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 Post Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 9:58 pm 
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This is not really any big issue but I can't seem to access the root of shared drives.

For instance my F: drive which is a media drive. Since I have also shared Libraries I actually get everything that I need from the drive which is videos but even that is a bit odd in that the F: drive is not included in my Libraries.

Both systems are Windows 10 Pro and I'm using Home Groups. It seems like Home Group is seeing shared files on a drive and deciding what type they are and then forming its own Libraries. Is this correct? I know that the F: drive is actually seen as a whole on the network as, if I want to change a link on my Excel movie menu on the secondary system, F: on the main system is a viable option in the navigation dialog.

Should I forget about Home Group and create a network from scratch? Is Home Group designed to not show actual drives between systems but rather it is just a file share type setup?

I know that I'm not asking my question well so let me know any other info needed. ;) LOL! Never once have I claimed that networking was a forte of mine. ;)

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 Post Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 10:39 pm 
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I don't use Home Groups, just simple folder sharing across the network.


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 Post Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 11:10 pm 
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dvair wrote:
I don't use Home Groups, just simple folder sharing across the network.

I have folder sharing through Home Groups but I want to actually have network drive icons to where I can open a networked drive that resides on my main and see the full directory tree on the secondary system.

I have no issue with getting rid of the 'Home Group' network but first need to know that I can get what I want if I setup manually. Like I said it is not a big deal but I would like to have the ability to open an entire drive that resides on my main system from the second system.

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 Post Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 1:44 pm 
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OK, apparently, from what I've found, you cannot share the root of a drive with Home Group.

Since what I wanted only involved one file I'm not going to re-do my network just to get access to the root of one drive. After all it is only my Excel media menu which resides in the root of my media drive.

I just made a shortcut to the thing to my desktop then moved to my documents. Once in my documents I was able to access the shortcut on the second system. I then just pinned it to Excel on my taskbar. It works fine.

No worries as to my data drive as there is nothing in the root except folders.

I'm satisfied and consider the issue solved. :)

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 Post Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 12:45 am 
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Just added a movie to my library so was able to prove that everything works as planned. When I opened my Excel menu on the second system the new movie was there. :) I expected this but couldn't prove until I added a new movie. Since the link on the second system is just a shortcut to the menu file on the main system there was no reason for it to not work.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 12:59 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
OK, apparently, from what I've found, you cannot share the root of a drive with Home Group.

Since what I wanted only involved one file I'm not going to re-do my network just to get access to the root of one drive. After all it is only my Excel media menu which resides in the root of my media drive.

I just made a shortcut to the thing to my desktop then moved to my documents. Once in my documents I was able to access the shortcut on the second system. I then just pinned it to Excel on my taskbar. It works fine.

No worries as to my data drive as there is nothing in the root except folders.

I'm satisfied and consider the issue solved. :)


I kind of was following you until you reached the part with bold text. Did you create a live link between your media drive and excel? Could you explain how please? Does this excel file launch your media too?

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 Post Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:50 pm 
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I think he means that he opened the Excel file via the saved shortcut. Once it was open, when right clicking Excel on the task back you get the option to pin the recently accessed file. If Excel is pinned to the task bar as a shortcut, one can right click the Excel icon and select to open Excel or open one the pinned files...

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 Post Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 9:43 pm 
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Steve is exactly correct in that. I just created a shortcut to the Excel file on my main system and moved the shortcut to a folder on my data drive which I can access on the second system. I have Excel pined to the taskbar on the second system so just dragged the shortcut to the pinned Excel. I just right click on Excel in the taskbar and select 'Movies.xlsx and the menu launches.

If I update the file on my main system it is automatically 'updated' on the second system as the second system just uses a shortcut that access the file on the main system.

Yes, the Excel file also launches the media. I just click on a title and it launches. The only issue is that it takes a second click as Excel does not actually recognize the media file as safe to open. All my movies are in DVD format so the 'launch file' is always 'VIDEO_TS.IFO' and .IFO files are not recognized by Excel. Below is a shot of the dialog to which I refer.

If your query is due to interest in doing something such as this I can easily outline it for you step by step.
Attachment:
menu warning.jpg
menu warning.jpg [ 212.88 KiB | Viewed 10226 times ]

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 Post Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:35 pm 
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Jaylach wrote:
If your query is due to interest in doing something such as this I can easily outline it for you step by step.

I am interested. I currently open PowerDVD to launch the movie. I have a spreadsheet which contains all my video media. I used this formula: =IFERROR(INDEX(MovieNameList,ROWS($A$1:A1)),"") to generate my list in excel. To use this formula you have to create a name to define the cell where to look by using the Formula section > Define Name or Name Manager. I used MovieNameList as my name. I can create the links individually for each file but that will take me a day or two to complete that. I'm hoping you have a formula that will batch create the links as I have close to 650 links to create. :)


Attachments:
File comment: This is just one column with 80 files listed. There are 2 more columns on this sheet and 4 more sheets.
excel snapshot.PNG
excel snapshot.PNG [ 56.78 KiB | Viewed 10216 times ]

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Last edited by Ritzter13 on Sun Jun 11, 2017 11:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 10:15 pm 
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Sorry to say that I do not have a formula to batch create the links. I just right click and create a link. This is no issue for me as I started doing this when I started my library and now just do it right away when I add a movie.

Still, give the following a try. In theory it should probably work. I see a 'C' column that looks to be just a seperator with 'D' column holding more movies.

Place the following formula in 'c1' and propigate to the end of the column so that the 'b1' references become 'b2', 'b3', etc. through the column.
=Hyperlink("K:\My Movies\" & b1, b1)
Now do the same in your 'E' column changing the formula to:
=Hyperlink("K:\My Movies\" & d1, d1)

Keep in mind that I have not personally done this so I don't know for fact that it will work but, in theory, it should. Please make sure to backup the original Excel file before applying my formulas!

From looking at your partial list of monies it seems that all your files are in .MKV format. The simple forumla I provided works as the .mkv extension is included in the displayed text. If there are different file types it should not matter as long as the extension is included in the displayed text.

How this should work... (I hope! ;) )
1) Of course =Hyperlink tells Excel to create a link.
2) The "K:\My Movies\" tells Excel to include K:\My Movies\ in the link. The link does need a path to the wanted file location.
3) The & b1, b1 and/or & d1, d1 looks redundant to a point but the first b or d reference tells Excel to take the displayed text in your link from the cell that holds the movie title. The second reference tells Excel where to display the link. In this case Excel is told to use the text in b1 and also display the link in b1 and the same for all the other cells.

OK, I just tried this in a new Excel sheet and it DOES create a link. However that link appears in the cell that holds the formula. This can still work as all you should need to do is hide the column that holds the initial text entry. Then just the link will show.

Sigh... Just due to the language needed to explain all this I may have to split this portion of the thread to advanced...

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 Post Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 11:37 am 
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Thanks Jay. I copied your post into a Word Doc file. I will tackle this shortly. Here is the link for the YouTube video of how I created the list in excel from my folder contents. You or another member might want it for future tasks.

Create a List of File Names Using Excel

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 Post Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2017 10:07 am 
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Here's an up date Jay. The spread sheet list works good. Thanks for sharing and your help.

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 Post Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2017 12:03 pm 
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Glad that it worked. :)

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