Win7 Library Tool
Windows 7 libraries are a really useful feature of Windows 7, however unfortunately they arrive in a slighly cut-down form out of the box. Microsoft decided against exposing some really useful capabilities to users, like adding network locations, pretty much the first thing I tried to do. You get this message:
Luckily, you can add network locations (and any other un-indexed locations), but it must be done programatically. MS supply a command line utility slutil.exe, candidate for the worst named executable in history. Pretty sure it stands for shell_library_util. Anyway, I decided to write a tool to make it easy to add network locations, and added a few other features as well:
- Add network (UNC or mapped drive) and any other un-indexed folders to libraries.
- Backup library configuration, such that a saved set of libraries can be instantly restored at any point (like after a re-install of the OS or for transfer between multiple computers).
- Create a mirror of all libraries (using symbolic links) in [SystemDrive]:\libraries. This means you can reference all your files using a much shorter path, and also provides another entry-point to your files in many places in the Operating System (e.g. file open/save dialogs).
- Change a library’s icon.
Hopefully it’s easy enough to use, so I don’t have to explain it 
You can download it for free below. (Note: This will only run on >= Windows 7.)
Download Installer | Source Code
I must give credit to Josh Smith for his TreeView CodeProject article, upon which this solution is modelled.
The application uses the Microsoft API CodePack to manipulate libraries, which I encourage you to check out if you are writing software to integrate / take advantage of new features in Windows 7.
If you want to learn why and how libraries were introduced in Windows 7, including diving into the .library-ms file format, you can read this MSDN article.
Now featured on Tekzilla!
Scratch that – I restarted my machine and all was well. Looks like i was being stupid. C’est la Vie.
Great tool, I needed just that. Thanks a lot for creating this.
I would like to ask you if you have any idea on how to disable the recurring tooltip message above the folder listing :
“some libraries features are unavailable due to unsupported librairies location”
Quite annoying :[
xDx
Fixed in v1.06.
Wow thanks, very appreciated!
Best regards,
xDx
Hi Guys,
How do you index your NAS? Using windows 7 search is useless. You can add the network shares in your library, but they aren’t indexed. Do you use any other software?
Copernic and X1 are useless aswell, because you can’t select all results found through a search, copy them and for instance paste them in a temporary directory on my desktop.
Any tips?
@Vinzzz
I don’t run any indexing except Synology’s own indexing service via the Webgui (application->Mediacenter; which took 12h on my setup)
How is Win7 search useless? it’s not spotlight-fast but still does the work :]
xDx
@xDRAN0x
My QNAP doesnt have any indexing service. Win7 search is useless while it doesnt search the labels of pictures of non indexed shares. So I still have to rely on good directory structures, while it was just the idea of centralising data and dont care where a file resists…
Just installed and ran on Win7 x64 and it has deleted all my non user created libraries
Scratch that… When the app recreates the libraries it also re catalogues. While it is doing this, still to be catalogued libraries are not visible.
My own fault for having 2Tb of storage
On the plus side App works great in Win7x64.
Finally!
THANKS A LOT!
That is what I was looking for!
Your are my hero of the day ^^
Hi
So if I add my network drives to the library and re build the index my windows search should (when index is complete) find any document I search for on my network drives in my domain…
nope, if you’ve read the comments you would have read that isnt possible
Nope windows search doesnt pick up in the libraries when doing a search you have to manually search the libraries which seems a bit pointless
I would like to ask you if you have any idea on how to disable the recurring tooltip message above the folder listing :
“some libraries features are unavailable due to unsupported librairies location”
xDx asked this below but I didn’t see a response.
Anyone having the same problem?
@capnPete: same problem here. Did you solved the error?
This has now been fixed in v1.06.
