I need to open PowerPoint presentations directly as Slideshow in my Electron App, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge.
To start direct in Presentation-Mode PowerPoint demands the Parameter "/s" given with the call to the .exe File.
I tried with the electron shell command and also with nodes child-process (which I would prefer), but I could not figure out how to pass the Parameter.
It would work this way:
const cp = require("child_process");
cp.exec('"c:\\Program Files (x86)\\microsoft office\\office14\\powerpnt.exe" /s "C:\\PathToPowerpoint\\file.pptx"')
The Problem is,
I cannot call powerpnt.exe this way, because I have no Idea which Version (and therefore which Path) of PowerPoint is installed on the Client Computer
It seems there is no way to attach the Parameter somewhere else. cp.exec('"C:\\PathToPowerpoint\\1.pptx /s"') (or anything like that) is not accepted by PowerPoint. It Starts, but in "normal" mode.
I have very few to no possibilities to change or control the files before opening (so no chance of changing every .pptx into a .ppsx)
Does anybody know if there is a way in Node to add PowerPoint to windows system path variables, or determine where "powerpnt.exe" resides on a specific Computer without scanning every Folder, or... any idea?
Related
It's maybe stupid question, but what happens behind the scenes when i double click the word app, or .exe app?
For 'Non-Developer' it just opens the file in right environment after doubleclicking. But I would like to know, how is it done, how can the file manager know what to open? (.docx in word, .txt in texteditor,etc...)
+ I would like to know how can I do that in Node.js, is it the best way to use child_process and if statements for every suffixes?
There is a file association to tell Windows how to treat a certain file extension. You can type assoc in a Windows Command Prompt to see them. As an example:
C:\test>assoc .txt
.txt=txtfile
So Windows knows now, that the file with the extension .txt is a txtfile.
ftype defines, how that filetype is to be handled:
C:\test>ftype txtfile
txtfile=%SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE %1
So whenever you doubleclick on a file, Windows checks if it is associated with any filetype. Then it looks up, how to handle that filetype and executes that command (in the example above, it opens Notepad with the filename as a parameter).
Both assoc and ftype are able to change the settings (for example to open .txt files with another editor). But if you try that, do yourself a favor and note the original settings, so you are able to revert your changes when needed.
The changes can also be done directly in the registry (not recommended, when you are not experienced in handling the registry)
For Node.js, you can use child_process to shell out to the start command which does similar things as the File Explorer.
E.g. start some/path/to/file.docx will open that file in the default program associated with the format.
I have a directory with multiple files. There is one main file and other ones in subdirectories (including in a virtual environment directory) all of which I want to open with one click in the same instance of PyCharm. Is there a way to do this? Is there a native PyCharm way? Is there a way to do it using a Bash script. For the latter I have managed using pycharm.sh (see Open files from the command line). However, the different files are opened in different PyCharm instances which is not what I want.
I just tried this on Windows running from CMD. Simply listing the paths to the files separated by a space opens them in a single editor instance. (Although the documentation doesn't clearly mention this possibility, suggesting only 1 single file/project as argument).
For example executing the following:
pycharm64.exe C:\test_file1.txt C:\test_file2.txt
Opens like this:
This means PyCharm does accept a list of individual files as command line arguments to open them in a single instance.
all of which I want to open with one click in the same instance of PyCharm.
If the above example works on your shell you should be able to create a shell script that can be clicked.
However, the different files are opened in different PyCharm instances which is not what I want.
I don't know if depending on the shell any special rule applies that might cause each file to be opened in a different PyCharm instance/window, but if that's the case there's also likely to be a shell specific syntax rule to launch a single instance of the application passing multiple arguments.
Is there a native PyCharm way?
It seems PyCharm is naturally geared to working with projects. Looking closely at some functionalities like open/close/search in the PyCharm IDE their logic is entirely "project oriented" not like the usual concept of opening a set of unrelated files as in some other editors. (This is actually really smart, it doesn't clutter the UI with marginal functionalities and it forces users to set up a project - see this thread for a similar example about using search with individual unrelated files in PyCharm).
If you look at the screenshot, it's noteworthy that only 1 file is listed in the Project Tool Window although several files are opened in the editor.
I am trying to edit the corflags file so that I can run 32bit applications on a 64 bit pc but everytime I try to edit the file using something like corflags.exe assembly /32bit+ it comes up with the error message cf001 could not open file for writing.
Now I have tried a lot of different options such as:
Running in administrator mode;
Finding the file using a search and checking read only is not ticked
Checking that user full control is ticked
Tried to set the whole folder to non read only
When trying the whole folder, it goes through looking like it has set read-only, but then I click OK and re-right click on the whole folder, the box is filled in (not ticked) does this mean that part of the folder is read only and why does it reset to read only?
