Have you ever tried printing the content of a directory or file list you have stored in directory? It seems impossible as there is no inbuilt feature of doing that…
Next question is why you want to print directory listing ? Well you might be having lots of MP3 stored there and you want to upload the list to internet so that your friend can ask what they need. Or you might want to have a hard copy of your files stored in the directory and most commonly used reason is you want to create a CD label with list of files stored in it…
Ok So now there are 2-3 different method to do same, we will discuss all of them here..
Method -1 – Printing form DOS Command prompt-
To print using dos command prompt please follow these steps —
Start a command prompt (run -> CMD), change to directory for which you want to print the file listing and then type the following command.
dir > print.txt
This will creat a directory listing and store the output in a text file called print.txt Once you created the file you can open it any text editor and print the content or alternatively you can directly print from command prompt by using this command –
print print.txt
When your print is complete just remove the file.
Method -2 – Add a menu option in Explorer for printing Directory Listing –
If you frequently print listing of files you can add a menu option in context menu of Explorer for printing the file list stored in a folder, to do so by using following steps –
1. Create a batch file called Printdir.bat. To do so pen Notepad or another text editor and type (or cut and paste) following text:
@echo off
dir %1 /-p /o:gn > “%temp%Listing”
start /w notepad /p “%temp%Listing”
del “%temp%Listing”
exit
2. Now, save this file as Printdir.bat” (without the quotation marks). Move the file to windows directory. To open windows directory simply type %windir% in run prompt.
3. Now fo to Control Panel, Open Folder Options.
4. Select the File Types tab, and after that select File Folder.
5. Click on the Advanced button and then click New Button.
6. In the Action box, type “Print File List” (or whatever name you want to give).
7. In the Application used to perform box, type “Printdir.bat” (without the quotation marks).
8. Click OK to close all open dialog boxes.
9. Now Open Registry editor and Navigate to HKEY CLASSES ROOTDirectoryshell.
10. Right click on “default” and select Modify. In the File Data box, type “none” (without the quotation marks).
11. Click on OK Button and close the Registry Editor.
These step will add a context menu print File list in right click menu of explorer. Whenever you right click on any folder and select Print file list, a file list will be created in temp directory and printed to your default printer.
ALso this method does not work on WIndows Vista, there is some changes if you using Windows Vista, Please follow these steps in case you are a Vist User —
1. Create printdir.bat file and move it to windir as explained above (step 1 & 2) .
2. Now you have to edit the registry instead of adding it in Folder Option. to do so Open Registry Editor and navigate to — HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryshell
3. On the menu, click New, and then click Key. Type Print File List, and then press ENTER.
4. Select Print File List, click New on the Edit menu, and then click Key and Enter a command for the name of the new subkey, and then press ENTER.
5. Double-click the default entry that is listed in the “command” subkey. In the Value data box, type Printdir.bat.
6. Click Ok and then exit Registry Editor.
And you are done, it will add a context menu in Windows Vista.
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