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Charles Lawrence
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2009
Total Posts : 3638

Posted 11/7/2013 12:06 AM (GMT -6)

Many of us have downloaded the new 2014, and many of us have installed it on the same machine where at least one other earlier version also resides. It is even acceptable to have two or more versions running concurrently on the same machine provided you have the resources. Many of us also have installed a collection of JW plug-ins. I personally have installed 57.

The point of this thread is to describe a method I have used to save space and consolidate all the JW plug-ins so that only one copy is necessary no matter how many versions of Finale you have running concurrently. An obvious advantage to doing this, besides saving space, which is minimal anyway, is the ease of maintenance of the ever growing collection of plug-ins. Of course the plug-ins must be compatible with the versions of Finale you have.

This is a technical topic and has little to do with Finale, but I thought I would present it to power users on the forum. You can take it or leave it.

It is probably a little known fact, but Windows versions that support NTFS version 5.0 or later, including Windows XP64 and Windows7/8, can utilize what are collectively known as links (Hardlinks, Junctions, Volume Mountpoints, and for Win 7/8, Symbolic Links). It is beyond the scope of this discussion to go into great depth on what these are, but suffice it to say that links provide the ability to keep a single copy of a file, yet have it appear in multiple folders (directories). The administration of links is primarily done using the command line interface. This is cumbersome at best and prone to error. Not to worry. There is a nice freeware utility that makes link administration a snap using a GUI exposed by right clicking on a file, directory, or device icon within Windows Explorer. I provide a link to the site where you can download the utility and read up on links and how to use the utility. This is nice, but I provide step by step instructions on what to do if you are not interested in all the gory details. The instructions are detailed so no mistakes are made. Read them carefully until you can follow what I am saying. Then and only then perform the steps. I can, of course, make no guarantees and can take no responsibility for the use or misuse of these instructions. They are not difficult, and worked perfect for me.

Download the utility, HardLinkShellExt, and install it. I think you can safely "Ignore" the message to "Please close the following processes before installation:". I was able to ignore it and the install went smoothly. It will want to close and restart your explorer process, and this is OK. http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html [EDIT] You may be required to install the prerequisite runtime dll's if you don't already have them. Be sure to choose the correct versions of the downloads for your system, 32/64 bit.
Close all Finale programs. Move not copy, all your JW plug-ins to a location on your system, any location on any drive accessible to your system, including a network drive if you so desire. You can retain any directory structure you had set up for organizing your JW plug-in collection. This means that you will no longer have your JW plug-ins resident in the Finale directory structure. On Win7, Finale 2012, for example, this is typically "C:\Program Files (x86)\Finale 2012\Plug-ins\"
The next step is made easier if you have two Windows Explorer windows open at the same time, one open to the top level directory where you moved all your JW plug-ins, and the other open inside the Finale directory for plug-ins. As an example, for me this was "C:\Users\Charles\Documents\Finale Files\" and the afore mentioned "C:\Program Files (x86)\Finale 2012\Plug-ins\". I placed all my JW plug-ins in a directory called, surprisingly "JW Plug-ins". You, of course, are free to put them anywhere to your liking.
I used the link type of Junction on my system. The creation of the link is simple with the utility. It is a two step process, pick the link source, and drop the type of link you want into the destination. Let me explain. In the Windows Explorer window that shows the top level directory where you stored your JW plug-ins, right click on that directory icon. For me this is "C:\Users\Charles\Documents\Finale Files\JW Plug-ins". A context (shell) menu pops up where one of the selections is "Pick Link Source". Choose it. Nothing will appear to happen, but trust me on this. In the other Windows Explorer window that is open inside the Finale plug-in directory structure, right click on the background, not any file or directory icon. For a typical Finale 2012 install this is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Finale 2012\Plug-ins\". A context (shell) menu will pop up where one of the selections is "Drop as...". Move over the submenu arrow and a submenu will open where you choose the type of link you want to create. Choose "Junction". You should see a directory icon appear with a link symbol icon overlay, a small arrow in the bottom left, similar to the standard Windows shortcut overlay. Note that the utility instructions say that the junction link overlay is a small chain, but I do not find this to be the case. It does not matter. The junction link is created. [EDIT] The incorrect overlay is displayed if during install you ignored the message to "close the following processes", like I did. A reboot will solve the problem. Now when you re-start Finale, the Plug-ins menu will have an entry that points to the location of your JW plug-ins. For me this is "JW Plug-ins". It will have a submenu that reflects the directory structure that you created for organizing your JW plug-ins. Understand that the plug-ins are actually stored outside the Finale plug-in directory, and that the junction link points to the actual location.
If you have more than one version of Finale, as I have 2012 and 2014, you can drop another source junction link into the 2014 plug-in directory. open that version of Finale and you will see the "JW Plug-ins" entry, you may have named it something else, in the Plug-ins menu. In actuality, of course, there is only one real set of plug-in files, not a duplicate set for each version of Finale.

Neat! I have not seen any problem doing this with Finale 2012 and 2014, and they can both be running concurrently.

Sorry Mac users! This is only for Windows. I know Linux supports links as well, and maybe Mac OS, but I don't know. If so, you could probably do a similar thing, but I have no knowledge of how.

"Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about!"

Dell XPS 600, GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz [Intel64 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 4] (2 processors)
8GB Ram
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Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition, (06.01.7600.00)
Finale versions: 2011b.r2, 2012c.r13, 2014.0.3163

GPO4

"There is a world of difference between a person who has a big problem and a person who makes a problem big." – John Maxwell

Post Edited (Charles Lawrence) : 11/7/2013 8:58:21 AM (GMT-6)

Motet
Isorhythmic

Date Joined Dec 2002
Total Posts : 12849

Posted 11/7/2013 12:48 AM (GMT -6)

Bravo for figuring that out. Does this mean that there really are hard (or symbolic) links on Windows, which HardLinkShellExt can create, or does that utility sit and intercept file system calls? I've always found it dumb that "shortcuts" don't function as symbolic links.

Finale 2011b, 2005, TGTools

Windows XP

Fritz Meissner
Choir Addict

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 3238

Posted 11/7/2013 7:12 AM (GMT -6)

Interesting. According to Wikipedia hard links exist in NT 6.0 onwards, and the API for creating them has been there since Win 2000. I think that if one does this, one would have to be careful not to move the target files because that would break the links (unless Windows is clever enough to update all links when files are moved).

Edit : I see that despite the name of the utility, you were not actually using hard links, but junctions. Technically there is a difference and in theory junctions are a relic and it is better to use symlinks on the latest versions of Windows as they are able to link to network drives as well as local ones (if you need that). See Symlinks vs junctions vs hard links for a discussion.

Thanks for the idea, I'm thinking it has other uses as well for reducing duplication in my file system.

Fritz

PrintMusic 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010 Windows 7 Home Premium, Pentium i5 750 quad core + 4 GB; Cakewalk UA-101
2nd Tenor Cape Town Male Voice Choir.
Use the Finale Knowledgebase first !

Post Edited (Fritz Meissner) : 11/7/2013 6:26:47 AM (GMT-6)

Charles Lawrence
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2009
Total Posts : 3638

Posted 11/7/2013 8:32 AM (GMT -6)

Motet,

As far as I know, the links are real. I have not gone into the guts and examined the links with command line utilities, but that could be done to confirm that they are real.

"Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about!"

GPO4

"There is a world of difference between a person who has a big problem and a person who makes a problem big." – John Maxwell

Charles Lawrence
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2009
Total Posts : 3638

Posted 11/7/2013 9:00 AM (GMT -6)

Fritz,

Yes, I used a junction type link. All the various styles are supported by the utility even though its name implies only hard links. An examination of the documentation on the utility site will show an enormous amount of detail on what you can do. It is almost overwhelming. As mentioned, the documented icon overlay of a small chain did not appear, but a small arrow instead. The link however is a junction, which can be confirmed, at least on my system, by right clicking on the icon and choosing properties. In the properties dialog I have a "Link Properties" tab which gives details about the link including its type. I think this is added functionality not available normally in Windows. I can't remember now what the name of the utility was that added this functionality, but I will go back and find it and report back, in case you or anyone else may want it too.

[EDIT] I cannot find anymore what added the "Link Properties" tab to the file "Properties" dialog. It may be that it is just there and only shows if a link is present. I can't remember now. Sorry.

[EDIT to the EDIT] Upon further reading of the utility documentation, it is stated that the utility adds this tab to the Properties dialog, and that it only appears if the item is a link.

I chose a junction because it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for according to the utility documentation. Notice the link is for the directory and not the files within it, so files within the directory, in this case JW plug-ins, can be added or deleted with no problem. If the source directory is ever renamed or moved, then the link to the destination directory will be broken. Windows is not smart enough correct the link. You would have to delete the old broken link and recreate a good one.

I was not aware that a junction is a "relic", and I don't have a network drive setup on my home network to test it, but I think I will try it now. Symlinks may indeed be the better choice.

BTW, I think I will ask the developer of the utility why the overlays do not show up as advertised.

[EDIT] This happened because I did not close the processes as requested during install, but ignored them. A reboot will display the correct icon overlays.

And yes, this concept can be used for any number of applications on your system to reduce duplication. The plug-ins seemed to be crying for just such a use.

"Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about!"

GPO4

"There is a world of difference between a person who has a big problem and a person who makes a problem big." – John Maxwell

Post Edited (Charles Lawrence) : 11/7/2013 10:35:57 AM (GMT-6)

Charles Lawrence
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2009
Total Posts : 3638

Posted 11/8/2013 1:15 PM (GMT -6)

Just so this will be brought to the top of the list again, I am posting this as reply rather than an edit.

This is for anyone experiencing the lack of overlays on their link icons.

On my system the icon overlays for the links were not showing up, and a reboot was not correcting all of it. I found the answer buried as the last of the FAQ questions on the developer website. You have to go in and make a few registry mods, then the overlays work fine.

Just curious, but has anyone implemented this concept on their system?

"Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about!"

GPO4

"There is a world of difference between a person who has a big problem and a person who makes a problem big." – John Maxwell

Post Edited (Charles Lawrence) : 11/8/2013 2:30:15 PM (GMT-6)

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