Hello folks,

Just wondering is there any easy way to create shortcuts to biab and Rb on an usb drive where the biab and RB folders are stored too?

Its just a pain to have to open the bb folder on the usb drive and search for bbw start file?

I know its easy to send to desktop on computer and easy start that way, but as drive letter can change often I want the shortcut on the actual usb drive itself.

I think it has something to do with creating a batch file, if anyone can open it on notepad and maybe let me know what is written there I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

The easiest way is to make the computer operating system always assign the same drive letter to the USB drive each time the usb drive is installed. Most users assign a drive letter near then end of the alphabet (like "U" since it's a usb drive) so CD drives or secondary hard drives don't try to grab it.

Here is step-by-step instructions for how to assign a drive letter in Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10: +++ How To Assign A Windows Drive Letter +++

Once a drive letter is assigned to the usb device then you can right click on the Band-in-a-Box executable file and send to the desktop.

Once you have a desktop shortcut, you want to right click, select "Properties". Look through the choices and make sure all the "run as administrator" choices are selected.

Thank you very much Jim for taking the time to reply.

I am familiar with disk management and changing the drive letters, having done it countless times. I have three hard drives on my computer and about 12 partitions in total, some people don't do that, but I find it works for me.

I still want to be able to have that shortcut on the USB drive itself, but do realise its not run of the mill easy to do in windows, so just want to learn.

Thanks again.

Well kind of got it sorted by copying desktop shortcuts to USB drive and changing the target in the properties on USB drive.

Will work as long as windows doesn't change the drive letter, I know there is probably a perfect way to do this as PG drives already comes with (As far as I know) the shotcuts and there is probably no way they know what letter the end users windows installation will attribute to it.

Thanks for reply and information Jim

You can copy and paste the USB drive shortcut to your desktop and it will work as long as the temporary drive letter doesn't change.

The temporary drive letter shouldn't change unless you plug the USB drive into a different USB port. For example, one time you plug the drive into a USB port on the left side of a laptop and the next time you plug the drive into a USB port on the right side of the laptop.

Each time you plug a device into a different USB port, Windows loads a device driver. In each case the device is identified as a "mass storage" device so it will be assigned a drive letter that has not previously been assigned. So your shortcut quits working.

Thanks Jim,

Think I might have got a sure fire way of doing this that will work regardless of windows changing the letter drive. Got it from someone on a windows forum, here is the reply, just in case it helps someone else.


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A shortcut stored on the usb itself will run into problems if (as is likely) ther usb has a different drive letter on each computer. A shortcut has to contain the full path including the drive letter.

An approach that will work regardless of the drive letter is to use a .bat file to start your programme. Create a text file containing the command....

START \folder\sub-folder\program.exe

(obviously, use the correct path and name for your programme) Save this as <any name you like>.bat to the root of the usb. When you run the .bat file (by double-clicking, as you would a shortcut) it will be run starting in the root of the usb . The path to the executable is relative to where the .bat starts, so it will work regardless of what drive letter the usb has at the time.

………………………………………………………….

I have tried it and it seems to work good,

for biab I used in the text file.

START \bb\bbw.exe

and realband,


START \realband\realband.exe

There is I think a lengthy process just did a google, of even adding the icons to that file once its converted to an exe, but seems a bit too much so the basic one will do.
Thanks for the help.

Musiclover,

I'm glad you found a method that works for you but I'm a little confused.

Are you placing the Band-in-a-Box and RealBand bat files on the computer desktop the same as you would desktop shortcuts? If so it would seem the drive path would change when you plug in various usb ports and invalidate the path the bat file follows the same as the action invalidates a desktop shortcut path.

If you're placing the bat files on the usb drive then aren't you still having to navigate to the usb drive before you can click on a bat file? If so then you can navigate and double click on the appropriate Band-in-a-Box or RealBand executable.

What am I missing?

Thanks Jim,

No I am placing the .bat file on the USB drive outside the bb folder, does make it a little easier rather to open the bb folder and search for and click on the biab executable.

Not a big deal but still nice to have the easy way to do it.

I don't plug these USB drives (old biab drives from PG) in often just use them really as backups for biab and update each year, well will until space runs out on the drive.

Pgmusic must have a fool proof way for their shortcuts on the USB drive that doesn't refer to drive letters else sometimes it wouldn't work, though don't know how they do it.

Musiclover,

Got it. Thanks for taking time to reply and clear up my confusion.

Sorry I didn't read through all the posts so you may have something worked out,
but on the drive in the root you will have
Band-in-a-Box.exe
RealBand.exe
datalist.asc (this maybe set to hidden so show hidden files in explorer) this is the text in datalist.asc that tells the shortcuts the targets:


This has all 3 files
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6n5ohs9isnwst6m/datalist.zip?dl=1

Pipeline,

Thanks for doing that. I found an interesting thread from 2010 concerning the datalist.asc file. +++ Error: Can Not Find Datalist.asc +++ Peter Gannon and jford supplied the answers in 2010.

Thanks so much Pipleline, you sure know your stuff, all downloaded and ready to put on drives.

Thanks for link Jim, though its sad that Ed Buckley is no longer with us.

Thanks again.

I thought the 2010 thread was fascinating. Ed was a great forum member and is missed.

A lot has happened since that thread was written. Windows 7 was a few months old and 8, 8.1 & 10 yet to come. Still the answer is the same. Two of the three participants continue to be active in the forum. That's pretty good.