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Customize Open/Save As dialog boxes in Windows XP

Article Submitted by:

rgordon

10 months ago

9 articles submitted

When you open a Open or Save As dialog box in Windows XP, you get a list of shortcuts to help you quickly pick a file location. By default, your options include Desktop, My Documents, My Computer, and My Network. If you happen to save the bulk of your data in a personal folder called something like "My Extras", these shortcuts won't help you much.



Making changes in the Registry can really mess up your system if you do something wrong. Back it up before you even attempt to follow my instructions.



Click Start, Run, and type regedit



Navigate to the following string:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies



Right-click on the Policies key folder and create a new key called Comdlg32.



Right-click on the Comdlg32 folder and create a new key called PlacesBar. If you minimize RegEdit at this point and open a Save As or Open dialog box, you'll see an empty left column. You can now add the shortcuts you want.



In your PlacesBar key folder, create new values with the names Place1, Place2, Place3, etc. for each of the paths you'd now like to point to. By default you have five placeholders, but you can use as many or as few shortcuts as you want.



Specify your paths

To specify your paths, you can either use built-in shortcuts or enter custom paths.



Built-in shorctus

Choose a DWORD value (REG_DWORD) and use built-in shortcuts to the Value Data box. For example, right-click Value, choose Modify, and enter "00" for a Desktop shortcut. Or enter "27" for My Pictures. PIZLIST has a full list of shortcut numbers to help you out at the end of this article.



Custom paths

Right-click PlacesBar and choose String Value to enter custom paths in the value data section. For example, right-click Value, choose Modify, and enter your path into Value Data.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Sarah's Extras



The order of your customized shortcuts is determined by Place1, Place2, etc with Place1 being the top spot in the column.



One more thing: In my experience, these steps apply to Windows 2000 as well and I have not tested it in Vista yet.



RY-LIST:



DESKTOP                   00        <desktop>

INTERNET                  01        Internet Explorer (icon on desktop)

PROGRAMS                  02        Start Menu\Programs

CONTROLS                  03        My Computer\Control Panel

PRINTERS                  04        My Computer\Printers

PERSONAL                  05        My Documents

FAVORITES                 06        <user name>\Favorites

STARTUP                   07        Start Menu\Programs\Startup

RECENT                    08        <user name>\Recent

SENDTO                    09        <user name>\SendTo

BITBUCKET                 0a        <desktop>\Recycle Bin

STARTMENU                 0b        <user name>\Start Menu

DESKTOPDIRECTORY          10        <user name>\Desktop

DRIVES                    11        My Computer

NETWORK                   12        Network Neighborhood

NETHOOD                   13        <user name>\nethood

FONTS                     14        windows\fonts

TEMPLATES                 15

COMMON_STARTMENU          16        All Users\Start Menu

COMMON_PROGRAMS           17        All Users\Programs

COMMON_STARTUP            18        All Users\Startup

COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY   19        All Users\Desktop

APPDATA                   1a        <user name>\Application Data

PRINTHOOD                 1b        <user name>\PrintHood

LOCAL_APPDATA             1c        <user name>\Local Settings\Applicaiton ata (non roaming)

ALTSTARTUP                1d        non localized startup

COMMON_ALTSTARTUP         1e        non localized common startup

COMMON_FAVORITES          1f

INTERNET_CACHE            20

COOKIES                   21

HISTORY                   22

COMMON_APPDATA            23        All Users\Application Data

WINDOWS                   24        GetWindowsDirectory()

SYSTEM                    25        GetSystemDirectory()

PROGRAM_FILES             26        C:\Program Files

MYPICTURES                27        C:\Program Files\My Pictures

PROFILE                   28        USERPROFILE

SYSTEMX86                 29        x86 system directory on RISC

PROGRAM_FILESX86          2a        x86 C:\Program Files on RISC

PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON      2b        C:\Program Files\Common

PROGRAM_FILES_COMMONX86   2c        x86 Program Files\Common on RISC

COMMON_TEMPLATES          2d        All Users\Templates

COMMON_DOCUMENTS          2e        All Users\Documents

COMMON_ADMINTOOLS         2f        All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools

ADMINTOOLS                30        <user name>\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools

CONNECTIONS               31        Network and Dial-up Connections