Option
Global?
Description
allow_context_menus
Yes
List of context menu extensions that Opus will ignore errors from. Normally Opus blocks context menu extensions that cause an exception - you can override this by adding the context menu's GUID to this list. The GUID for each context menu extension must be listed on a separate line. You can use the context_menu_debug option to discover a context menu's GUID.
amiga_icon_borders
Display borders around Amiga icons in thumbnails mode.
amiga_icon_palette
Palette to use when displaying legacy Amiga icons.
button_editor_advanced
Always open the Command Editor in Advanced mode, even for simple commands.
cd_thumb_coverart_file
Folders containing this file always display as CD albums in thumbnails mode, regardless of other content. The default is coverart.jpg.
clipboard_image_paste
If you have an image in your clipboard (e.g. via the PrtScn key) and paste into a folder, Opus will save the clipboard image into a file. This setting changes the image format which will be used: JPG, PNG, BMP or GIF.
You can also set your Ctrl-V hotkey to run Clipboard PASTE AS=ask to have Opus prompt you for the image format (and filename) when you paste an image into a folder. In that case, this setting determines the format that is selected by default.
collection_change_delay
Delay (in milliseconds) before processing external delete/rename operations in File Collections. You might want to increase this if you find that files are disappearing from your file collections when you edit them in other programs (e.g. Word).
collections_icon
Custom icon for File Collections. This lets you specify the path and filename of a custom icon file (.ICO) that will be used for File Collections.
compress_collections
Compress File Collections to save disk space. If turned off, File Collections will be saved as uncompressed XML files - if you have a lot of files in a collection, this can make the files take up a lot of space.
context_menu_debug
Display debug output for context menu extensions. See the FAQ on debugging context menu problems for more information.
convert_descriptions
Convert old description files to the descript.ion format. Unless you are migrating from an extremely old version of Directory Opus you should never need to set this.
copy_buffer_size
Copy buffer size. Units can be KB, MB or GB. If no units are specified, defaults to KB.
This specifies the amount of data that Opus will read or write at once when copying files. Although it shouldn't matter, some USB devices or networks appear to be sensitive to the size of the copy buffer. If you find that copies are much slower or less reliable than you would expect, try increasing or decreasing the buffer size.
The Copy command's BUFSIZE argument can be used to override this setting on individual buttons, hotkeys, etc.
This buffer is in addition to any buffering provided by the filesystem, hardware, and so on; it is not connected to the non-buffered IO mode controlled by the copy_nonbufferio_threshold setting.
copy_nonbufferio_threshold
File size threshold above which file copies to or from local devices will be performed in non-buffered mode, where the filesystem buffers provided by Windows are bypassed. Units can be KB, MB or GB. If no units are specified, defaults to MB.
For very large files, copying in non-buffered mode can increase the memory efficiency, copy speed and UI responsiveness. On the other hand, non-buffered mode may slow things down for smaller files or certain devices. In rare cases, non-buffered mode may not work at all (e.g. if you have a device which mis-reports its sector size).
Set the value to 0 (zero) to disable non-buffered mode. For compatibility reasons, it is disabled by default. If you wish to enable it, we recommend 1 MB as a good starting value.
The Copy command's NONBUFIO argument can be used to override this setting on individual buttons, hotkeys, etc.
(Non-buffered mode is not supported on Windows XP, so you'll only see this option on newer versions of Windows.)
def_func_cd_sourcedir
Use the current source directory as the default current directory when launching programs from buttons that don't specify a current directory. The default for such functions is to set the current directory to the C:\Windows\System32 directory for security reasons.
desc_show_info
For each file, the Description column normally shows:
- A metadata summary. (e.g. Picture type and dimensions, Audio codec and bitrate.)
- The user-defined description, if any. (This may be set via the Properties, Description command on the default toolbars. Some file types also allow user-defined descriptions/comments within their tags.)
- The target path, if the file is a shortcut or link.
