I. Use XTree as Installation monitor

II. Quick access to the Windows context-/properties-menu

III. Quick "clean-up" of the directory view
 
 

How to watch what files have been added, removed or updated through an installation process, using XTree:

1. Switch to the disk you want to watch, place the cursor to the root directory and, if not done already, log the whole disk by hitting "*"

2. The cursor still on the root directory, select Ctrl-F7 (Tag branch); all files of the current disk are now tagged.

3. Invoke the Print command by hitting "P" and select "C" (Catalog of tagged files). Then Hit "P" (Print to), the default entry should be LPT1, change this to a path-/filename of your choice, e.g. "C:\InstMon\Filelist_1.txt" and hit enter again; a file with your desired path-/filename will be created now, containing all directory/file-information of the current disk.

4. Leave ZTree and perform the installation of a new application.

5. After finishing the complete installation, and, recommended, running the recently installed application the first time and test some of its features,
close the program and call ZTree again.

6. Now repeat steps 1 to 3, only choose another filename in the "Print to"-option, for example "C:\InstMon\Filelist_2.txt"

7. Now you are able to easily view the changes made by selecting the first file (e.g.Filelist_1.txt) and JFC it to the second one (e.g. Filelist_2.txt).
That's it ! You can do a similar thing with your registry, by exporting the whole reg-tree before and after installation; but that's off-topic here, if you want details, just mail me.
 
 
 

If you're using XTree/Ztree under Win95 that's some useful interactions between XTree/ZTree and the Windows Explorer :

 Fastest way to access the Windows context-/properties-menu of the highlighted file: Hit Alt-Batch and enter " explorer /select,%1 " (and later store this in the history list with the insert-key)
then, in the explorer-window, hit Shift-F10 (context menu) or Alt-Enter (properties, where you can switch between different tabs with Ctrl+Tab), to return to Ztree close the windows with Alt-F4.
So you see, you don't need a mouse for this ! Extremely useful e.g. for a quick view of the last accessed date or version infos of exe or dll files. You could also use "explorer %3" instead as Alt-batch entry, here windows will not set the focus to the current file (if you just want to see how the icons in the current directory look like, for example).
 
 
 

How to clean up a tangled directory view

 Try the "$"-key, it will relog the current disk. This is especially useful if you use root only logging method as default and have opened a large number of directories and subdirectories, you are able to perform a quick "clean up" of the directory view with the "$" keystroke !
(This is not the same in good old XTree, even in the last version, the "$"-key won't do anything...)
 

more to come...