gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » subst http://www.ghacks.net A technology news blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:29:21 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Virtual Driver Turns Any Directory Into A Drivehttp://www.ghacks.net/2010/08/12/virtual-driver-turns-any-directory-into-a-drive/ http://www.ghacks.net/2010/08/12/virtual-driver-turns-any-directory-into-a-drive/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:03:38 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=32869 Turning a directory into a drive letter can have several benefits, with the most obvious one being accessibility. Drives are for instance prominently placed in save and load dialog windows, and while it is possible to add folders to a sidebar or the favorites for a similar effect, accessing a drive letter instead is often the better choice.

Windows actually comes with the tools to create a virtual drive from any folder on one of the hard drives connected to the computer. We have explained that in detail in assign drive letters to folders, which explains how to do that with the subst command.

Still, some users may prefer to use a graphical user interface for this operation, and that is what Virtual Driver provides.

virtual driver

virtual driver

The program adds a new context menu entry to the folder right-click menu, allowing users to create a virtual drive out of the selected folder. The directory selected will remain in its position which means it stays accessible as before, but will furthermore become available as a drive letter.

The interface offers settings to select the drive letter, drive label and icon. There is furthermore an option to make the change temporary, which means just for the current session, or permanent.

Permanent folders can be unmapped at any time by right-clicking again, which will display the unmap virtual drive option.

Experienced computer users may prefer to use the command line tool subst instead, as it does not require additional software to be installed. Windows 64-bit users need to rely on subst, as Virtual Driver is only compatible with 32-bit editions of Windows.

The software program is available for download at the developer’s website. A similar program is Visual Subst which we have reviewed earlier as well.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2010/08/12/virtual-driver-turns-any-directory-into-a-drive/feed/ 5 Associate Folders With Virtual Driveshttp://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/07/associate-folders-with-virtual-drives/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/07/associate-folders-with-virtual-drives/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:24:55 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=5930 Windows already comes with the subst command that can associated folders with virtual drives so that those folders appear with a drive letter whenever partitions and drives are shown in Windows. Most users feel uncomfortable using the command prompt and prefer a graphical user interface instead.

Visual Subst is one of the few software programs out there that can associate folders with drives. The portable application can be run from any location and saves the information in an ini file so that the changes can be reloaded after restarting Windows.

The interface is pretty self-explanatory. The user picks a free drive letter from the list of available ones and selects a folder that should be associated with it. The folder is then accessible through the drive letter as well which can be quite handy for certain tasks.

visual subst

Visual Subst ist compatible to Windows 2000, Windows XP and newer operating system which would include Windows Vista.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/07/associate-folders-with-virtual-drives/feed/ 1