Visual Subst
Rating: 5
Version tested: 1.0.5
Visual Subst can associate any folder with a virtual hard drive in order to make it readily accessible in ’My Computer’ or by simply typing in the virtual drive letter in the folder address prompt.
If you frequently work with a folder or folders that are buried deep within your system’s folder hierarchy (say, something like “C:\Program Files\KillerApp\Templates\Folder”), you can use Visual Subst to associate said folder with a virtual drive, (“x:”, for example), making it much more easily accessible simply by typing in “x:” in any folder address prompt or clicking the new “x:” drive directly from ’My Computer’.
Note that this program does not actually change the location of your folder (it is still in its original location and can be navigated to from the folder structure). Also, the virtual drive can be easily removed at any point.
I’m always interested in ways to make frequently-used folders readily accessible, and this is yet another great idea that hardly uses any extra resources on your system. (See Folder Guide and Folder2MyPC for more folder accessibility freeware options).
Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP; no info on Vista.
Go to the program page to get the latest version (approx 93K) – scroll down to the bottom of the page for download link.
i’ve been looking for this! thanks! =)
I think this is a silly question, but I have to ask it anyway.
Is there a way to share MULTIPLE folders as a single drive.
I am already using DOS “subst t: f:\” but i want to have two folders show as the “T:” drive can this software do what the DOS could not?
Ooh God no. Douglas, this procedure that you say, could bring a big problem to the SO. Think about that, if you copy a file to the ‘drive’ directly instead of copying it to the folder location, the SO wouldn’t know where to save the file, wich of all the paths you defined for the drive.
For that reason I guess it’s impossible.
[...] Volume mountpoint: provides the ability to instantly mount a folder, but is only available in NTFS v5. For some reason I wasn’t able to perform volume mountpointing myself when I tested this program. If you want another freeware that does this (and works on both NTFS and FAT32) check out Visual Subst. [...]
thanks
How is this any different to “map network drive”?
for example it is different regarding that I have not a single clue what a network drive is and what it does, but I know well subst from the DOS times
[...] Convert Directory into new drive: this will create a virtual hard drive volume in "My Computer" that contains the files from the directory that was used to create it. You can both read and write to this new drive, and can specify the drive letter on creation; however it does NOT survive a reboot. If you are interested in creating "permanent" drive shortcuts from folders check out Visual Subst. [...]
[...] Visual Subst: this freeware presents an interesting way to access favorite folders by mapping them as virtual [...]
[...] Visual Subst: this freeware presents an interesting way to access favorite folders by mapping them as virtual [...]