Getting an error with this utility: Windows Explorer has a bar at the top that says “Some library features are unavailable due to unsupported library locations. Click here to learn more…” Then the icons for some of the libraries are blank and the contents of the libraries are empty. I restarted Win7 Library Tool and re-imported the existing libraries but the problem persists. In Win7 Library Tool they look fine and I can see the folders with the appropriate icons and their subfolders listed below, but in Windows Explorer they are not working.
Seems like no one’s solved the ‘unsupported library locations’ error yet. See this comment for the blank icon / empty libraries in Windows Explorer.
Yellow information bar fixed in v1.06.
Thank You for all the useful posts. They really helped me ! You just got a new subscriber now!
How is the XML base *.library-ms files created? Is it possible to modify the code of the Win7 Library Tool to add the following line to the .Library-ms files:
This will prevent the yellow bar information bar “Some library features are unavailable due to unsupported library locations. Click here to learn more…” I know if you right click on the bar, you can prevent this message, but it would be nice to include this feature if possible.
Thanks, I’ve added this in v1.06.
To get rid of the message, just right-click i and click ‘don’t show this message again’
)
Win7 64bit?
There’s even a video on it that can be seen here:
external icons only get displayed at 32×32
why?
They only get displayed as 32×32 in the tool, but in Windows Explorer, they will display at the optimum resolution from the original source. I tested this by adding an external .ico for my ‘coding’ library, which contains icons larger than 32×32 and you can see the result here.
thanks, the tool messed up my network libraries AND my icons completely..
Try killing all explorer.exe processes and then starting a new task from task manager ‘explorer’. It seems there are some bugs in explorer.exe in this dept.
Works great!Thank you very much for solving this problem:)
I ran Win7 Library Tool, told it to create a mirror in C:\libraries, ran.
Then to my horror, all my libraries are now gone, don’t show up in Explorer. I restarted Explorer, waited (as some posts said they came back after indexing) but no libraries?
Are the libraries saved somewhere? Can I get them back. Real pain to recreate.
Sorry to hear that, it seems there may be an issue on some computers with the creation of the symbolic links in c:\libraries, which I will look into shortly. Assuming that clicking the ‘magic wand’ button in the tool doesn’t show you your libraries, then unfortunately yes they are gone. Next time, take a backup of your library configuration (the disk icon) so you can later restore it (e.g. if you reinstall windows, or login as a different user (or your libraries disappear…)).
There are just empty folders in C:\libraries.
Please help.
Also not working for me (Win 7 Home “Premium” 64bit). Added a mapped drive network location to one library; it now shows a blank icon for the modified library and won’t open or do anything else
Premium == crippled
Maybe you need to quit explorer and restart but suddenly started working
Another year and I’ll have hacked my way up to the Pro version.
thanks for the program.
tried this several times – running on Win7 64bit. Each time i try to run the programme i get “Win7 Library Tool has stopped working”. So I can’t get any further… any ideas anyone?
Hi Ian, that’s no good! There’s a crash handler built-in to the application, so you normally shouldn’t see that message… If you contact me via the About page we can perhaps troubleshoot it.
I’m getting the same message.
The first time I ran it I made 1 change and told it to save. It deleted all the libraries and created an empty Documents library pointing to nothing. After 20 minutes of the program sitting there doing nothing and getting a message that this program has stopped responding I forced it to shut down. I should have backed it up, but didn’t.
I rebooted, ran the program again added back some of the old libraries. Click save. And it appears to be doing the same thing. Stuck. I’m assuming the process should be fairly quick and that it isn’t reindexing the drives while it rebuilds the library.
I’m going to go off for a few hours and see if it finishes on its own, but I would have thought it would have been done in a matter of a few minutes.
Took a good long while but it created it successfully.
It should not take more than a few seconds to create the libraries (no indexing or rebuilding is done), I’ve not seen the behaviour you describe, but it’s certainly possible since the program calls some new Windows 7 APIs. Who knows what Microsoft is doing in the background
Contains Trojan.FakeAlert.5 my BitDefender says.
What’s up with this? Anyone else?
Oh snap! Seems as if BitDefender has made a really bad update, all x64 users seems to be infected by the bad update.
http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=18759
Nothing wrong with Win7 Library tool.
Updates: The solution can be found here:
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/KnowledgeBase/consumer/#638
We cannot express enough our deep regret regarding this circumstance. Due to our mistake we have caused many issues, and we understand and respect the magnitude of this circumstance.
In regards to compensation: we will address this in a later correspondence.
BitDefender will have a patch and steps for solving the problem on bootable and non bootable systems running OS Windows 7 and Vista in approximately 45 minutes”
The solutions can be found here: http://www.bitdefender.com/site/KnowledgeBase/consumer/#638
We cannot express enough our deep regret regarding this circumstance. Due to our mistake we have caused many issues, and we understand and respect the magnitude of this circumstance. In regards to compensation: we will address this in a later correspondence.
Great app, beautifully implemented – thank you!!!
Now top register my NAS and network printer on homegroup…
Hello,
I’m curious as to how you have managed to suppress the yellow information bar. I’m in the process of rolling out Windows 7 for a client, and we have folder redirection set up, which triggers the information bar. Is it a registry setting I could include in my group policies?
Never mind, I found out it’s saved in the xml in the respective .library-ms file.
THANK YOU!
I have been struggling with this for some time now and your program is simple, easy to follow and worked a treat first time. It is also very useful to be able to save the set up so that, once it is arranged on one PC, I can simply update the settings on the other PCs in my house.
Kick Ass!
You rock man!!
Nice app… now my Linux NAS shares are in da Library!
I would really like to use your Win7LibraryTool application but I keep getting the following error:
Win 7 Library Tool has stopped working
…
In the Application Event Viewer:
Win7LibraryTool.exe
1.0.4.0
4b3b0471
KERNELBASE.dll
6.1.7600.16385
4a5bdaae
e0434f4d
00009617
Is there a fix for this?
Thank you,
I would like to simply say thank you. I drives me nuts when MS does this crap. I have a gigabit home network with a Windows Server housing all my data. I do NOT want offline files enabled on my desktop PC, I just want my libraries to point to the server. It shouldn’t require a cool guy like you to write an app just to do that, it should be an option I can enable on my own … IN THE GUI !
Sheeh!
Seriously though, thanks!
-Lexrst
Great tool, thank you!
Only minor problem I encountered:
- I imported all existing libraries, but when you save, existing libraries lose their name and icon. To avoid this, also open the properties of the imported existing libraries and “change” (choosing the old icons and names) them, and then save again.
Bye,
Ton
I tried the tool a few days ago on a PC using Window 7 Ultimate x64 which has Windows Home Server connector and Windows Media Center Connector. I did take a backup. When I tried to apply the changes it wiped the existing libraries and I got the not responding problem. I tried loading the backup but when I applied the change I go not responding again.
I tried a system restore but that didn’t work. I reset the libraries to get the main ones back – I then ran Windows Media Center Connector to add it the shared folders from the WHS but it althgough it ran it didn’t work. I then tried to use WMP12 to add the shared music fold back in. It eventually did that and indexed it but now WMP12 won’t respond and Media Center won’t pick up any libraries either.
I am beginning think I will need to do a rebuild unless there is any way to reset libraries for the whole computer – not just one profile.
Are the network folders just added to the library without being indexed?
If they are indexed, how do I re-index them after modifying files in them?
The program does not explicitly do any indexing, the API that Microsoft provided just allows adding of libraries. I presume that Windows itself handles the process of indexing where possible. I’m not aware of any way to manually kick off indexing.
Great program which worked well up until ~2 months ago. I have a QNAP TS-119 with SMB shares accessed from my Win7 Ultimate x64 PC. Unfortunately, as a couple of other posters have pointed out, the program instantly crashes every time I try to run it now. Have uninstalled/reinstalled and tried 1.05 and 1.06 but it just won’t run. There have been all the usual Windows updates but very little else has changed on my PC.
