============================
Windows Explorer Integration
============================
.. module:: explorer
:synopsis: Windows explorer integration
Overlay Icons
=============
TortoiseHg provides visual representation of the file status via overlay
icons in the MS-Explorer windows. This is similar to those that found on
other Tortoise client, such as TortoiseCVS and TortoiseSVN.
Beginning from TortoiseHg version 0.5, the overlay icons are shared with
TortoiseSVN (version 1.5.x or later) via the support of TortoiseOverlays
(another project created by TortoiseSVN team).
.. figure:: figures/overlayicons.png
:alt: Overlay icons
Overlay icons in Icons view (this image shows release 0.7 overlays)
In release 0.8, we added an :guilabel:`Update Icons` context menu option
which forces TortoiseHg to refresh the icons in the currently browsed
repository or directory of repositories. The taskbar icon will turn
green and the directory icons will turn into question marks while this
refresh is in progress.
Release 0.8.1 introduced the ability to selectively disable overlay
icons in specific repositories. This can be done be editing the
:file:`.hg\\thgstatus` file inside the repository and replacing it's
contents with a single line containing::
@@noicons
Performance Issues
==================
When the repository being viewed contains a large number of folders or
files, the overlay icons may appear case a perceivable delay in
displaying/refreshing the windows explorer. In most cases, the delay is
more prominent when the first time the repositories are viewed.
Subsequently the caching of the file system usually helps to reduce the
delay rather significantly.
The delay may also be felt on repositories located on network drives or
other slower media.
In 0.8, the new C++ shell extension is an order of magnitude faster than
the Python extension used in previous releases, but we still make the
overlays configurable via the taskbar menu. Simply click on the
Mercurial (droplet) icon in the system tray and select :guilabel:`Options`.
In the options dialog you can disable overlays globally, or enable them for
local disks only.
Context Menus
=============
The TortoiseHg commands (GUI window & dialogs) may be accessed via the
context menu of Explorer windows. The TortoiseHg context menu is
context sensitive, which varies according to the folder being viewed.
.. figure:: figures/contextmenu.png
:alt: Context menu
Context menu for a folder under Mercurial revision control (version 0.7)
Currently TortoiseHg provides only the most regularly used Mercurial
commands, hence the less frequently used, or newly add, Mercurial
commands may still need be accessed on the CLI (command line interface)
through the :file:`cmd.exe` windows.
In 0.8, the new C++ shell extension makes the context menu somewhat
configurable via the taskbar menu. Simply click on the Mercurial
(droplet) icon in the system tray and select :guilabel:`Options`.
In the options dialog you can promote individual menu options to
the top menu.
.. vim: noet ts=4
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