{"id":6277,"date":"2019-05-12T00:36:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T00:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hexacorn.com\/blog\/?p=6277"},"modified":"2019-05-12T00:37:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T00:37:15","slug":"total-commander-plugins-their-automated-installation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hexacorn.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/12\/total-commander-plugins-their-automated-installation\/","title":{"rendered":"Total Commander Plugins & Their Automated Installation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Total Commander<\/a> (TC) and its Plug-ins are floating on the internet for a veeeery long time. As such, most of what I describe below is most likely known to many people. However, as it is with everything, it’s always good to just describe stuff from a DF\/IR angle, especially to ppl who never used or came across this program itself or a very specific subset of its features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And since this post is about TC, I must say for the millionth time that if you use Windows Explorer as your goto File Manager you are hurting yourself a lot. Once you try TC, FAR, or any type of the Orthodox File Managers<\/a>, there is no way back. It’s worth every single eurocent you have to pay for it. Btw. I am not paid to endorse this software, I just love it and recommend it to anyone who wants to be more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many other popular programs TC supports plug-ins. There are many of these, they are often pretty cool and they add a lot of extra features to this awesome program e.g. handling of additional file types, direct access to Registry, additional archiving options, etc. Some examples can be found here<\/a>. The page I linked to also includes a number of .chm files (search for a ‘guide’ keyword) that describe how to build your own plug-ins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The topic of this post is not TC or its plug-ins coding though. At least not directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I want to mention is this: the plug-ins support a mechanism that author of TC calls a ‘Plugins Automated Installation’. The idea is pretty straightforward – any common archive that TC opens\/sees that has the ‘pluginst.inf’ file present inside the archive will make TC recognize the file as a possible TC Plug-in. This is actually a very handy auto-install method and I personally used it a number of times in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When one opens such archive in TC, the following windows may appear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Or<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These messages come from the pluginst.inf file itself. The structure of the file is like any other standard .ini file, plus it needs these section bits to be defined:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[plugininstall]
description = description in English
description<lngcode> = description in the language identified by <lngcode>
type=<type>
file=<filename>
defaultdir=<path>
defaultextension=<extension><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The type determines what plug-in it is. The available types are: wcx, wfx, wlx or wdx  or lng. Additionally the plug-ins may include files with a .mnu or .bar file extension + various misc. files that support its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s a quick break down of what these file extensions are associated with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n