The config file

Everything you set in Settings is stored in one file, config.json. You can edit it by hand too. This page lists every key, the shape of the nested items, and what happens when something in the file is wrong. To find the file, see Files and logs.

Format

config.json is JSON with a few allowances:

• // and /* */ comments are allowed.
• Trailing commas are allowed.
• Key names are not case sensitive (recentCount and RecentCount are the same key). Settings writes them in camelCase, as shown on this page.
• Keys Folderite doesn't know are ignored.
• A key you leave out gets its default, listed below.
• Backslashes in paths must be doubled: "C:\\Projects".

Folderite reloads the file by itself. About 300 ms after a change on disk it reads the file again, and the new values apply to the next menu you open. The keyboard shortcut, the list of disabled apps and the history exclusions are applied at the same moment. You don't have to restart. The tray menu has Reload (and the folder menu has Reload at the bottom) to read the file again on demand.

Anything that saves the file rewrites it from scratch. That happens when you change something in Settings, when you pick Add to favorites in the folder menu, and when Folderite creates the file on first run. The rewrite:

• drops your // and /* */ comments,
• drops keys Folderite doesn't know,
• writes the keys in a fixed order with two-space indentation,
• leaves out items, showSubfolders and sortSubfolders where they have no effect.

If you keep notes in comments, keep them in a copy of the file, or edit by hand and don't touch Settings. Settings only saves when you change something, so opening it does not rewrite the file.

Keys

Key	Type	Default	Meaning
favorites	list of favorite entries	[] (see below)	The favorites section of the menu.
recentCount	number	15	How many folders the Recent submenu lists. 0 hides the submenu. A negative number counts as 0. Settings limits it to 0 to 50 (Menu > Recent folders).
historyExclude	list of text	[]	Wildcard patterns for folders that are never remembered.
actions	list of actions	one action, Open &terminal here	Commands in the current folder's submenu.
disabledProcesses	list of text	[]	Program names, without .exe, where Folderite does nothing.
showOpenWindows	true or false	true	Show the Open windows section.
showClipboard	true or false	true	Show the Clipboard item when the clipboard holds a folder path.
enableOnDesktop	true or false	true	Also open the menu on the desktop. Picking a folder there opens a new Explorer window.
hotkey	text	""	The keyboard shortcut that opens the menu. Empty means none.
showDrives	true or false	false	Add a Drives submenu with the free space of each drive.
dialogLastFolder	true or false	false	Open new Open and Save dialogs in the folder last used in the same app.
dialogFolders	list of dialog folders	[]	A fixed start folder for the dialogs of one app. Wins over dialogLastFolder.

Some defaults need a note:

• favorites. A key that is missing means no favorites. On first run, Folderite creates the file with four: &Home (your user folder), &Desktop, Do&wnloads and D&ocuments, each written as a full path.
• actions. A key that is missing gives the one default action, Open &terminal here, which runs wt.exe with -d "{path}". To have no actions at all, write "actions": [].

Where each key appears in Settings: favorites on Favorites, actions on Actions, recentCount, showOpenWindows, showClipboard, showDrives and enableOnDesktop on Menu, dialogLastFolder and dialogFolders on Dialogs, historyExclude and disabledProcesses on Exclusions, and hotkey on General. See Settings.

Favorites

Each entry in favorites is one of three things.

A folder has a path:

{ "name": "&Projects", "path": "D:\\Projects" }

A separator is an entry whose name is a single hyphen. It draws a line in the menu:

{ "name": "-" }

A group has items, a list of more entries of any kind. It becomes a submenu, and groups can hold groups:

{ "name": "Work", "items": [
  { "name": "Specs", "path": "%USERPROFILE%\\Work\\Specs" }
]}

Key	Type	Meaning
name	text	The text in the menu. Put & before a letter to make it the accelerator key. A folder with an empty name shows the last part of its path.
path	text	The folder. Environment variables are expanded. Folder entries only.
items	list of entries	Makes the entry a group. An entry with items is a group even when the list is empty, and its path is ignored.
showSubfolders	true or false	Folder entries only. Shows the folder as a submenu of its subfolders. Default false.
sortSubfolders	text	With showSubfolders: "newest" lists the most recently modified folders first. Anything else, or leaving it out, sorts by name.

