Using VLC to randomly play media files in some selected folders

Have you ever want to randomly play songs or MTV in some selected folders in Win7 ? For example, all the the mp3 or mp4 files are organized this way:

C:\MyAlbum\Artist1 C:\MyAlbum\Artist2 C:\MyAlbum\Artist3 C:\MyAlbum\Artist4 C:\MyAlbum\Artist5 C:\MyAlbum\Artist6 C:\MyAlbum\Artist7

I just want to play the media files for Artist1, Artist3 and Artist7 only. What can I do?

Here is the method.

First of all, using notepad or else to create a file named play_randomly_with_VLC.cmd with the following 2 lines:

@echo off start "" "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --random --zoom=1 --volume=256 %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

Put this file in any folder (e.g. C:\Bat)
Then go to the send-to folder using this method:

1. press Win+E to open an explorer window
2. press Alt+D to go to address bar
3. input shell:sendto
4. press ENTER

In the send-to folder, using drag-and-drop to create a shortcut to point to the play_randomly_with_VLC.cmd file in C:\Bat.
Now, everything is done!
Here is how to call VLC to play the media files for Artist1, 3 and 7:

1. Go to the folder C:\MyAlbum
2. Select the folders Artist1, Artist3 and Artist7 using the Ctrl key and the mouse left-button
3. Release the Ctrl key and Right-click the mouse button
4. In the pop-up menu, select Send to
5. Wait for another pop-up menu and select the shortcut for play_randomly_with_VLC.cmd

Then, VLC will be called to randomly play all mp3 or mp4 files inside the folders Artist1, Artist3 and Artist7.

This method can at most select 9 folders
Alvin SIU
2020-07-02

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