The Magic Folder Gadget

Posted on by David E. Craig

Download the gadget.

So I have been playing around with the Windows Vista Sidebar and found that the gadgets are amazing and not so difficult to create. I knew there was a Gadget I could make that would be needed. I looked at how I used my own desktop and found that there are two common things I am doing with Windows:

  1. I am dragging certain files to certain folders (moving them around)…usually form the desktop to somewhere else.
  2. I am always opening specific folder to access files.

So the idea for The Magic Folder was born. With this gadget there are actually several cool things you can do:

  1. You can drag a file to the folder and if it already recognizes the file extension (like .doc or .xls) it will move the file to the folder where that extension is currently registered to move files.
  2. If it does not recognize the file extension, you can register an existing folder for the extension type to be moved to, or you can specify a new one.
  3. You can also manage both the folder and extensions very easily from the Gadget Settings.
  4. Additionally, if you just click on the Gadget, you can select a folder form the list and click Ok to have it open in Windows Explorer.
  5. Finally, you can pull the gadget off the sidebar and place it anywhere on the desktop, so it will look just like another folder.

Have fun and let me know what you think.

4 thoughts on “The Magic Folder Gadget”

  1. I wanted to write this years ago.  The only suggestion I might make would be to allow for custom logic in the dispatch — perhaps you want to move it based on embedded metadata (eg, mp3 tags, image annotations, etc).  A chain of file handlers would be good in this case.

  2. Great gadget, I would like to see it either be centered horizontally, or to be the same size as the \’usual\’ gadgets (like the in-the-box Vista clock).  It looks a little out of place.
     
    Apart from that, great gadget.

  3. this is one of my favorite gadgets but there is one problem with it. im not sure if its a bug or i am doing something wrong but when i drag for example a jpg image, it wont recognize it unless i rename it as example.jpg  is this supposed to happen?

  4. Nevermind i changed an option in the folder options that automatically puts file extensions in the name so now it is the best gadget out there. And by the way, i like the idea. It makes sense and its easy to use.

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