This option lets you remove the user-defined descriptions and/or targets from the Description column. For example, if you have added the separate User description and Target columns then you may want only the metadata summary to be left in the Description column.
display_folder_extensions
If this option is enabled folders are treated as having extensions (suffixes) for the purpose of display only (i.e. in the Name and Extension columns).
dlldir_security
This option, enabled by default, prevents Opus from loading DLLs from the current working directory. This reduces the risk of "binary planting" exploits which can trick your computer into running untrusted software when you open things like photos or music from folders in which someone has hidden a malicious DLL.
Turning this option off will reduce your security but may be needed if it causes problems with poorly written shell extensions or other third party software which is installed on your computer. (Such software is typically only tested with Windows Explorer, which does not traditionally used the more secure mode which Opus uses by default.)
This option only affects Opus and, potentially, the software you launch from Opus. It is not a system-wide setting (although there is one if you want to be even more secure; search the web for CWDIllegalInDllSearch for more information).
This option cannot be modified when running from a portable USB install.
dos_automap_unc_paths
Automatically create drive letter mappings for UNC paths in MS-DOS batch commands. This lets you run DOS batch scripts on network drives directly from a UNC path.
dragdrop_async
When files are dropped on Opus from another program, Opus will usually handle them in the background so that its window remains responsive. If the program you dragged from supports the Windows API for asynchronous drag & drop then this should never be a problem; however, a large number of programs fail to support the API.
When dragdrop_async is on, Opus will attempt to handle all drops in the background, bending the rules if it has to, unless it detects a drop from a program known to have problems with this. If the option is off, Opus will be more strict and will only handle drops in the background for programs that explicitly support it.
If you run into problems when dragging files to Opus from certain programs, try turning this option off to see if it improves compatibility. The downside is that you may sometimes have to wait for drops to complete before you can continue using the window you dropped on.
fayt_firstchar_repeat
If the first letter typed is pressed repeatedly in the Find-As-You-Type field, scroll to next file beginning with that character. For example, typing E-E-E-E would progressively scroll to each file beginning with an E, rather than searching for a file that literally begins with EEEE.
file_size_units
Specifies the units to use when displaying file sizes and disk space. The traditional form is to use binary units (2^10-based) with "decimal" prefixes (1 KB = 1024 bytes). You can also choose to use decimal (10^3-based) units (1 KB = 1000 bytes) or binary units (1 KiB = 1024 bytes). See this Wikipedia page for more information.
find_extension_func
On Windows XP, Opus registers a Search Handler that lets you access the Opus Find function from the Start Menu. You can use this option to configure the command that Opus runs in response to the search handler. If not specified, the default Find command is used.
find_unique_collections
Don't let simultaneous Find operations use the same collection for results. The Find function defaults to presenting its results in the Find Results File Collection. If you have two or more Find operations running in parallel, this option causes the name of the output File Collection for the second and subsequent tasks to be modified to be unique, so that the results are not intermingled.
flatview_folder_filters
Enable filtering out of sub-folders in Flat View. By default the quick filter (i.e. the filter set by the Filter Bar) is not applied to folders when the file display is in Flat View. The reason for this is that when a folder is filtered from the list, all its contents are automatically filtered as well, and this may lead to undesired results. The Filter Bar has a checkbox option displayed when the file display is in Flat View mode that lets you turn folder filtering on or off, and you can use this option to control the default state of that checkbox (that is, if you normally do want the quick view filter to apply to folders as well as files in Flat View, turn this option on.)
ftp_copy_buffer_size
FTP copy buffer size (in bytes). This defines the size of the buffer used when transferring files via FTP. You should not normally need to change this.
ftp_dblclk_cache_time
Time (in minutes) to cache double-clicked files from FTP sites. When you double-click a file to open it on an FTP site, Opus downloads the file and saves it to a temporary folder. If you double-click the same file again within the specified time, the already-downloaded file will be used to save downloading the file again. This is set to 0 by default, meaning files are not automatically cached for double-click.
ftp_do_not_cache
Normally the FTP system caches the directory listings of remote sites to improve performance. Turn this option on if you want to force remote directories to be refreshed every time you change folder on an FTP site.
