Windows File Dialog hack

In the Windows common Open/Save dialog, there are five folders traditionally listed on the left hand side: My Recent Documents, Desktop, My Documents, My Computer, and My Network Places. While these are all handy locations, I was hoping to include my source code folder in this list to save me some time browsing to the correct location during my client’s system testing phase.

Searching the internet, I found a hack at puppypy.com. Using a registry setting, you can change any of the five placeholders with a folder of your choosing. Additionally, you can choose from and change to a number of standard Windows locations. Puppypc even provides a quick web form that generates the code for the registry file.

In summary, you need to add a folder or two to the registry and populate a “PlaceX” value with your folder.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32\PlacesBar]
“Place0″=”C:\\my folder\\”


3 Comments

1. Dan said:

   Well, yeah? Yeah? Well, Apple Mac OS X lets you just drag folders and files to the sidebar to add them. So there! *thhhhpppptt*

   November 29th, 2006 at 9:37 am
2. Dan O said:

   shoot, the other Dan got to my answer first… so John, when are you switching to Mac?

   February 4th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
3. John said:

   Well, I’m a .NET developer, so it probably won’t happen anytime soon.

   Perhaps as a laptop I’d consider it since I usually only use laptops for writing. Like most things, I suspect I would really love a Mac which is the reason I hold off. I get a little obsessive when I find something I really love. (Happened when I first tried sushi and playing a game called Battletech).

   February 5th, 2008 at 6:20 am

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