How each kind is treated:

• A folder entry with no path, or a blank one, is skipped. It does not show up in the menu.
• The - separator works anywhere in the tree, including inside groups.
• Folderite does not check that a folder exists when it builds the menu. Picking one that is gone fails (see Troubleshooting). The Favorites page in Settings marks a missing local folder with "This folder doesn't exist."
• A group's name is shown as written, so a plain & in it becomes an accelerator. A name taken from a folder's path (when name is empty) has no accelerator, and any & in the folder name is shown as it is.

Subfolder submenus

With showSubfolders on, the favorite is a submenu instead of an item. The first item in it is the folder itself, in bold, so you can still open it. Below a separator come its subfolders:

• Hidden and system folders are left out.
• By name uses Explorer's order (file2 comes before file10). "sortSubfolders": "newest" orders by last modified time, newest first.
• At most 100 subfolders are listed. If there are more, the last item is a grayed-out "Showing the first 100 folders".
• The folders are read when you open the submenu, not before. If the folder doesn't answer within 1.5 seconds (a sleeping network share, for example), the submenu shows the folder itself and no subfolders, and the menu does not freeze.

showSubfolders and sortSubfolders on a group or a separator do nothing.

Actions

Each action adds an item to the submenu that opens from the top item of the menu (the current folder). Actions are not shown when the menu has no current folder, for example when you open it from the tray icon.

{ "name": "Open in &VS Code", "command": "code", "args": "\"{path}\"" }

Key	Type	Meaning
name	text	The menu text. & marks the accelerator key.
command	text	The program or file to run. Environment variables are expanded.
args	text	The arguments. Every {path} is replaced with the current folder's path, without quotes added, so write \"{path}\" in JSON when the path may contain spaces.

Folderite starts the command with the Windows shell, with the current folder as the working directory. That means a program name that is on your PATH, a full path, or a document all work. If it can't start, a balloon from the tray icon says "name failed:" followed by Windows' reason, with the & removed from the name.

The submenu also holds two items of its own: Copy path, which is always there, and Add to favorites, which is hidden when the folder is already a favorite. They come from Folderite, not from actions.

Dialog folders

dialogFolders sets the folder a new Open or Save dialog starts in, per app. See Open and Save dialogs.

"dialogFolders": [
  { "app": "notepad", "path": "D:\\Notes" }
]

Key	Type	Meaning
app	text	The program name of the app that opens the dialog, without .exe. A trailing .exe is tolerated here. Not case sensitive.
path	text	The start folder. Environment variables are expanded.

An entry with an empty app or path is ignored (Settings drops it when it saves). The first entry whose app matches is used. If the folder doesn't exist, the dialog is left alone.

History exclusions

Each pattern in historyExclude is matched against the whole folder path, with these rules:

Character	Matches
*	Any run of characters, including none and including \.
?	Exactly one character.
anything else	Itself. Case doesn't matter.

"historyExclude": ["C:\\Windows\\*", "*\\node_modules\\*", "X:\\*"]

• The pattern must match the whole path. C:\Windows\* matches everything below C:\Windows, but not C:\Windows itself. Add a second pattern for that.
• Paths are compared without a trailing \, except for a drive root (X:\).
• Environment variables are not expanded in patterns.
• A blank pattern is ignored.
• A folder that matches is not recorded, and it is hidden from Recent. Folders recorded before you added the pattern stay in history.json, and show in Recent again if you remove the pattern.

Keyboard shortcut

hotkey is text such as "Win+Shift+F" or "Ctrl+Alt+F5". In Settings you record it by pressing the keys, so you rarely write it by hand.

• Modifiers: Ctrl (or Control), Alt, Shift, Win (or Windows), joined with +, in any order.
• Keys: a letter, a digit, F1 to F24, Space, Insert, Delete (or Del), Home, End, PageUp, PageDown, Up, Down, Left, Right, a punctuation key that has its own key on your keyboard layout, or a hex key code such as 0xC0.
• Case doesn't matter, and spaces around + are fine.
• Exactly one key, and at least one modifier. Function keys are the only exception and can stand alone.

If the text can't be read, or another program already owns the shortcut, Folderite shows a balloon when it starts or when the value changes, and Settings shows a warning. The exact messages are in Troubleshooting.

Environment variables

Windows environment variables written as %NAME% are expanded in:

• the path of a favorite,
• the command of an action (but not its args),
• the path of a dialog folder,
• the registry value that moves the config folder (see Files and logs).