ftp_no_case_sensitive
FTP sites are normally case sensitive (e.g. a file called TEST.TXT would be different from a file called test.txt). Set this option to disable case sensitivity for FTP sites.
ftp_no_pasv_change
If Opus detects a non-routable address has been specified as the result of a passive (PASV) FTP connection, it will try to correct this to the site's routable address. If you turn this option on then Opus will attempt to use the non-routable address as specified, which will only be successful if the FTP server is on the same network as the client machine.
ftp_ssl_verbose
Causes the FTP log to display extended output during SSL connections.
function_default_async
By default, a function that contains a single command will run asynchronously, and functions that contain two or more commands will run synchronously. This option lets you override this behaviour and make all functions (single or multiple commands) run asynchronously by default.
global_explorer_replacement
Yes
Explorer Replacement mode is normally a per-user setting, but if you turn this option on then the Explorer Replacement mode setting will be global for all users of the machine. This may improve the ability of Opus to intercept some calls to Explorer, but normally you would leave this turned off.
gloss_and_gradients
Enable gloss and gradient effects in various user interface elements. Turn this off if you prefer a flatter, more boring appearance.
go_up_always_back
The Go UP command normally re-reads the parent folder, even if you had previously visited it and it is in the history list, and you can add the BACK argument (i.e. Go UP BACK) to cause Opus to use the history if possible (preserving file selections) when going to the parent folder. If you turn on this option then Go UP will always behave as if it had the BACK argument specified as well.
group_column_maxwidth
Specifies the maximum width of the Group column. When file display columns are set to auto-size, this option prevents the Group column from growing larger than the specified number of pixels.
ignore_context_menus
List of context menu extensions that Opus will block. If Opus detects that a context menu extension causes an exception it will add it to this list automatically, but you can add your own entries here to block menus that Opus isn't able to trap (or that you just don't like). The GUID for each context menu extension must be listed on a separate line. You can use the context_menu_debug option to discover a context menu's GUID.
image_res_units
Units to use for columns relating to image resolution (Resolution (X), Resolution (Y)). If not set, each image file itself specifies the units, and so you may have a mix of inches and centimetres in any one directory - setting this option overrides the images and always displays consistent units.
image_size_units
Units to use for columns relating to image size (Physical Width, Physical Height, Physical Size). If not set, each image file itself specifies the units, and so you may have a mix of inches and centimetres in any one directory - setting this option overrides the images and always displays consistent units.
jobsbar_no_arrow
Turn this on to prevent the animated arrow from appearing when a new item is added to the Jobs Bar.
layout_string
This option lets you define the name that is given to Lister Layouts that you drop on your desktop from the Layouts page in Preferences. You must specify a string that contains the code %1 - this code is replaced with the name of the layout in the generated shortcut. If nothing is specified for this option, the default is Layout '%1'.
max_folder_thumb_time
Specifies the maximum time (in milliseconds) that Opus will spend when generating the thumbnail for a folder.
max_md5_file_size
Specifies the maximum file size (in kilobytes) that Opus will calculate the MD5 or SHA-1 hash for when the MD5 Checksum or SHA-1 Checksum columns are displayed in a Lister. If a file is larger than this size its checksum can still be generated manually with the GetSizes MD5 or GetSizes SHA commands.
Special values:
- 0 - Ignore file sizes and always automatically calculate file hashes.
- 1 - Ignore file sizes and never automatically calculate file hashes.
max_thumbnail_mem_size
The maximum memory (in megabytes) per file display for in-memory thumbnails. Opus will discard out-of-view thumbnails to keep the memory usage for each file display's thumbnails below the specified size. If set to 0 there is no limit.
max_thumbnail_size
The maximum pixel size (width and height) that Opus will generate thumbnails at. Larger thumbnails require more memory. This controls the maximum size thumbnail that be selected on the Thumbnails page in Preferences, and also via the Thumbnails Size slider.
