Need to create a shortcut. . . . .

A friend has a custom PC case and there's a little lever that's used for the DVD open/close button. Over the past 18 months or so, the screw that holds the lever in place is starting to strip and is losing its 'bite'. This means that the screw has to be re-tightened every 3-4 times it's used to open the drive. Anyway - we need to create a shortcut either on the desktop or in the quick-launch tray for DVD open/close.... I know I've seen some free apps somewhere that do this, but right now I'm too busy to look for 'em. When the DVD icon is right-clicked in "Computer" in Windows7, there's an "Eject" option; where does this link to when clicked? Where's the .EXE or .BAT or whatever to open the DVD drive?

THANKS!!!

(Windows 7 Home Premium x64 is the OS if it matters)

 

dlb, I'd like to know the answer to this also.

In the meantime, you might like to check out Wizmo at http://www.grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm 38Kb download :-D

Does lots of other stuff as well. Most work. :-D

Bazza

PS:
wizmo open works (for CD/DVD's)
wizmo close. Doesn't work for me in XP, or Windows 7 ultimate 32 bit.

Baz.

 

Thanks to both of you! I'll give these apps a try and report back.

Anyone have another one to add to the list?

Does anyone have an answer to this question:

:confused

 

Where's Adrynalyne when you need him? :confused

 

Just found this one - I'll start hunting for the actual reg keys...

 

Thanks for the link Caliban!!! It works perfectly! The technique described in that article requires the program NirCmd which is a free little command-line app/utility. I downloaded it, unzipped it, and put in my root directory (right on C: ). Then, by following the SIMPLE steps, I created a new desktop shortcut using the following path and parameters:

(NOTE: your CD/DVD drive letter might be different, most common is D: so make the appropriate change is your drive isn't F: like mine is in this example)

Then I chose an icon (optional, but it looks better ), then dragged the new shortcut to the task bar. The shortcut only opens the drive, and a 2nd one would be required to close the drive, but since the DVD tray closes on its own with a gentle nudge, a 2nd shortcut for closing the drive isn't really needed. I attached a screen shot of the Win7 task bar just to illustrate what's going on. Too cool!

BIG THANKS to Caliban!

(BTW- this is only suggestion I've tried so far; I haven't tried the suggestions from Halo or bigbazza just yet, but I will sooner or later; big thanks to you two also! :-D )

(NOTE: if the path to nircmd.exe has spaces in it, you MUST use quotes around the full path name; for example:
"C:\Program Files\Misc Apps and Stuff\nircmd\nircmd.exe" cdrom open F:
....notice the quotes only around the path; if there are no spaces, the quotes aren't needed)

 

I think wizmo open sounds easier to implement, for me anyhow, especially in conjunction with my favourite program SlickRun. :-D
Try Wizmo soon.

Bazza

PS: See SlickRun at http://www.fiddler2.com/SlickRun/
SlickRun help at http://www.bayden.com/slickrun/1033/SlickRunHelp.aspx

It also reduces the number of Shortcuts appearing on your desktop, and stuff in your task bar.

Bazza

 

Yeah- when reading the Wizmo info, it looks like you can set hotkey combos for many different tasks including opening/closing the DVD drive which would be better if one has a taskbar loaded with stuff (like mine in the shot above :-o ), but the dude that is actually going to use this has 3 or 4 items in the task bar (at the most) so an extra doo-dad won't matter. The taskbar pic I attached above is from my home PC that I used as a test platform.... I'll give the dude the link to this thread so he can check out the other options.... thanks again everyone!

 

dlb, I could never get the wizmo close to work :cry but wizmo open works like a charm. :-D I've never bothered much with the other options, so can't comment on them.

For yourself, if you want to reduce the number of items in your taskbar try SlickRun. :cool I think you'll love it. Saves so much time and screen real estate.

Bazza

===

 

Well, there are plenty of entries for "Eject", but none that look very promising - and I ain't going to mess with my steenkin' Registry.

What I will do, however (as time permits), is try to disassemble that NirCmd utility, see if there are any hooks in there I can use.

 

Caliban, I know it is all good experience to try and disect Registry entries, etc., but in the big picture is it worth it?

As I said in my original post in this thread ...

... is it really worth the effort? wizmo open command works, and doesn't take up your time.

Bazza

===

 

Bazza, you're right, of course: apparently, both NirCmd and Wizmo will do the trick as far as open/close the optical drive.

I'm just trying to answer these questions.

 

Sorry Caliban, I lost sight of the original questions ,in my enthusiasm. :-D :-o

Bazza