Directory Opus FAQs organised by topic
This post contains a list of Opus FAQs organised by topic rather than by age as they are when you view the FAQ forum.
Installation and Evaluation Period
- Common purchasing, upgrading and licensing questions.
- Upgrade subscriptions
- How to get an extended 60-day evaluation.
- Windows Compatibility Settings / Wrong DPI / Installer misdetects OS
- Your old toolbars are still there after you upgrade -- How to turn them back on.
- Where is the uninstaller? -- In the usual place!
- How to manually remove Explorer Replacement settings
- Registration Certificate installation problems
- How to check for a corrupted installer or main program
- How to change the language Opus uses
- Perform a silent (unattended) install of Directory Opus
File Open/Save dialogs
Folders, Formats, View Modes and Filters
- Folder Formats: Quick Guide -- Set the view mode, columns etc. used for all directories.
- Folder Formats: Special Folders (Computer, Network, etc.)
- Folder Formats: Detailed Guide
- Startup Folders
- Date/Time column formats. Remove day names, “today”, “yesterday”, etc.
- Toggle display of Hidden / System files
- File Collections
- Quickly open a Dual Display showing the current folder
- Middle Double-Click to open Folder in New Tab (a bit like Firefox)
- Always re-use a single window instead of opening new windows -- New tabs instead of new windows. Also how to make a hotkey to show the last active window.
- Calculate folder sizes automatically -- How to turn it on or off or do it only on-demand
- How to filter items by location or sub-folder -- e.g. when searching for files.
- Remember scroll positions and file selections
- Why have all my files and folders turned purple/pink/red?
- Where has Power Mode gone?
Window Sizes and Positions
- Why are my Opus windows on-top?
- Save the positions of the Tree, Find and Viewer panes
- Windows don't maximize properly with (Matrox) multiple monitors
Renaming
- Rename or move music files based on MP3 tags
- The Rename Presets area has lots of examples of finished rename buttons, presets and scripts.
Viewer and Viewer Plugins
- Stop the Opus image viewer from being used by default
- Use the Opus image viewer inside or outside of Opus
- Enable/fix playback of various media formats in Opus -- Enable playback of MOV, MKV, FLV movies/videos, MP3 audio, etc.
- View Open Office documents -- (viewing via MS Office should work automatically; OO may require an extra step)
- View AutoCAD .DWG .DWF etc. files
- Viewer pane: Turn off auto-play for video and audio
Toolbar and Command Editing
- How to use buttons and scripts from this forum
- How to create a Styles tab-bar (like Opus 9)
- How to refer to programs on the same drive as portable Opus
- Commands to copy selected filenames to the clipboard
The Buttons & Scripts area has lots of example buttons and scripts.
Cosmetics
- Understand and configure background images
- Change the color of the Name (or sorted) column
- Change the default folder icon in Opus
Internet
- When and why does Directory Opus access the Internet?
- What is the Advanced FTP option?
- FTP doesn't work
- Opus as the default FTP handler
- Opus displays an error referring to ws2_32.dll
- Empty drop-down list of addresses in Opus e-mail client
- SSH: How to login using key files
Other How-To Guides
- How to backup or locate your Opus configuration (Simple)
- How to backup or locate your Opus configuration (Advanced)
- Display full name or path in pop-up info-tips
- How to make Win-E open a default lister instead of Computer
- How to move the thumbnail cache
- Add Thumbnails to InfoTips
- Make RAR, 7z, ISO, etc. files open in Opus when double-clicked
- Mouse Gestures
- Always MOVE or COPY files after a drag & drop
- Can I add a '..' item to go to the parent directory?
- How to add comments/descriptions to files and folders
- How to Create New/Empty Files
- How to Exit Directory Opus
Other Troubleshooting
- Why NOT to run Opus as Administrator under UAC
- Changes to folders are not always detected
- Crash, exit or high CPU usage when viewing certain directories
- Crash, exit or high CPU usage when right-clicking certain files
- How to find components causing high CPU usage
- How to find components causing memory leaks
- Finding which process has a file open
- Process Monitor instructions
- Automatic crash logs (for bug reports)
- Manually generating process snapshots
- High CPU usage or other problems with AVI files
- Empty removable drives are not displayed
- Thumbnail generation can be slowed by anti-virus software
- Logitech Middle, Back or Forward buttons don't work -- Easily fixed by mouse configuration
- Drag & Drop does not work for files or when customizing toolbars
- Directory Opus executables and hooks
- General slowdown or instability investigation steps
- Problems caused by Windows Defender (strange behavior when using Opus)
Third-Party Software and Devices
- MTP and transferring files with Android and iOS phones, cameras
- Windows 10 Photos app: Why can’t I browse to the next image?
- Tortoise SVN/CVS or other icon overlays are not shown -- Also fixes generic icons on network drives.
- Autodesk Inventor thumbnails in Opus
- Shell extensions which are blocked by default
- Conflicts with tools that move, on-top or modify other windows
- Can Opus verify file copies?