move_netshare_semantics
Special handling for PGP Netshare when moving folders. PGP Netshare behaves differently when folders are moved compared to files - turn this option on if you are finding that moving folders to Netshare-protected locations is failing.
mp3_custom_comments
The MP3 ID3v2 tag used for comments is not rigidly defined, and different third-party tools often use their own form of this tag. You can use this option to make Opus write COMM tags with the specified descriptions, to provide compatibility with these tools when using the Metadata pane. For example, MediaMonkey labels its COMM tag as Songs-DB_Custom1, so you would put this string into the mp3_custom_comments value to make Opus MP3 comments compatible with MediaMonkey. If you use multiple tools you can add multiple comment descriptions, one on each line, and Opus will write a separate COMM tag for each.
mtp_enable
This option can be used to disable the internal support for MTP (portable) devices. When turned off, devices will be accessed by a hosted Windows Explorer view.
multipart_extensions
A "multipart file extension" is a file extension that consists of more than one part separated by dots. For example, in the Unix world .tar.gz files are quite common. In many cases (renaming, sorting, etc.) it makes sense to treat this whole string as the file extension, rather than simply .gz as is standard on Windows. Opus does this automatically for several archive formats, and the multipart_extensions option lets you add your own custom extension as well. Enter one extension per line.
name_group_high_pri_chars
When grouping the file list by filename, files beginning with these characters will be put in a "high-priority" group at the top of the list. Normally files beginning with a non-alphabetical character or number will be placed in the Unspecified group, but you could use this option to, for example, place files beginning with ! or # in a separate group.
network_errors
Yes
Specify error codes that indicate network authentication errors. Some network filesystems return undocumented error codes in the case of a username/password authentication error - if you are finding that you simply get an error dialog when attempting to connect to a network drive, you should note the error code and add it to this option. When Opus receives that error code it will treat it as an authentication failure and prompt you for credentials to access the resource. You can specify multiple error codes by separating them with semi-colons (e.g. 50;1003;1245).
no_async_icons
File types for which icons should not be retrieved asynchronously. Normally Opus retrieves file icons on a background thread for greater performance, but we have found occasionally that the icons for some file types can not be generated successfully in the background. Multiple file extensions should be separated with a semi-colon. Note that the following extensions are automatically blocked for background icon extraction: .msg;.oft;.xnk
no_contextmenu_fix
When the "Office 2003" style is selected for toolbars, Opus has to perform some magic to make owner-draw third party context menu extensions look good. If you find that Opus' magic isn't quite up to par, you can disable it with this option.
no_copy_creation_time
Disable copying of file creation time. Normally Opus copies all three timestamps (creation, last written and last accessed) when copying files (unless the Preserve the timestamps of copied files option is turned off on the File Operations / Copy Attributes page in Preferences). If you turn this option on then Opus will not copy the source file's creation time.
no_copy_dir_dates
Disable copying of folder timestamps. Timestamps will only be preserved for files when copying; folders that are created as part of a copy operation will have the current time and date.
no_external_change_notify
Don't monitor for external file changes. This lets you disable the detection of file changes that occur outside of Opus - only file operations that Opus itself performs wil be noticed and reflected in the Lister.
no_folder_cd_thumbs
Disable automatic rendering of CD album thumbnails. If Opus detects that a folder contains mostly music files, and a thumbnail has been provided for the folder, it will normally render the thumbnail as if it were a CD cover. If you set this option this automatic behaviour is disabled, although you can still force a folder to appear as a CD cover in thumbnails mode by placing in it a file called coverart.jpg (or an alternate filename specified by the cd_thumb_coverart_file option).
notify_debug
Display debug output for file notification. If you are having problems with Opus not noticing file changes that happen outside of Opus, tech support may ask you to turn this on to gather debugging information. See the FAQ for more information.
open_container_in_tabs
This option is only used in File Collections, when you right-click with more than one item selected, and the items come from multiple virtual filesystems. In that instance only, Opus shows a cut-down context menu with two hard-coded entries at the top of it, one of which is an Open Containing Folder command. This option causes that command to open the items' containing folders in new tabs. Note that in all other cases, the commands displayed at the top of the context menu for collection items are configured through the File Types system.
