation.
Q: How do I save or print a list of
files?
A: You have two options:
1. Create a button with the command
cm_copyfullnamestoclip . When you press it, all selected file names will be
copied to the clipboard, from which you can paste them to any program.
2. Download the diskdir plugin from
the Addons page on www.ghisler.com. It works like a packer, but creates a
human-readable list of all selected files (with size and date/time), including
subdirs.
Q: How do I remove (uninstall) the
program?
A: Since version 4.50 the 32 bit
version contains a program to remove Total Commander. You can reach it through
Control Panel - Add/Remove software, or by going to the Total Commander
directory and starting WCUNINST.EXE . If you have used the parallel port
connection on Windows NT or 2000, you should run uninstall as an administrator,
otherwise the parallel port driver cannot be removed.
Older versions can be removed by deleting
the Total Commander directory completely (usually c:\totalcmd).
Q: Why doesn't Drag&Drop on Recycle
Bin and other folders work in Windows 95/98 or later?
A: You should use the 32 bit
version of Total Commander. The 16-bit version doesn't support Drag&Drop to
32 bit programs like Explorer/My Computer. On Vista/7, you cannot drag files
from an elevated program (higher rights) to a non-elevated program, or vice
versa.
Q: The symbols in the button bar look
fuzzy and unclean.
A: Total Commander uses normal
32x32 or 16x16 icons in its button bar. To fit more icons on one line, Total
Commander shrinks these icons. The size can be defined in the dialog Configuration - Button bar. If you don't like
the fuzzy look, you can set the size to 32 or 16 to avoid
shrinking the icons, use the 'small icons' option.
Q: Where can I find Zip-NT by Info-Zip
to pack files with long filenames?
A: You can find Zip-NT at the
following WWW address: http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/ (use Netscape or
Internet Explorer to download). Unfortunately this version does NOT support high
ASCII characters like German "Umlauts" and French or Scandinavian accents! You
should use the internal ZIP packer which supports all this! You should only use
ZIP-NT if you need special command line switches like zip file comments,
freshen, or update.
Q: When I run Total Commander I get a
message that the file ctl3dv2.dll isn't installed correctly, but it's there in
Total Commander's directory!
A: The file ctl3dv2.dll only works
if it is either in your Windows- or Windows\system directory!
Please copy it there and delete all other copies of ctl3dv2.dll, especially the
one in your Total Commander directory! This only affects the 16-bit version. The
32-bit version uses ctl3d32.dll.
