make a shortcut start in root and not drive letter

how can i make shortcuts on my flash drive start in the root of the drive and not from the letter it gets assigned by every computer i plug it in to? because on my computer it becomes G, and on ones at school it is E, so the shortcuts dont work.

alternatively, is there a way to make it always have the same drive letter?

 

i believe the drive letter is assigned based on what's already been used on the host pc. my root is C:, my external usb drive is D:, my rom is E: and my virtual drive is G: F is missing because my HP printer created that and i've since uninstalled it. need to reinstall it, and it'll go back to using F (got created because of my MagicISO which created the virtual drive G: and i think it automatically mounted the HP cd, virtually)

as far as the shortcuts working, they ought to as soon as you plug the drive back in, although i'm basing that on how my 500gb external usb drive works. my desktop shortcut for my external drive D: stays but doesn't work if the drive isn't connected.

if i'm incorrect, or someone has more info, they'll be along shortly to give you better help.

 

looked at your topic title again and i believe the only shortcut that will start in your root would be whichever drive letter is assigned to your operating system, which IS your root; generally My Computer. again, if i'm incorrect, someone else will give you better info.

 

yeah i know how the drive letter naming system works, and each drive would have its own root, whether its an external drive, an sd card, usb flash stick, or just a second internal drive, my problem is that the way windows uses shortcuts is that it must specify the drive letter, and since a flash drive gets assigned a letter after being plugged in, getting the first available one, it changed with every computer i stick it in, so all my shortcuts on it that direct it to something on G dont work because it is no longer G, and there isnt a G on the computer its in. what im looking for is a symbol or somethign i can use in place of a drive letter, one that indicates it should start on its own root regardless of the letter. i know ive seen % signs when viewing some windows folders before but i cant remember what or how it was used, i think there must be a symbol for what i want but i just cant find it.

 

my experience has been to copy what i need to run from my usb drive to my main drive. if it's an installer, i just delete it from the main drive when i'm finished installing. if there's no installer (like something you can just run from the files in a folder) then it ought to work, although i believe it's going to be using some resources from the OS on the main drive.

perhaps you might want to post what software/program you want to run from that flashdrive so someone who's more expert than i am can help you further.

 

I've seen this question asked here in the last month or so but didn't retain an answer if one was posted.

The % thing you remember seems to be basically used to orient the commands strictly to the drive that Windows is installed on. Here and here are lists of the common variables but I can't see how they can be made to work the way you want.

Now one thing I know is "." denotes current directory and ".." denotes parent directory. (Those are just periods without the quotes when used) So I wonder if your shortcut could use these to help navigate?

 

yeah the periods dont work, says its not a valid folder.
the programs im trying to get shortcuts to work for are...
imgburn
filezilla
7-zip
firefox
and pidgin

 

If the shortcuts are shortcuts to programs installed on your computer, they won't work when the drive is plugged into a different computer. A shortcut is just a signpost to tell the system where to look for an installed program, and unless by coincidence the other computer happens to have the same program installed on the same drive letter in the same folder - which is very unlikely - nothing will happen.

To be able to do what you want you would need portable versions of the programs installed on your flash drive.

 

Thanks Earthling

I realized after I wrote that post I was assuming that the shortcut was on the flash drive and pointing to a portable app on the flash drive. Which didn't make a lot of sense.

Spanktastic, can you give an example using iimgburn of the folder that holds the shortcut and its target address which doesn't work. ie. is the shortcut on the flash or the PC (and where is it located) and is the program on the flash or the PC (and where is it located). Also is the program portable? Thanks.

 

all of the programs are portable and installed on the flash drive

 

And where are the shortcuts located? Are they on the flash drive or are they on the PC desktop?

 

they are also on the flash drive

 

which is why i think it should be easy to make the shortcuts start at the root of the drive rather than an assigned drive letter.

 

since i have no clue what your purpose is and why you're doing this, i can only think that it sounds unnecessary/impossible.

for instance, your Firefox. if you've saved it to the flash drive because you added bookmarks to one of your systems and want to carry them to add to your other system, just import them directly or export as an html file then import them. smaller footprint if you just exported to the flashdrive then imported when you plug it in to the other system.

your flashdrive isn't a computer and you can't surf from your flashdrive. you need your actual operating system, its drivers, etc. to do that.

in the case of portables, the only thing i've ever heard them used for is to fit on a flashdrive so they can be carried between systems. you don't have an operating system (at least it doesn't sound like you do) on the flashdrive so it's not going to work like your native systems.

i'm simply going by logic and not any specific technical expertise. it just doesn't sound like it makes sense. the programs on your flashdrive, without an operating system, just won't DO what you want them to.

again, if i'm dead wrong, or i just don't get what he's wanting to do, someone post the correct info. i'd like to know, too.

 

I don't see how you can use shortcuts in that situation. It needs a self contained menu app of some sort. I found this though I don't know if it's any good -

http://download.chip.eu/en/Portable-Start-Menu_4944997.html

 

okay, i just tried an experiment with a program that just runs (no installer): CrucialScan

i made a desktop icon directly from the program on my external usb drive (it's not on my system). clicked on the shortcut and it ran just like it should. in the case of CrucialScan, it opened a browser window and began scanning my RAM so it could tell me what i have and the exact memory sticks i'd need to upgrade.

i did the same with a game i have on the external usb drive that plays directly from the folder (no installer). same thing; works fine.

the thing is, neither of these are "running" directly from my external drive. they're using the resources from my OS (looked at Task Manager to check). looked at that link that Earthling posted and seems it's more an organizational program, which i personally don't need.

may work for you and what you want, spanktastic. no clue.

 

what i use my flash drive for is the computers at school or anywhere else i may be. they dont have firefox installed, so ive installed it onto my flash drive with my profile from this computer (home). im not booting from my flash drive or anything, i just plug it in and run things off of it. pidgin as well is not installed at the school computers, and its nice to have a little portable IM program when youre supposed to be doing homework. i made the shortcuts on the flash drive so that when i plug it in and open a window with its contents i can run every program on it from that same window, its only as a convenience to keep from having to navigate to the exe for each program i want to run.

 

thank you very much, this program does exactly what i want.

 

Glad you got it working!

I'm just going to put a link here for a possible manual way of doing it. The second link looks like it should work. I saw the same solution in a couple of threads. Not as simple as the start menu application but it may be useful to someone who doesn't want to run the start menu application.