Scratch

Hi, Stonehenge.

Sorry, it's not at all obvious. I've been meaning to post instructions, and here they are.

By default, all drives are visible. To make only selected drives be visible, edit the file "Scratch.ini" in the Scratch folder to add a line like this:

VisibleDrives = C:, D:, M:

Capitalization does not matter, but lettered drive names must end in a colon, and the drive names must be separated by commas.

(Note: the drives containing the Scratch folder and the user's home folder are always accessible via shortcuts even if you try to hide them using this mechanism. Thus, it's best to put the Scratch folder on a drive that you want to be visible.)

  -- John

Last edited by johnm (2007-12-04 07:53:21)

"VisibleDrives = C:, D:, M:"

When I add this command to scratch.ini and add in our mapped network drives, scratch does not show any mapped network drives at all. If I then remove the command it shows all mapped network drives, including invisible ones.  Which is very insecure and does not follow proper MS programming methodologies.

Therefore I would recommend anyone think seriously about installing scratch whilst this remains a problem as it presents a serious security breach.

Last edited by ICTHUS (2008-05-09 10:27:21)

Hi, ICTHUS and MrLeech.

Sorry about the slow response -- and that you are having these problems.

I have had reports from some people that this feature works (and it works for me to control the visibility of physical drives), so I'm not sure what's different about your network setup. Does it work if you just specify the C: drive? That is, can you see the C: drive from Scratch if you do that?

Check the syntax of the line in the scratch.ini file. The drive names must end in colons and be separated by commas.

    -- John

Tested on own machine at home - Windows/XP
Tested by start Scratch - open -Computer see list of drives C: D: E: F: which are real local drives; Q: a DVD drive; K: & L: mapped network drives; Z: a networked SD camera memory card ! Changed scratch.ini to add "VisibleDrives = C:" (without the quotes) and tested again - start Scratch - open -Computer -- see no drives at all - not even C:
But in either case can see "projects" which is a sub-directory of where scratch is installed on the C drive, and by repeated "goto parent directory" in this window I can reach "My Computer" and see ALL the drives.

HolyroodITS wrote:

With reference to Cai post 10 - I am one of the so called techies!!

I completely agree with Priory - Your program needs to be able to either interact with standard windows security policies or have an admin install where you can specify which drives the program allows the end user to see and to set the open/save path etc.

It would also be an advantage if the program came packaged as a MSI file so it can be deployed using windows standard Active directory and group policy. This could then be modified at admin install level to meet local requirements.

Not to be offensive, but you could just use The Amazing Quote Button to reply to Cai's post..
With The Amazing Quote Button, you can reply to anyones post(unless the topic is locked)without having to explain anything!

I think I have worked out the problems with scratch.ini

the line
VisibleDrives=n:
always works

the line
VisibleDrives=N:
always fails

i.e make the drive letters lower case and it works!

Kevin

Hi, K_A.

Thanks for info about drive case names needing to be lower case. I'll report that as a bug; I think it was original case-insensitive but the transition to Unicode may have broken that.

There is now an MSI installer on the download page.

  -- John