What info can I give you to help diagnose this issue?
Well, it’s been solved. I think the program assumes you have Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1 installed. I didn’t and now it’s been added back into Windows, the Win7 Library Tool is working again
I had previously removed Microsoft Games for Windows Live several months ago. I recalled that it had installed .NET at the same time so I also removed that as I don’t like bloat. Anyway, that’s the reason I deleted it and the reason Win7 Library Tool stopped working. My bad, sorry !!
Being constructive, can v1.07 check it has .NET available before crashing? If so maybe a useful error msg would help. Just a thought. Still a great program.
Очень долго ломал голову . не думаю бы пересмотрел то,
Hey, Thanks a lot !!
Rather new in Win7 ans i was searching for hours… untill i found youre tool… really great !
That was a nice blog post,I anticipate many more post from you.
Great tool, worked in a flash!
Works great! Thank you!
Sorry for asking this question, but I didn’t understand something about NAS:
If I have a NAS working on Linux (I was thinking to buy a Buffalo terastation), the shares can be included through your fantastic program; but are they also indexed completely???
It is really important for me (If it is not possibile I’ll not buy a NAS)!
Thank you!!!
Unfortunately, no they will not be indexed. This tool just allows you to browse/access the contents of your NAS inside Windows 7 libraries. There may be another way to enable indexing but i have not investigated any.
First of all, I love this utility — it is absolutely fabulous, and I appreciate you making it available for all of us out here in web world.
I am, however, having issues with v.1.04 and 1.06 lately and I was wondering if you could help.
The program starts, but when I try to load the existing libraries, I get an error message and it closes.
I am running Win7 Professional 64-bit
Here: is the error log information from Windows:
=====================================
Log Name: Application
Source: Windows Error Reporting
Date: 6/9/2010 11:31:27 AM
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: [omitted for privacy]
Description:
Fault bucket 1117560722, type 5
Event Name: CLR20r3
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0
Problem signature:
P1: win7librarytool.exe
P2: 1.0.6.0
P3: 4ba46ffb
P4: mscorlib
P5: 2.0.0.0
P6: 4a27471d
P7: 349e
P8: e1
P9: System.IO.FileNotFoundException
P10:
Attached files:
C:\Users\[omitted for privacy]\AppData\Local\Temp\WERFB40.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
These files may be available here:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_win7librarytool._90c8cb983327ad9c629d747112de14b3fea3210_220d05ea
Information 6/9/2010 11:31:27 AM Windows Error Reporting 1001 None
=====================================
Any thoughts on how I can get this back up and running? Feel free to email me if you need more info or want the files referenced in the log above.
Again, thanks for making this great app, and I hope to have it running again soon.
Fixed in 1.09.
Hello there,
me again complaining :]
Please check :
http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=25250&p=101776#p101776
Do you think the new version of your tool could cause this? I have not changed anything on my NAS and the only thing I can remember of is updating my Zorn Software too.
Best regards,
xDRAN0x
I think it’s unlikely, the program does not create any hidden folders, nor affect offline files.
How come when I create a Library for a Network Drive with the Windows7 Library Tool it’s nested within the following folder structure ?
libraries => =>
I’m unable to see it when I go to the Libraries area instead it’s nested within the folder listed above under the drive in which windows is installed ?
Thanks for this. Now I can mount my VortexBox NAS into windows libraries.
Thanks for this excellect tool. I generally like Win 7 a lot, but with Libraries Microsoft basically built half a bridge and left it hanging out there in the sky. It took you to finish the bridge and bring users with network shares all the way home. Microsoft really should pay you for saving them from an army of irate Win 7 users!
Nice tool, documents library is enhanced to network folder. Pic, Video and Musik library, which have not been modified, appear as an empty icon, clicking on them has no effort. Any idea?
Regards
Daniel
This is a known issue – see this comment for how to fix it (basically, close all instances of Windows Explorer, or log off/on, or reboot).