Add support for opening .bat files from the Pause-menu as Game manuals
I would like (if possible) to add support for opening .bat files from the Pause-menu as Game manuals just as it is already working from LaunchBox right-click menu or BigBox game menu.
Explaining in more detail, I place some ‘.bat’ files instead of game manuals in the respective folder with the respective name which adds the ability for me (among many other things) to open the game manuals with any other pdf reader I want and also as many files simultaneously I need. That said when I use the LaunchBox right-click menu or BigBox game menu this works perfectly BUT from the ‘Pause Menu’>View Manual shows the guts/code in the ‘.bat’ file like text.
I hope I make my request clear enough for the dev team!
Thank you in advance
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Comments7
TsikZak
Mar 23
In this link -here- I post/share my work on a batch script which together with some other apps (Autohotkey, JoyToKey, SumatraPDF, Nircmd) helps viewing multiple and different documents (images) with the use of a controller (and keyboard) which works great from LaunchBox and BigBox but not from the Pause Menu due to unsupported .bat files there.
TsikZak
Mar 18
Hi, sorry for my ignorance, but this post is "Open to the Community" but still private, is this the normal process or I miss something?
AstroBob
Mar 18
my apologies, that was an error on our part. Open to community posts should always be public, I’ve just fixed this up so it should be visible by everyone now.
Apologies there
TsikZak
Mar 18
Hey, no apologies needed, thank you for the fast response!
TsikZak
Feb 22
Hey there, reviving this old request to post more info about the problem that launching .bat file types from the pause menu is solving.
Below I post a pic of what is happening in a particular case of a game that has more than one documents that may want to read during play-time.
Manuals that game has:
As you can see I have all my manuals and documents on a separate drive and use e.g. a ‘F-14 Fleet Defender Gold.bat’ in ..\LaunchBox\Manuals folder with which I can open all of them at once with a pdf viewer of may choice with one click and also use the JoyToKey app for navigating with the controller. All that working from the LauncBox right-click menu perfectly :). But if I use the Pause Menu > View Manual option I get this:
I know that LauncBox uses Chromium as pdf viewer which it is pretty reliable, and support controller navigation but It is what it is and that’s all. I also know that you can use additional apps for viewing additional pdf files but imagine how much time do I have to spend importing them one by one for all those games that have more than one document.
I strongly believe that this feature/capability is essential and missing from the LaunchBox ‘Pause Menu’.
Thank you.
AstroBob
Jul 7, 2025
Hi there, thanks for the report here.
I’d love to dig into any other use-cases that you might have with this, since if this is the only one we could probably restructure this request to be along the lines of “allow uses to choose which PDF reader a manual is opened in” which would then negate the need for your .bat files.
Let me know and we’ll scope this out further
TsikZak
Jul 9, 2025
Hey there AstroBob thanks for replying.
First of all I believe the ability to use ‘.bat’ files in any case scenario gives the user way more freedom to do whatever they want. e.g In this case the user could open more than one file or separate pdf readers or multiple folders at the same time (imagination of use-cases is endless).
Secondly and the most strong reason of this request is that the support for ‘.bat’ files as “Manuals” (as I said above) already exists but only from the LaunchBox right-click menu or BigBox game menu, so this request is mostly an extension to that just for the Pause Menu.
Anyway if you need any more thoughts on this let me know.:))
Thank you for your time on this also.