Folder Menu

The worst navigation in computing happens inside a save dialog. You are eleven folders deep in a project, an application asks where to put a file, and the dialog opens somewhere unrelated with a sidebar containing none of the places you actually work. Folder Menu fixes exactly that, and the important part is how.

Press a hotkey or click the middle mouse button and a list of your folders appears. Choose one and the dialog you already have open jumps there. Nothing new opens, nothing is copied, and you are typing a filename two seconds later.

It redirects the window you already have

That distinction is the whole product. Plenty of tools will open a favourite folder in a new window, which is useless when an application is waiting for a path. This one changes the location of the window in front of you, whether that is a file browser, an open or save dialog, or a command prompt sitting at the wrong directory.

Because it works by recognising the window it is talking to, the same shortcut behaves correctly in all three contexts without you selecting a mode. Middle-clicking on the desktop instead shows the same list and opens the choice in a fresh window, which is the one case where a new window is what you wanted.

For general improvements to the file browser rather than to dialogs, tabs in the file browser address a different half of the same frustration.

Browsing from inside the list

The Folder Menu list is not limited to the folders you saved. Hovering an entry expands into its subfolders, so you can walk down a tree from the pop-up itself and land somewhere you never added as a favourite.

A modifier key reveals files alongside folders, which turns the same shortcut into a launcher for documents you open constantly. On later system generations an open folder can also be filtered by file type from within the pop-up, so a directory holding four hundred mixed files shows only the ones you care about.

Curating the list, and capturing paths as you go

Adding a favourite is a drag and drop into the options panel. Reordering uses a modifier with the arrow keys, removing uses the delete key, and entries can be grouped into submenus so a long list stays navigable. Icons can be assigned per file extension, or switched off entirely if you prefer text.

The more useful direction is the reverse one. Folder Menu can take the path of whatever folder is currently open, in a browser window, a dialog or a command prompt, and add it to your favourites directly. Building the list becomes something that happens while you work rather than a configuration session.

A recent folders entry sits alongside the saved ones, with a configurable length and an option to list only folders rather than files.

Opening whatever you highlighted

One function has nothing to do with folders and is the thing people remember. Highlight a path, a web address or a registry key anywhere on screen, press a hotkey, and it opens.

That covers an annoyance most people meet weekly. A colleague pastes a network path into a message, and instead of copying it, opening a browser window and pasting it into the address bar, you select it and press two keys. It works on registry paths too, which saves an unreasonable amount of clicking.

If launching applications rather than opening locations is the need, Launchy is built for that and does it from the keyboard alone.

Where the configuration lives

Folder Menu keeps its settings in a plain text file created the first time you run it, and it arrives documented with its options explained and examples in place. That is either reassuring or off-putting depending on your temperament.

It matters because dialog support works by recognising a window’s internal class name. Several archivers and a transfer client are recognised already, and an application that is not can be added by putting its class name into that file. There is no dialog for this, so extending support means editing text. Total Commander users get recognition out of the box, including a two-panel mode.

The other limitation is philosophical. This is a list you curate, not a search. If you would rather type three letters and let software find the folder, Everything is the opposite approach and a better fit for people who never remember where anything is.

Conclusion

Folder Menu is a small tool aimed at one repeated irritation, and it removes that irritation completely. Anyone who works across a handful of deep project directories and spends part of every day steering dialogs towards them will save more time than a program this size has any right to.

Set expectations around the configuration file and the curation. Support for an unusual application means editing text, and the list only helps if you keep it current, which the path capture function makes easy enough to become a habit. Nothing here searches for you, so if you never know where your files are, a search tool is the better answer.