A variable that doesn't exist is left as written, so the path won't resolve. Environment variables are not expanded in historyExclude.

Accelerators

An & in a name marks the letter after it as the accelerator. With the menu open, press that letter to pick the item. Write && for a literal &.

• "&Projects" shows as Projects with the P underlined. Press P.
• "Pro&jects && Notes" shows as Projects & Notes, with the J as the accelerator.
• If only one item in a menu has that letter, pressing it picks the item. If several share it, each press moves to the next one, and Enter picks the highlighted one.
• An item with no accelerator can still be reached with the first letter of its text, when no item claims that letter.

The folder menu's own items use accelerators too (Copy path, Add to favorites, Recent, Drives, Clipboard, Settings…, Reload), so pick your letters with those in mind where they share a menu.

Disabled apps

disabledProcesses takes the program's file name without .exe, for example "notepad". Folderite compares it with the name of the program that owns the window, ignoring case. A name written with .exe in the file does not match, so leave it off. (Settings removes the .exe when you add a name there.)

An app on this list gets no menu from the mouse or the keyboard shortcut, and its folders are not recorded in your history. For Explorer windows and the desktop the name is explorer. See Supported apps.

A full example

Every key appears once.

{
  "favorites": [
    // Its subfolders in a submenu, newest first.
    { "name": "&Projects", "path": "D:\\Projects", "showSubfolders": true, "sortSubfolders": "newest" },
    { "name": "-" },                                   // separator
    { "name": "Work", "items": [                       // group: a submenu
      { "name": "Specs", "path": "%USERPROFILE%\\Work\\Specs" }
    ]}
  ],
  "recentCount": 15,
  "historyExclude": ["C:\\Windows\\*", "*\\node_modules\\*"],
  "actions": [
    { "name": "Open &terminal here", "command": "wt.exe", "args": "-d \"{path}\"" },
    { "name": "Open in &VS Code",    "command": "code",   "args": "\"{path}\"" }
  ],
  "disabledProcesses": ["someapp"],   // program names without .exe
  "showOpenWindows": true,
  "showClipboard": true,
  "enableOnDesktop": true,
  "showDrives": false,                // a Drives submenu with free space
  "hotkey": "Win+Shift+F",            // keyboard shortcut for the menu; "" = none
  "dialogLastFolder": false,          // open file dialogs in the folder last used in that app
  "dialogFolders": [                  // fixed start folders for one app's file dialogs
    { "app": "notepad", "path": "D:\\Notes" }
  ]
}

When the file has a mistake

How Folderite treats a bad file depends on what is wrong.

What is wrong	What happens
Not valid JSON: a missing comma or brace, an unquoted key, single quotes, a single backslash in a path	The whole file is rejected. Nothing from it is used.
A value of the wrong type, such as "recentCount": "ten" or "showDrives": "yes"	The same: the whole file is rejected.
An empty file	The same.
A key Folderite doesn't know, or a different capitalization of a known key	The unknown key is ignored. A known key in another capitalization is read normally.
A number out of range, such as a negative recentCount	The value is accepted and treated as the nearest sensible one (0).
A favorite with no path and no items, or a blank path	That entry is skipped. The rest of the file works.
A path that doesn't exist	Accepted. The menu shows the item, and picking it fails when the window can't go there.
An unreadable hotkey	The rest of the file works. Only the shortcut is not set, and a balloon says so.

When the file is rejected:

• Folderite keeps using the last good settings. If this happens at startup, there are no earlier settings, so Folderite runs with built-in defaults: no favorites, and the one default action.
• The error message comes from the JSON reader. It names the position, for example the line number and the path of the key. A balloon with the title "Folderite: config error" shows it at startup and when you pick Reload. A change you save from your editor while Folderite runs is checked silently, and the balloon is not shown. The message is not written to folderite.log.
• Settings stops saving. The Settings window shows "config.json has an error, so changes here are not saved." with the message under it and the buttons Open file and Reload. This protects the file you are in the middle of fixing, because Settings would otherwise overwrite it with its own copy. Fix the file and save it, and Settings picks the change up on its own, or press Reload.

See Troubleshooting for the steps.

If you delete config.json while Folderite runs, it keeps working with what it has in memory. The next time it reads the file (Reload from the tray menu, or a restart), it creates the file again with the four default favorites.