I have several things I do whenever I am setting up a new system that I will be using for a while.
I create a folder off the root of the system drive named Tools and I add it to the beginning of the system path. In the Tools folder I copy my productivity scripts, and several folders:
- docs - This contains my work, personal and technical documents
- downloads - I set my browsers to download everything here
- logs - Many of my productivity scripts log actions here
- programs - I install my non portable development tools here when possible
- scripts - Any helper \ productivity script not in the Tools folder itself goes here
- utils - Any app or utility that is portable goes here
- workshop - This contains sub-folders for any language I program in and each language sub-folder contains version folders and\or project folders
By having the Tools folder in the path and numerous batch scripts in the Tools folder I can launch any of the batch files from the Run prompt. This allows me to skip several steps when launching apps or running processes. Here is an example script that launches the portable version of 7-zip:
@ECHO OFF
::: DOC: Runs 7-Zip
PUSHD %~dp0utils\7-Zip
SET Command=START 7-ZipPortable.exe
%Command%
FOR /f "delims=" %%a in ('cscript.exe //Nologo %~dp0scripts\vbdate.vbs') do @Set strDate=%%a
FOR /f "delims=" %%a in ('cscript.exe //Nologo %~dp0scripts\vbtime.vbs') do @Set strTime=%%a
ECHO %0 - %strDate%-%strTime% - Command: %Command% >> %~dp0logs\cmd.log
POPD
The first line @ECHO OFF tells the script not to echo the commands in the command prompt that is launched to run the batch file. ECHO OFF sets the echo state to off for the rest of the batch file and the @ symbol sets the echo state to off for the ECHO OFF command.
The three colons (:::) operates as a remark statement in the batch file. The batch "language" uses a single colon as a label and labels are not parsed at run time so using the three colons makes the script run a little quicker than it would if I used the REM statement. Also I can parse the batch files for the DOC label and generate a list of what the scripts do if needed.
PUSHD sets the current working directory temporarily, the %~dp0 sets a variable that contains the path to the running script with a trailing backslash.
I SET a variable "Command" that contains the actual command used to launch the app or process. This allows me to use the "Command" variable to both launch the app and to log the use of the command later in the script.
The vbdate.vbs and vbtime.vbs scripts are vbscripts that I use to get date\time stamps for logging or when I automate file renaming for backups.
The ECHO %0 etc.. sends the batch file name, the date-time and the Command to a log file. The double greater than signs causes the information to be appended to the end of the target file.
The POPD command changes the current working directory back to where it was at the beginning of the script.
A number of these steps are not needed to actually launch the app or process but in different circumstances are useful to me for the way I work. For example when running the batch file from the run dialog I don't need to POPD at the end of the script, but when running from a command line it would leave the directory set to what was set by the PUSHD command.
I also use AutoHotKey extensively for a number of tasks. For example I keep a number of windows and applications open for days at a time but might only use them a few times a day (or week) so I use the Min2Tray script with AutoHotKey. I have a keyboard command that will call a vbscript to tile all windows horizontally and one to tile all windows vertically.
#!H::RUN %maindrive%\Tools\scripts\tileh.vbs
#!V::RUN %maindrive%\Tools\scripts\tilev.vbs
That is WIN+ALT+H or +V causes AutoHotKey to call one of the following vbscripts:
Tile horizontally
dim objShell
set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
objShell.TileHorizontally
set objShell = nothing
Tile vertically
dim objShell
set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
objShell.TileVertically
set objShell = nothing
I have another AutoHotKey script that will stop my music from playing and lock all of my work systems when I hit #L (WIN+L). Another script triggered by ^PrintScreen (CTRL+PrintScreen) that takes a screen shot and uses IrfanView (portable) to automatically save it as a png file.
All in all I currently have about 150 batch files, about 50 AutoHotKey scripts\commands\hotstrings, around 20 vbscripts and probably 10 - 15 Python programs that I have written to save me time and make tasks easier. These scripts save me minutes to hours throughout the week.
