tlbdata polution - why is this necessary?

I understand why the file might be necessary for directories that I have created virtual folders for, but why must I have a tlbdata file placed in every directory on every drive in my system? I don't know if you could call this a bug, but this behaviour is unexpected and not wanted.

If I turn off the virtual folder cache, will they automatically clean up, or do I have to find and delete them manually?

I'm using 1.2.9.1 RC3

Thanks,
Stephen

TLB creates tlbdata files only inside the toolbar folder.

Toolbar Folder - the folder where TLB store shortcuts and settings. To open toolbar folder right-click on empty space of toolbar and select "Open" menu item.

On the other hand you can select the root folder (C:\, E:\ ...) as toolbar folder (in the version 1.2.9 I've disabled to do this but you can select root folder if setup it in the Toolbars tab of the settings dialog). In this case you will see all files and folders of the drive on toolbar as buttons...and get tlbdata in every folder of drive.

So please do not select root folder as toolbar folder. On some systems (especially after some kinds of tweaking) TLB cannot find Quick Launch folder automatically - this can cause the bug when root folder will be selected. In this case just hold down CTRL key when opening TLB and select right folder from dialog box.

If I turn off the virtual folder cache, will they automatically clean up, or do I have to find and delete them manually?

Virtual folders do not take effect in this case. You can remove tlbdata from any places except for toolbar folder. If you will find tlbdata again write me about this. I'll try to locate the bug.

Yuri, the only folder I've added since installing is a network drive - and strangely, the network drive doesn't have any tlbdata files on it, just my local drives.

The network drive is a mapped drive via a Novell netware login script. I am running the latest Novell client for Windows XP. A couple of days after creating the virtual folder, the tlbdata files just started appearing everywhere - I even have one on my desktop.

Strange stuff...there must be some wierd interaction with Novell.

Thanks for the fast response,

Stephen

Virtual Folders have no relation to this.
Do you install versiom 1.2.9 or update TLB from other version?
You opened the second toolbar (or use the Switch Toolbar feature)? tlbdata files are created when TLB opens at first time.

Also as I know when tlbdata creates on entire drive explorer hungs for long time while all files will be populated into toolbar. At this time you can see the strange HDD activity. You had such problems sometime?

hmm. Ok, that explains a lot. I installed 1.2.9 a couple of days ago. No upgrade. I created a new toolbar, and gave it a name, but never gave it a path. Then I tried to switch to this toolbar, and everything related to explorer seemed to freeze - so after waiting a few minutes, I killed explorer in task manager, and let it restart.

I probably should not have been able to create a toolbar without a path...

Stephen

Now I see my bug. In the next version I'll disable to use empty or invalid path for toolbar.

I don't know if this is the same problem or a related one.

If I right click and drag a mapped drive to a TLB menu and release I get the usual context menu:

Move Here
Copy Here
Create Shortcut(s) Here
-----------------------
Cancel

If I click "Create Shortcut(s) Here" TLB will freeze while it creates a virtual folder to the C: drive and populates tlbdata files to every directory on my hard disk.

Is it possable that it could create the shortcut instead.

On a related note, if I have a shortcut to a mapped drive that isn't connected it won't work in TLB but if I click on it in explorer it will create the connection and open up the directory.

Please tell your Windows version!
Also you say

TLB will freeze while it creates a virtual folder to the C: drive

But in this case you must select Create Menu Here menu item ??? So what menu item do you select?
Also tell about what is menu you drop the drive C: into. Is this virtual folder or not?

I am running NT4 SP6.

Upon further investigation and much disk thrashing it appears that the problem is with Drag and Drop not working as expected.

If I drag & drop (left or right button) any fixed or mapped drive to TLB it will always create a virtual folder of the the C drive. I would expect it to always create a shortcut to the drive.

If I drag & drop a folder into TLB it will create a shorcut without the .lnk extension. Adding the .lnk extension makes it a valid shortcut.

So that it doesn't get lost in the discussion there is also the following problem:

If I have a shortcut to a mapped drive (or folder on a mapped dirve) that isn't connected (doesn't appear in My Computer) it won't work in TLB. Specificaly I get a dialog with the following message:

"The drive or network connection that the shortcut '<share> on <server>.lnk refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again."

However, if I right click on TLB and select "open" and click on the shortcut in explorer it will create the connection and open up the directory.

Sam Hasler
Thank you for bug report. I've reproduced the bug and will fix it in the next version.

Thanks for the fix. Installed 2.2.0.1 today and dragged D: to a menu and there was no thrashing, and it was a shortcut to D:

Hurrah!

There is still this problem though:

If I have a shortcut to a mapped drive (or folder on a mapped dirve) that isn't connected (doesn't appear in My Computer) it won't work in TLB. Specificaly I get a dialog with the following message:

"The drive or network connection that the shortcut '<share> on <server>.lnk refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again."

However, if I right click on TLB and select "open" and click on the shortcut in explorer it will create the connection and open up the directory.

OK, try to fix this bug in the next version.

Just installed 2204 and it still won't automaticaly reconnect to a networked drive when opening a shortcut.