When I drop a text file (created on a Mac) onto a Windows desktop, the Windows app cannot find it. I can see it listed on (what I think is) the desktop directory but the app reports it missing.
My goal is to be able to read a (relatively simple) text file on a Windows machine when transferred via a thumb drive or email. I understand line endings will require conversion, etc.
I cannot seem to find the text file’s location on the Window’s machine (Windows 7). All help will be appreciated.
Art
How do you drop it there?
There are many ‘desktops’ on a Windows machine, example: one for each user and a shared one.
What is it called?
What code are you using in the Windows app to try to open it?
Jeff,
I wrote the code. It has worked well for years transferring between Macs. Then I needed to have work on the Apple to Windows arrangement.
The Windows machine has only one user. I thought it had only one ‘desktop’. How does one query multiple desktops?
Usually you dont.
They should be hidden from the average user to prevent them messing about with another user’s files.
You should be using specialfolder.desktop.child (thefilename) to access the desktop of the current user.
But there is another:
Specialfolder.SharedDesktop.child(thefilename)
Its much more likely that you have the wrong file name, or it has an extension you arent seeing.
(Most Windows are set up to hide the extension… if your file is actually TESTFILE.TXT all you see in Explorer is TESTFILE)
Try debug/iterating through the folder items collection of specialfolder.desktop and see what files it finds.
On Windows 7, your file may be located in C:\Users\Public\Desktop\ or C:\Users\\Desktop\. It is also possible to customize the folder location, but I am assuming that you did not do that.
Hence the question “How did you drop it there?”
Your application should look for the special folder “Desktop” and drop files to that location, and then read from the same location. If you drop files manually, chances are that the files are in the C:\Users\\Desktop\ location.
edit: Jeff beat me to the finish. +1 on what he says.
Thanks Jeff & Louis, I’ll follow your tips. Right now I have to go to work. More later.