Virtual Folders

This section lets you configure how Opus handles certain virtual folders. These are folders that do not relate to a physical location on a disk - that is, they can not be represented by a traditional path like C:\Users\. There are many virtual folders provided by Windows - some common examples are My Computer (or Computer under Windows 7), the Desktop, Network (used to be called Network Neighborhood) and so on. Third parties can also implement virtual folders via so-called "namespace shell extensions" - for example, your mobile phone may have come with software to access it through Explorer, and this would most likely be implemented as a virtual folder.

For most virtual folders, Opus provides a display of the folder by "hosting" Explorer within the file display. This lets you see the folder and interact with it in the same way as you would in Explorer itself (primarily via drag and drop, cut and paste, and context menus).

For the two most commonly used virtual folders - Computer and Desktop - Opus has the option of providing its own display (known as "native display") instead of hosting Explorer. The advantage of this is that then the full gamut of Opus functionality is available, including folder formats, configurable colors and images, and (for Desktop) Opus commands like Advanced Rename, etc. For the most part the Opus-provided displays of these folders will look exactly the same as the hosted form, so you may not even realise it is Opus and not Explorer providing the display.

The Native display of the Desktop option lets you enable or disable native display for the virtual Desktop folder. When native display is on, you can choose which desktop contents are included:

 

The Native display of Computer option similarly lets you enable or disable native display for the Computer (My Computer) folder. The options for this are:

 

You can configure the file display format for both these folders using the Folder Formats page - for Desktop, you would add a Path Format, and for Computer, use the item in the System folders category.

 

The bottom section of this dialog lets you control how Opus handles virtual folders that also have an underlying "real" disk folder behind them. Windows contains several folders like this - the Desktop is one, but others include the Fonts folder (usually C:\Windows\Fonts) and the Virtual Machines folder (usually C:\Users\<Your Name>\Virtual Machines). These folders can be displayed in Opus in two different ways - as the underlying disk folder, in which case you will see all files in that folder, or as a virtual folder, in which case you will see the virtualized view that Windows provides.

Fonts - Virtual.png Fonts - Non Virtual.png

The above screenshots show the difference between the virtualized and "real" views of the Fonts folder. You can choose from the following options: