Command line switches

You can control which folders are initially displayed in the panels of AB Commander when it starts up, by supplying appropriate command line arguments to the executable file of AB Commander.

The name of the executable file depends on the edition of Windows:

abcmdr.exe for the 32-bit versions of Windows;
abcmdr64.exe for the 64-bit Intel/AMD versions of Windows;
abcarm64.exe for the 64-bit ARM versions of Windows.

The following examples show the command lines for the 32-bit versions of Windows. They use the following syntax:

[path]abcmdr.exe [path1[,path2]]

where path1 is the fully qualified path to the folder to be shown in the first panel (the left or the top one, depending on the way you split the panels), and path2 is the path to the folder to be shown in the second panel.

If you don't supply path1 or path2, the panels will display the most recently visited folders.

Note that both long and short (8.3) path of a folder can be used for path1 and path2, however if the path contains spaces, it must be enclosed in double quotes. Note also that you can also specify the startup folders via the Startup options of AB Commander.

You can also force AB Commander to display virtual folders in its panels, using the syntax:

::{CLSID1}[\::{CLSID2}[...]]

in place of path1 and/or path2. The CLSID1, etc. should be replaced with the appropriate CLSID of the virtual folder. For example, ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} may be used to refer to the This PC virtual folder.

You can also use the following command line switches to control how the main window of AB Commander should be displayed at startup:

/minimize - the main window should be "minimized" and displayed as a button on Windows Taskbar;

/maximize - the main window should be "maximized" to fill all available screen space

/iconize - the main window should be displayed as an icon in the "Taskbar notification area", next to the system clock.

Note that you cannot combine the /minimize, /maximize, or /iconize switch with the path1,path2 arguments described above. Note also that you can also specify the startup window display via the Startup options of AB Commander.

Example

"C:\Program Files\AB Commander\abcmdr.exe" C:\Temp,"C:\My Documents"

will cause AB Commander to display the contents of the folders C:\Temp and C:\My Documents in its panels.