Product Help and Specification

What are sessions?

When SBS spawns Explorers, it creates a session icon. From there, one can minimize, resize, bring-to-front, close that session's Explorers. Click the program icon for the 'click session', doubleclick it for the 'doubleclick session'. Right click the program icon and select for a 'menu session'.
 

Program Icon

Click: Display single/centered Explorer (SINGLE session).
(see Program Icon Click/Doubleclick Folders bellow)

Double-click: Display side-by-side Explorers (SIDE-BY-SIDE session).
(see Program Icon Click/Doubleclick Folders bellow)

Right-click: Context menu - choose a session. Create custom menu in Properties > Menu Builder.
 

How to join two SINGLE sessions

Open 2 SINGLE sessions in sequence, within a few seconds. The two sessions are coupled onto a new SIDE-BY-SIDE session.
(see Time to wait for 2nd selection option)
 

Session Icon

Click: Minimize/Restore session. When minimized, Explorers are removed from the task bar.
(see Close session on click option)

Double-click: Bring to front a session's Explorers from whatever state they are in.

Right-click: Context menu - as follows, (see Close session on right-click option)

Default: Restore session to default size and position.
(see SIDE-BY-SIDE default margin and SINGLE default margin options)

Size +, Size -: Increase/Decrease size of a session's windows.

Switch: Switch the 2 Explorers of a SIDE-BY-SIDE session.
 

Drag and Drop

Right click program icon, select Drag and Drop. The small drag target window is shown, centered on screen. Drag folders from Windows Explorer onto it. Then click a button to update the 'click' or 'doubleclick' sessions, or to add a session to the menu. To cancel, click the form's 'x' button on the top-right corner. Drag and drop does not require the use of the Settings window.

Settings
 

Program Icon Click/Doubleclick Folders

Right click program icon, select Settings, stay in first tab. You can change folders of the click/doubleclick sessions, or assign hotkeys to them.
 

Menu Builder

Add: Add a SINGLE or a SIDE-BY-SIDE session.

Change: Change folder of a session's selected side.

Delete: If left is selected, remove session. If right is selected, remove folder.

Up/Down: Move a session up or down in the menu.

Full Path: Show/Hide full path of folders on all sessions.

Hotkeys may be assigned to sessions in menu. Remember that hotkeys are going to be global to the OS,
so choose them carefully. Also decide if your session is important enough to have an OS-level shortcut key.
 

Options

Start application when Windows starts: Check to have Side-By-Side Explorer started automatically when Windows starts.

Retain Size and Location: If Explorers are resized manually and session minimized, restoring session preserves size and position. When left unchecked, SBS handles size and position according to current settings.

Close session on click: Close session at a regular left-click on its icon. When checked, the session minimize operation is no longer available.

Close session on right-click: Close session at right-click on its icon. When checked, the session's context menu (normally displayed at right-click) is no longer available.

Close side-by-side session as soon as side is closed: Close session as soon as the first of the two Explorers is closed manually. When this box is unchecked, manually closing one of the Explorers in a SIDE-BY-SIDE session converts the session to one of type SINGLE.

SIDE-BY-SIDE default margin: Percentage of screen area left outside the session's Explorers, on the sides. The smaller the margin, the larger the windows. A session with margin 0% fills the working area of the screen.

SINGLE default margin: Percentage of screen area left outside the session's Explorer, on the sides. The smaller the margin, the larger the windows. A session with margin 0% fills the working area of the screen.

Width of menu (max): Set the program icon's context menu width smaller or larger. With longer folder paths in the menu, a smaller setting shrinks them to size. When paths are all short, this setting has no effect.

Time to wait for 2nd selection: Number of seconds to wait for a second SINGLE session, when creating a SIDE-BY-SIDE session out of two SINGLE sessions. This wait period is cancelled when the two sessions are not created in sequence (for instance, start a SINGLE session, then minimize some existing session, and then start a second SINGLE session - the second session will be created as SINGLE, and not join the first, even if it was generated within the "time to wait" period).
 

cmdsbs.exe Command Line

cmdsbs.exe command line syntax has five variants, as follows (by example). cmdsbs.exe command line can be used with scripts.


cmdsbs.exe C:\Folder1 "C:\Program Files\Folder2"

cmdsbs.exe "C:\Program Files\Folder3"

cmdsbs.exe menu 7
(7 is the index of the 7th session in the menu; top session has index 1)

cmdsbs.exe click
(the click session)

cmdsbs.exe doubleclick
(the doubleclick session)