[osgeo4w-dev] xxmklink vs. nircmd

[Matt Wilkie]

Hi Jürgen,

I didn't realize xxmklink was for personal use only. I think we need to 
either replace it or ask the author for clarification on whether o4w 
qualifies as personal use or not.

Nircmd is an interesting grab bag of features, volume control mixed in 
with creating shortcuts and opening the cdrom tray. Very compact though, 
less than 100k including the helpfile.  In principle I lean to relying 
on only open source for key functions however with 7 years of 
development behind it we can be reasonably assured it will not disappear 
suddenly.

matt wilkie
--------------------------------------------
Geomatics Analyst
Information Management and Technology
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
http://environmentyukon.gov.yk.ca/geomatics/
--------------------------------------------

On 24/05/2010 9:05 AM, Jürgen E. Fischer wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I found it a little annoying that the batch files, we use to start desktop
> application, show a text window before starting.  Looking for a solution I
> stumbled across nircmd[1].
>
> That tool can not only run batch files (and other programs) without a text
> window, but also more that could be useful for our install scripts, eg. create
> shortcuts, set registry values, show message boxes and run commands with
> elevated rights.  So it could also replace xxmklink[2].
>
> Example: create a short cut that starts QGIS without text window
>
> 	nircmd shortcut "%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin\nircmd.exe" "~$folder.common_programs$\OSGeo4W" "Quantum GIS" "exec hide %OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin\qgis-dev.bat" "%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\qgis-dev\icons\QGIS.ico"
>
> nircmd is Freeware (but unfortunately not open source).  Which xxmklink
> apparantly is not.  It's only free for personal used. So we might currently
> operated in a grey area there.
>
> How about replacing the two?
>
>
>
> Jürgen
>
> [1] http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html
> [2] http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy38.htm