powermode_singledrag
Power mode file displays have persistent selection by default - when you click on an unselected item, it selects it but does not automatically deselect any other selected items. Normally when you click on an item and drag it out, all other selected files are also dragged as well. When this option is on, if you click on a single file and drag it to the left or right, only that file will be part of the drag - any other selected files will not be.
progress_smoothing
Smooth progress bar updates on Vista and above. Turn off for lag-free progress bars which jump immediately when updated.
psd_image_preference
Photoshop PSD files can have up to three embedded images - a small
(164x164) thumbnail with very lossy compression, a full-size,
flattened preview image, and the full layered image data in
Photoshop's internal format (never used).
By default, the small
thumbnail image is used for thumbnails and the full-size preview image is
used for the viewer. This setting allows you to override this so that
either image is used for both thumbnails and the viewer.
If you want to have thumbnails larger than 164x164, you can tell Opus to use the preview image for thumbnails, otherwise the source image data is not large enough. However, some PSD files do not have valid preview images, so you may instead wish to tell Opus to never use them, even in the viewer.
Whether or not a PSD contains a flat preview image depends on how it was saved from Photoshop. In some cases, where there is no preview image there will be a black and white placeholder with text, written by Photoshop, telling you there is no preview image. Unfortunately, some versions of Photoshop write a corrupt placeholder image in some cases. If your workflow results in PSD files with missing or corrupt preview images, you can tell Opus to always use the thumbnails instead so you can at least get a rough idea of each file using the viewer.
regex_style
Set the style of Regular Expressions used by Opus. The default is TR1 ECMAScript, but you can change this to revert to the original regular expression style supported by older versions of Opus. You would really only want to do this if you had a large number of saved Rename presets that for some reason don't work with the new flavor of regular expression.
remember_net_paths
Opus normally remembers the previous path used in a system File Open or Save dialog (for example, when you use the Preferences Backup or Restore function), but for performance reason it does not remember network paths. Turn this option on if you want Opus to remember network paths as well.
resize_grips
By default Listers do not have visible resize grips, for improved
cosmetics, especially in dual-horizontal with inline status bars. Grips
can be turned back on using this option if you so desire.
save_button_editor_pos
Save the default position of Command Editor dialogs. If you turn this option on Opus will remember the position of the Command Editor when it is closed, and use that saved position the next time one is opened. If turned off, the Command Editor will appear centered over its parent window.
script_output_level
This lets you adjust the type of output that is shown in the Script Output log (Utility Panel / Other Logs).
setwallpaper_file
The Properties SETWALLPAPER command can be used to set a selected image file as the desktop wallpaper. By default the selected file is copied to your documents folder, but you can override the location by specifying a full path and filename for this option. The filename specified must end in either .bmp or (in Vista and above) .jpg.
shellchange_debug
Display debug output for shell file notification. If you are having problems with Opus not noticing file or folder changes that happen outside of Opus, tech support may ask you to turn this on to gather debugging information. See the FAQ for more information.
show_release_history
When turned on, the Release History page in the help file will open automatically the first time Directory Opus is used after installing a new version. This helps you learn about new features, fixes and other changes in the new version. Turn the option off to prevent the release history page from appearing automatically.
single_click_rename
If you have single-click mode enabled, and the file display is in Details mode with full-row selection enabled in Preferences, it is normally not possible to initiate inline rename using the mouse, because a click anywhere on the line would open the item. With this option enabled you can however initiate inline rename using the mouse - once the entry is selected by hovering, you can click anywhere on the line other than the filename to begin rename.
styles_update_previous
If you have made changes to a Lister's appearance (by either opening or closing user interface elements manually, or via a Lister Style), the Prefs STYLE command lets you return the Lister to its initial appearance. If you turn this option on then what is considered to be the "previous" style is updated whenever a new Lister Style is chosen (and so Prefs STYLE=^prev would from then on reset the Lister to that style rather than its initial layout).
sync_debug
This should normally be left off, but you may be asked to turn it on to debug decisions made by the Synchronize tool. If you use the Synchronize tool while this option is on, a file with debugging information will be created on your desktop.
tab_click_nofocus
Clicking on a folder tab to bring it to the front normally activates that file display and makes it the source. If this option is on then clicking a tab in the destination file display would leave the source/destination status unchanged.
thumb_48x48_icons
Enables the use of 48x48 icons for thumbnails and tiles. This has trade-offs:
- If the setting is off, icons which have neither 256x256 nor 32x32 versions will look bad.
