Customizing Windows XP

May 7, 2008 8:21 AM

Does anybody know how to edit the (Open, Save as, etc.) dialog box in Windows XP so that it displays folders of my own choosing in that column to the left instead of "My Documents", "My Computer", etc.?
posted by wabbittwax to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Lifehacker to the rescue.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 8:31 AM on May 7 [1 favorite]

Thanks, that did the trick.
posted by wabbittwax at 9:00 AM on May 7

I just did this and it's fabulous! That LifeHacker item links here.
I want to add the actual info into metafilter:

You basically need to edit the Windows registry using regedit. Add a folder under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies

called "comdlg32". Then, you add entries under that for each item you _want_ to show up in the left column of your save as/open dialog, naming them Place0, Place1, Place2, Place3, Place4. If you wan to specify any directory you want, make these string values and set the value to the directory you want.

The link also describes how to set up these entries to be common Windows places (My Documents, etc.). If this latter is all you want, then the TweakUI solution mentioned in the original LifeHacker article will work. Unfortunately, though, TweakUI won't let you specify arbitrary directories; you can only choose from a list of "common" windows directories.
posted by amtho at 10:47 AM on May 7

No actually you can specify arbitrary directories in TweakUI, you just type the path into the drop-down window. But I did notice it only seemed to affect non-Microsoft apps. Outlook and Word are still showing the old folders.
posted by wabbittwax at 12:29 PM on May 7

Oh, hey! Thanks, wabbitwax - it did not occur to me that I might be able to type into those drop-down lists.

I don't use Outlook or Word, so I'm good. OpenOffice is really pretty good for me.
posted by amtho at 2:01 PM on May 7

Previously
posted by AmbroseChapel at 6:30 PM on May 7