MRIN Filing System+ Is Now Free

The MRIN Filing System+ is now free.

I appreciate the support of past purchasers.

Due to the overgrown, and frankly irrelevant and obscene, list of personal information that I am required to hand over to online payment processors, I am no longer willing to work with them.

Anyone within Canada who would like to send me an Interac e-transfer as a token of gratitude, using only my name and email address, is welcome to do so.  

If you want this book, just download it. It's best in the hands of anyone who finds value in it.

Since its conceptualization in 2003 it's been revolutionary in the world of digital genealogy filing. I think it's still the best genealogy filing system available. And it may still be the only one that's an actual filing system rather than a file-box.

I suggest you read it to get an overview and then again more slowly. Many hundreds of hours of work have gone into developing, testing and fine-tuning every last detail. But, if you get lost in the weeds, for now I'm still here.

Bulk Rename Utility

If you're starting your filing with the MRIN Filing System+ you'll get it right the first time. If you're switching from another system, you might find Bulk Rename Utility useful.

I've used it a lot to bring my files into a consistent naming pattern.

It has so many options for renaming, the screen looks quite daunting. Don't be daunted. There's a couple of short videos to get you started.

Bulk Rename Utility - Batch Rename Files

Bulk Rename Utility Windows

From here you can experiment. Maybe make a test batch of files in folders within folders and play around so you're not afraid of breaking anything.

When you're installing it, check the option for adding it to your Context menu for easy access.

See a preview of your results before hitting the Rename button.

desktop.ini

This is something that came to my attention only recently and from searches it's clear it was not an issue previously. What caused it to start I don't know. I'm using Windows 10.

This can mess up your files everywhere; it's not specific to MRIN Filing but can certainly affect it.

It's a text file called 'desktop.ini'.

How it comes about is when you rename a folder and move its location it will create a desktop.ini to hold onto the old name. In the process it will actually refuse to register the new name. The file will look something like this where 51489 DHT-MHB is the folder name:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@51489 DHT-MHB,0

You can see how this would be a problem for your MRIN Filing. If you want to know if this has already affected your system, open the folder where you keep your MRIN Sources and do a search for desktop.ini. Hopefully you won't have any. If you do, you'll have to go to each folder and adjust accordingly.

What I've done is turn on the options at the top of Windows Explorer and tick, "Show Hidden Items" like this:

If a desktop.ini is suddenly created it will show itself next to the folder I've renamed. All it takes to get things back on track is to delete it.

If you're looking for a more satisfying way of fixing this, here's a simple video with the commands you'll need below the video:

How to Stop Desktop.ini File from Opening Automatically on Windows 11/10 Startup [Tutorial]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyzhgovPkJY