Folder Scramble

I posted this over at the General Discussion but, since I got no reply, I figured maybe this is the proper place to get an answer:

A long time ago I had created a Menu on TLB (I guess this is a virtual folder) and placed a bunch of items (shortcuts) within that menu in a certain order. I am not sure what happened but today the items within that menu are not in the order they had been in. I also am aware that the menu folder shows up in C:\Users\<your account>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.

I know that I can move the items around by clicking the item from the TLB and positioning it where it should be but is there also some manual way of sorting by editing the file?

Also am curious as to why the positions got scrambled.

Thanks,

Doug

I know that I can move the items around by clicking the item from the TLB and positioning it where it should be but is there also some manual way of sorting by editing the file?

Yes, you can, the item positions are stored in the files named tlbdata.xml. Right-click your menu and select "Open in explorer" to open the menu folder inside the toolbar folder. Open the selected folder in explorer and edit file tlbdata.xml. You need any editor that can reformat XML files into more readable view (I recommend Notepad++). So the xml file looks like

Code:

<tlbdata>
    <folder name="">
        <layout>
            <item name="A4 TECH PC Camera H"/>
            <item name="Administrative Tools"/>
            <item name="Maintenance"/>
            <item name="Microsoft SQL Server 2005" hidden="1"/>
            <item name="MiraScan V6.3 (5560 series(Q66))"/>
            <item name="Startup"/>
            <item name="Accessories" iconLocation="C:\WINDOWS\Cursors\Accessories\Accessories.ico,0"/>

The lines "<item..." define you menu items and the position in the file defines the position in menu.

If this is the virtual folder you can see the layouts for submenus:

Code:

        <childs>
            <folder name="Administrative Tools">
                <layout>
                    <item name="Event Viewer.lnk" LastAccess="128279841586370000" runCount="1"/>
                </layout>
            </folder>
            <folder name="Accessories">
                <layout>
                    <item name="Calculator.lnk" LastAccess="128799512452440000" runCount="1"/>
                    <item name="Remote Desktop Connection.lnk" LastAccess="128383440037010000" runCount="6"/>
                    <item name="Snipping Tool.lnk" LastAccess="130252191644510000" runCount="3"/>
                </layout>

Also am curious as to why the positions got scrambled.

What TLB version do you use? Do you remember is something like "Customize menu" was used? This can reset the item positions with some conditions: if you turn on any of options "Overwrite sub-menu options" or "Remove the menu levels in sub-menus".

I know that I can move the items around by clicking the item from the TLB and positioning it where it should be but is there also some manual way of sorting by editing the file?

Yes, you can, the item positions are stored in the files named tlbdata.xml. Right-click your menu and select "Open in explorer" to open the menu folder inside the toolbar folder. Open the selected folder in explorer and edit file tlbdata.xml. You need any editor that can reformat XML files into more readable view (I recommend Notepad++). So the xml file looks like

Code:

<tlbdata>
    <folder name="">
        <layout>
            <item name="A4 TECH PC Camera H"/>
            <item name="Administrative Tools"/>
            <item name="Maintenance"/>
            <item name="Microsoft SQL Server 2005" hidden="1"/>
            <item name="MiraScan V6.3 (5560 series(Q66))"/>
            <item name="Startup"/>
            <item name="Accessories" iconLocation="C:\WINDOWS\Cursors\Accessories\Accessories.ico,0"/>

The lines "<item..." define you menu items and the position in the file defines the position in menu.

If this is the virtual folder you can see the layouts for submenus:

Code:

        <childs>
            <folder name="Administrative Tools">
                <layout>
                    <item name="Event Viewer.lnk" LastAccess="128279841586370000" runCount="1"/>
                </layout>
            </folder>
            <folder name="Accessories">
                <layout>
                    <item name="Calculator.lnk" LastAccess="128799512452440000" runCount="1"/>
                    <item name="Remote Desktop Connection.lnk" LastAccess="128383440037010000" runCount="6"/>
                    <item name="Snipping Tool.lnk" LastAccess="130252191644510000" runCount="3"/>
                </layout>

Also am curious as to why the positions got scrambled.

What TLB version do you use? Do you remember is something like "Customize menu" was used? This can reset the item positions with some conditions: if you turn on any of options "Overwrite sub-menu options" or "Remove the menu levels in sub-menus".

I am using the latest (I believe) which is 7.1 (64-bit). I don't think I did anything fancy with creating my menus other than having the TLB present on a second monitor. It struck me odd that all of a sudden menu items were not in the order that I placed them in. I am using TLB on my computer at work and the only thing I can think of is that they installed some new firewall and did some other things and it could be that this happened at about that time.

Doug