I am using the command "LABEL X: NewName" to change the label of various drives on Windows 7 Pro. (My reason is that I am using DOpus buttons, in MS-DOS batch function with Administrator mode, to automate the mounting of four TrueCrypt volumes as drives, and I want the button to change the drive label to something descriptive at the end of the mounting process.)
When I relabel C: drive or D: drive with this LABEL command, the new label is displayed almost instantaneously in the tree and in the main panel of DOpus --- the same happens in Windows Explorer.
When I rename the W: drive where I have mounted a TrueCrypt volume, however, the label change is displayed in neither the tree nor the main panel --- same in Windows Explorer. (I checked that the new label is correct in RightClick - - > Properties - - > General.) This is unsatisfactory, because I want to see the changed label immediately so that I can keep track of my drives.
Now it gets interesting. If I press F5 either in the DOpus tree or in DOpus main panel, W:'s label in the main panel gets updated, but the label in the tree does not. Collapsing the tree to "Computer" and expanding again does not fix the label in the tree, but collapsing to "Computer", pressing F5 and expanding again does fix it, and so does opening a new lister or opening a second panel.
In Windows Explorer, however, pressing F5 in the main panel updates W:'s label in the main panel but not in the tree, and pressing F5 in the tree updates the label in the tree but not in the main panel.
I don't pretend to understand this behaviour, except that it seems to be a Windows problem as well.
My question is, is there a clever workaround that can be placed within my DOpus "mount-a-TrueCrypt-volume-button" so that both the label in the tree and the label in the main panel are updated automatically?
OK, I seem to have a workaround. The drive labels that I have assigned persist after dismounting, and even persist after rebooting. (So it's held in the registry?) That means that I don't have to relabel the drives at all, because I have already given the four drives W: V: U: and O: the labels that I want, and these will now persist. At the moment I don't want to use any other labels for these four drives, so I can ignore relabelling altogether.
It all seems rather inelegant and confusing, however. And why do C: and D: behave differently from mounted drives? And why the tiny differences between DOpus and Windows Explorer?
Drive labels are stored on the drives themselves. There's no need to set the label every time you mount the drive, and it does not matter which letter you mount the drive to.
Since neither Explorer not Opus are updating the label automatically, that part points to an issue with TrueCrypt, or the filesystem used on the TC drive, or the OS itself. The label change notification must not be being sent for the drive, so nothing is told that it has changed.
The folder tree in Opus isn't refreshing drive labels it already has cached, unless a notification is received that the labels have changed. We might be able to improve that, but one workaround is to close & re-open the tree. (You can make a button to do that instantly, or include it in your mounting button, but since you've discovered that you don't actually need to change the label every time you mount the drive, it shouldn't be needed.)
Thanks very much, Leo. I'll keep in mind your final point about closing and reopening the tree --- that would solve any problem I may have in the future if I find other uses for the drive letters and need different labels. It is very obvious, and I am rather embarrassed that I didn't think of it myself, but that's computing.