desktop-ini

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A small CLI tool for working with directory desktop.ini files on Windows.

It helps you inspect and edit desktop.ini fields, manage tags, configure custom execution commands, and sync folder attributes.

Features

• Inspect a directory's desktop.ini and show a concise, human-friendly summary.
• Set common fields such as title, icon, InfoTip, tags (Prop5) and custom execution commands.
• Run the custom command defined in desktop.ini, with optional second confirmation.
  • If elevation is required, it will automatically prompt for administrator permission (UAC) and retry.
• Sync all subdirectories that contain desktop.ini, making the folders read-only.
• Registry integration: register a custom directory class so Explorer can delegate opening to this program.

There is also a Chinese README: README_zh.md.

Install

# From the project root
cargo install --path .

After installation, the compiled binary (usually named desktop-ini, depending on your environment) will be placed in Cargo's bin directory.

Global options

All subcommands share these global options:

• --path <DIR>: Target directory. Defaults to the current working directory.
• --error-action <MODE>: Error handling strategy, one of:
  • continue: Print error and continue (default).
  • inquire: Pause on error and wait for Enter.
  • silently: Ignore errors without printing messages.
  • stop: Abort immediately on error.
• --dry-run: Simulation mode. Print what would be written, but do not actually modify files or attributes.

Subcommands

View directory info

desktop-ini show --path <DIR>

Prints a compact summary of the desktop.ini contents, including:

• Title (LocalizedResourceName)
• InfoTip
• Icon (IconResource)
• Tags (Prop5 parsed into a tag list)
• Custom execution command and its confirmation status

Edit desktop.ini

desktop-ini set \
  --path <DIR> \
  --name "Example folder" \
  --icon "shell32.dll,4" \
  --info-tip "This is an example" \
  --add-tag work --add-tag rust \
  --command "code" \
  --args "%1" \
  --confirm

Common options:

• --name: Set directory display name (LocalizedResourceName).
• --icon: Set icon (IconResource), for example "shell32.dll,4".
• --info-tip: Set hover text (InfoTip).
• --add-tag / --remove-tag / --clear-tag: Manage tags stored in Prop5.
  • You can pass multiple --add-tag / --remove-tag.
  • --add-tag and --remove-tag also accept comma-separated values.
• --command: Set the executable (Target) for custom execution.
• --args: Set arguments (Args) for custom execution.
  • You can pass multiple --args.
  • %1 will be replaced with the directory path that contains desktop.ini.
  • Use %% for a literal %.
  • Quotes group arguments with whitespace; inside quotes, \" and \\ are supported.
• --confirm: Enable second confirmation before running the command.
  • If not provided and confirmation was previously enabled, the flag will be turned off.

Use --dry-run to preview changes and the final desktop.ini content without actually writing.

Execute the configured command

desktop-ini run --path <DIR>

• If confirmation is enabled, you will be prompted:
  • y/yes: Execute the command.
  • n/no: Do nothing and exit.
  • o/open: Open the folder in Explorer and exit.
  • f/file: Open desktop.ini using Explorer and exit.
• If no Target is configured in desktop.ini, the command simply returns without doing anything.
• Args is parsed using whitespace splitting + quotes grouping, with %1/%% expansion.
• If Windows returns error code 740 (elevation required), it will trigger a UAC prompt and retry via ShellExecuteW.

Batch make folders read-only

desktop-ini sync --path <ROOT> --depth <N>

• Recursively walk from ROOT. For each directory that contains desktop.ini, set the folder itself to read-only.
• --depth controls the maximum recursion depth. If omitted, the depth is effectively infinite.
• Combine with --dry-run to see how many folders would be affected without applying changes.

Registry setup

desktop-ini setup

Creates a custom directory class under the current user's registry:

• Software\Classes\INI.CustomExecution (name controlled by the DIRECTORY_CLASS constant).
• Sets its Shell\open\command to the current executable's run subcommand.

Once this is configured, you can use DirectoryClass=INI.CustomExecution plus a [.CustomExecution] section in desktop.ini to have Explorer invoke this program when opening that folder.

Generate shell completions

desktop-ini completion | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

For example, this generates a PowerShell completion script and loads it into the current session. Write this into $PROFILE to make it permanent.

Development

# Run tests
cargo test

# Build the project
cargo build

Main dependencies:

• clap / clap_complete: CLI parsing and completions
• owo-colors: colored terminal output
• encoding_rs: read/write text using the system ANSI code page
• thiserror: error type definitions
• winreg: Windows registry access
• windows-sys: Windows API calls