I just faced the same problem and have tried the same things.
Run cornflags from an elevated ("Run as administrator") Visual Studio Command Prompt. I did the same for a copy of the original .exe just to make sure no other process was using the program.
Create a copy of the file you intend to target with CorFlags.
(e.g. "WcfServiceHost.exe" --creates--> "WcfServiceHost - Copy.exe")
Rename the original file to something else:
(e.g. "WcfServiceHost.exe" --> "WcfServiceHose_Original.exe")
Rename to copy to the original file name
(e.g. "WcfServiceHose - Copy.exe" --> "WcfServiceHost.exe"
For my purposes, I created copies and named them describing their configuration:
Example:
WCFServiceHost_With32BitOn.exe
WCFServiceHost_With32BitOff.exe
Now I can destroy the WCFServiceHost.exe files and create them from these pre-modified copies. No more CorFlags operations necessary.
Note: this is basically a more verbose version of #RMalke answer and that answer should be marked as the answer.
I realise this is years later, but for anyone else looking, I found that the quickest way was to copy cmd and corflags.exe into the same folder as the one you want to edit. Then run cmd as admin from there.
I am trying to open a downloaded .exe file but it closes as soon as it opens. Is there any possible way so that I can open it for a longer duration to read the content.
It's probably a console application rather than a GUI application. Use the command prompt to run the .exe.
Do the following...
Hold down your Windows key on your keyboard and then tap "R".
This will bring up the Run dialog. Type in "cmd" (without the quotes). Hit enter.
(this will work in all Windows versions - browsing the start menu/screen differs in each version)
If you saved the file to c:\downloads and it's called myFile.exe, type
C:
cd C:\Downloads
myFile.exe
Some of the steps are a bit redundant - if you know what you're doing in the command prompt then skip as needed (but then you probably wouldn't be posting this question). This will work even if you saved the file to D:\downloads.
Another example - if you saved the file to D:\folderA\Folder with a space\ and the file is called "my file with a space.exe" then type
D:
cd "D:\folderA\Folder with a space"
"my file with a space.exe"
If there is an issue (eg it's a 64-bit executable and you're on 32-bit Windows) then you may get a better error message at the command line.
There are so many reasons why the executable does not run. Here are some ways to check what is going wrong:
Is it your .exe? Do you known the "normal" behavior?
When you download it manually, it the result the same?
Do you download the .exe manually or via your application?
Do you see any problem in your Windows Event Viewer?
Is it the same result if you try to download the .exe via different browsers (IE, FF, ...)?
More details are welcome!
The nuget.exe file is not a console GUI application but rather a console package. Once you've downloaded it, you'll want to place it in a folder outside your Downloads folder. For example, C:\NuGet\nuget.exe - then set it as a PATH variable so that it's executable from anywhere.
I just installed WinGHCi. When I try to load an .hs file with Ctrl+L, it opens the file browser in C:\Program Files (x86)\Haskell Platform\2012.2.0.0\winghci which is where I installed this. I don't want it to go there by default, I keep my code files in a different directory on a different drive and I don't want to have to navigate to D:\MyPath\Haskell every time I load a file.
I tried to set the "Start in" field of the shortcut I use to launch WinGHCi but it changed nothing.
How can I make WinGHCi look in my own directory by default?
It opens in the last directory you opened a .hs or .lhs from.
Try opening something from the folder you want, exit, restart.
Did it restart where you were?
Try working like that for a while, and if you like it (I do) then you're fine.
If you really do want to go to the same place every time, perhaps there's a way.
I can't find any setting to control this, but the information is stored in the registy.
Mine is at
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Haskell\WinGHCi 1.0.6]
"WorkingDir"="D:\\Files\\Andrew\\prog\\haskell"
You can save your version of that as resetghci.reg:
To make your own, open regedit and first try the same location. If not, search for WinGHCi.
You can export that subtree but you get the whole lot including recent expressions etc, which I don't think you should reset. Save that as ghcioriginal.reg just in case. Edit away all the lines except WorkingDir and save as resetghci.reg
When you double-click it it will ask you if you're sure you want to add that info to the registry. Yes you are.
Untested:
What follows works on older versions, but Microsoft seem to be going off .pif files and the start command, and I'm not able to test this in Windows 7.
Make a text file called ghci.bat in the same folder as the .reg you made. In it put
#echo off
regedit resetghci.reg
start WinGHCi
You might need to specify the full path to WinGHCi.
The start command is the windows equivalent of making a background process from a shell prompt, so this should terminate immediately.
Make a shortcut to ghci.bat (it will be called ghci.pif) and set it to open minimised and put a nice lambda icon on it (nick it from the winghci executable).
Pop that on your desktop, start menu or shortcut bar, and when you use it, you'll be popped back to your standard location.