Elegant File ExplorerHow to move your automations to another PC (and send them to anyone)
There’s a specific moment when you realize how much work went into getting your computer just right: when you have to start over.
You spent months tuning it. The rule that separates invoices from receipts. The one that files phone photos into a folder per month. The one that sends old installers to the Recycle Bin after ninety days. None of them came out right the first time — each was corrected two or three times until the details clicked.
Then the new PC arrives. Or the work laptop. Or your sister looks at your Downloads folder, sees it spotless, and asks: “how do you do that?”
Rebuilding by hand is tedious and, worse, inaccurate — you’ll remember the big rules and forget exactly the fine adjustments that made them work.
The file that carries your setup#
Elegant File Explorer exports your automations into a single file with the
.efeauto extension. It’s a plain text file, indented JSON — you can open it in
Notepad and read what’s inside, if you want to check before sending it to
someone.
In the automation manager you choose what goes out:
- Export selected — only the rules you ticked;
- Export filtered — whatever the current search/filter is showing;
- Export all — your entire setup.
The app suggests a dated name, like My automations 2026-07-27.efeauto.
Exporting changes nothing: the rules already running stay exactly as they
were.
The detail that actually makes this work#
Here’s the part that usually breaks when you try to carry configuration from one machine to another: folder paths.
Your rule points at C:\Users\mary\Downloads. On your brother’s computer that
path doesn’t exist — his is C:\Users\john\Downloads. A literal copy would
arrive broken.
On export, your profile folders become labels instead of fixed paths:
| On your PC | In the exported file | On the importing PC |
|---|---|---|
C:\Users\mary\Downloads |
{efe:downloads} |
C:\Users\john\Downloads |
C:\Users\mary\Documents\Invoices |
{efe:documentos}\Invoices |
C:\Users\john\Documents\Invoices |
C:\Users\mary\Pictures |
{efe:imagens} |
C:\Users\john\Pictures |
There are seven labels in all — Downloads, Pictures, Documents, Desktop, Videos, Music and the user Profile. On import, each is resolved to the matching folder on that computer. The rule lands pointing at the right place, under a different username, on a different Windows installation.
And if your rule points somewhere that isn’t one of those — a D:\Clients, say?
Then the path travels literally, because there’d be no way to guess. But it is
checked on arrival, which brings us to the next part.
Importing without the scare#
Receiving automations from someone else is, quite reasonably, scary. Those are instructions that will touch your files. So importing isn’t an “open and done”.
When you open a .efeauto, the app shows a preview — one row per automation,
each with a checkbox:
Import automations─▢✕Four guarantees, and they’re the reason you can trust a file from someone else:
Nothing is replaced. Every imported rule gets a new identity. If the name already exists in your list, it comes in as “(imported)” instead of overwriting yours. Your current setup isn’t touched.
A folder that doesn’t exist here leaves the rule off. If the automation watches a folder that isn’t on your computer, it arrives disabled, with an amber note explaining why. Nothing runs until you point it at the right folder and switch it on. No rule breaks silently.
History doesn’t travel. The last-run date arrives cleared and scheduling starts fresh. You receive the rule, not somebody else’s run history.
You choose row by row. Eight rules came in and you only want three? Untick the rest. The footer shows how many are selected before you confirm.
If the file isn’t an export from the app, or was written by a newer version, it’s refused with a message explaining why — rather than failing with an error.
And before you let it run: simulate#
This is what closes the loop. After importing, you don’t have to believe your friend’s rule does what they said. You can watch it.
Every automation can be simulated: the app runs the full rehearsal — scans the folders, applies the conditions, works out every destination — and shows the exact list of what would happen, without moving anything. You see the files flying into folders, the impact numbers, and you decide.
And if you apply it and don’t like the result, one button reverses the whole run. Deletions, incidentally, always go to the Recycle Bin — there is no permanent delete on the automation path.
So: you can import someone’s setup, see exactly what it would do on your machine, and only then let it happen.
Where this genuinely helps#
A new PC. Export everything before formatting or migrating. On the new machine, import — and the rules already point at the right folders for your new user.
Helping family. That relative whose Desktop is buried under files. You build two or three rules that solve their case, export, and send it over WhatsApp or email. They import, simulate, see what will happen, and accept.
One convention across an office. If the team files contracts and invoices the same way, one person builds the set and hands it out. Everyone files identically — no ten-page manual, nobody memorizing folder names.
A backup of your setup. Keep the .efeauto with your backups. It’s a small
text file that gives you back months of fine-tuning.
An honest summary#
What travels: the rules — conditions, actions, watched folders and the trigger type (real time, periodic or manual).
What doesn’t: the run history and the rule’s internal identity, both recreated from scratch on purpose.
What needs attention: folders outside your profile arrive as literal paths and are checked; if they don’t exist, the rule comes in disabled, waiting for you.
None of this goes through a server. The file is yours, it leaves your computer and goes wherever you send it — the app has no account, no cloud, and sends nothing anywhere.
How to do it, in one line: open Automation → rule manager, use Export
to produce the .efeauto and Import… to bring one back.