- If the setting is on, icons which have neither 256x256 nor 48x48 versions will look bad.
32x32 icons are far more common than 48x48 icons, so the setting is off by default.
(The exact icon sizes vary with system DPI settings. The sizes used here are for the standard DPI.)
Each icon can contain various versions of itself in different sizes. Regardless of this setting, Opus always prefers the high-quality 256x256 versions of icons which have them. For icons which do not have 256x256 versions, Opus requests a 32x32 version if the setting is off and a 48x48 version if the setting is on.
When an icon contains neither of the requested sizes, one of its other sizes is selected and scaled to fit. This is done by Windows itself and the scaling is not done to a high quality, with resized icons becoming blurry and messy. Windows will not say which sizes of an icon are available without scaling and will not indicate when an icon had to be scaled to fit a requested size, so the quality of the result is determined by the requested size and some icons will look bad either way.
(This option affects the icons for things like .EXE files. It does not affect actual .ICO files because Opus is able to generate thumbnails for them without these problems and compromises.)
tiff_assume_alpha
Assume the 4th channel in TIFF images is (non-multiplied) alpha in files which do not specify its meaning. With this option turned off a 32-bit TIFF image must specify that it contains a valid alpha channel for Opus to treat it as so.
tiff_max_doc_metadata
Maximum size (in megabytes) of TIFF images that Opus will attempt to extract document metadata from. This prevents problems with very large TIFFs, for example those saved by Photoshop.
use_color_management
Use color management when loading images. If enabled Opus will check to see if an image file contains a color profile, and if so will use it to render the image more accurately. Currently this is only used for JPEG images and also assumes your monitor(s) are calibrated to sRGB.
wheel_acceleration
Opus normally applies a small amount of acceleration when scrolling in file displays using the mouse wheel, but you can disable it using this option if desired.
win7_show_sharing_overlays
Windows 7 removed the icon overlay (
) for
shared folders, but many people like this feature and so Opus substitutes
its own. If you would prefer not to see these overlays on Windows 7, turn
this option off. Prior to Windows 7, the sharing overlay comes from
Windows itself and this option has no effect. This option will also have
no effect if overlays are turned off completely via the Show shortcut
arrows and other icon overlays option on the Folder Display Preferences page.
wordbreak_char_names
This lets you specify one or more characters that will be used as "word break" characters in edit fields when editing filenames (e.g. in inline rename). Word break characters affect where the cursor stops when you press the Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right keys. A space is always treated as a word break.
wordbreak_char_paths
This lets you configure additional word break characters in edit fields when editing paths (e.g. in the Breadcrumbs path field). The standard path delimiters (:/\) are always treated as a word break.
zip_dblclk_cache_time
Time (in minutes) to cache double-clicked files from within ZIP files. When you double-click a file to open it from a ZIP file, Opus extracts the file (and possibly others, subject to the Auto-extract options on the Archive Options Preferences page), and saves it to a temporary folder. If you double-click the same file again within the specified time, the already-extracted file will be used to save extracting the file again. This is set to 0 by default, meaning files are not automatically cached for double-click.
zip_large_file_support
Enable support for Large Zip files. Large Zip files support individual items, and archives, that are more than 4 GB in size, and more than 65536 individual items in an archive. Large Zip support is enabled by default but if you need to maintain compatibility with legacy archives you can turn this option off. Opus will always read Large Zip files even if this option is turned off - it merely controls the type of archive that Opus creates.