Customize The Places Bar In The Open Dialog Box In XP (Part II)

I tried this tweek, but nothing happens – even afer a reboot!

Hi, great info, thanks! I saw a minor problem before it would work right though.
In step 3 of Part 2:

You must create the Place0 string in the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ComDlg32\Placesbar.

You said to place it in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ComDlg

I think your line may have become truncated in the post. Hopefully mine won’t too!

Thanks again.

Karl

Yup, it cut off the full key name, even in my post.
Let’s try a different way:
For anyone trying to get this done, You must create the new
“Place0″ string in the “….Policies\ComDlg32\Placesbar” key.

It doesn’t work if you create it in the “ComDlg” key
(and there is no “ComDlg” key, it’s actually “ComDlg32″)

As I said, I think her post got chopped.

Thanks for the tips on adding custom folders. But is it possible to have custom folders as well as “Desktop” and “My Computer”? I can;t figure out the “path” for these items. Thanks

Here is the settings for adding the desktop and the network neighbourhood into the my places.

Net Neighbourhood:
Create a new double word (DWORD) entry in the Placesbar key named
‘PlaceX’ where X is the place number 0 – 4.
Edit the value to 12 (in HEX)

Desktop:
Create a new double word (DWORD) entry in the Placesbar key named
‘PlaceX’ where X is the place number 0 – 4.
Edit the value to 0 (in HEX)

The rest you just enter the file path, but I’m sure you got that.

YOu can also use the microsoft treakUI program. That allows you to do it via a windows app.

Hope this helps.

Paul

More…

I started playing with this places DWord and here are the different values:

0 ~ Desktop
1 ~ Internet Explorer
2 ~ Programs
3 ~ Control Panel
4 ~ Printers & Faxes
5 ~ My Documents
6 ~ Favourites
7 ~ Startup
8 ~ My Recent Documents
9 ~ Send To
10 ~ Desktop (with normal folder icon)
11 ~ My Computer
12 ~ My Network Places
13 ~ NetHood folder
14 ~ Fonts Folder
15 ~ Templates
16 ~ All Users \ Start Menu
17 ~ All Users \ Start Menu \ Programs
18 ~ Net Neighbourhood
19 ~ Desktop (with normal folder icon)
20 ~ Temporary Internet Folders

In the above unless specified it uses the standard icon (eg for desktop it uses the desktop icon not a folder icon called desktop)

And the rest are for you all to find.

Paul

i have been looking for this tweak for a while. thank you for the post and all the comments. its worth mentioning that this will change the folders in open dialog boxes as well as save boxes.

Tweak UI is freeware that can do this and much more

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Why Bother? Use the Group Policy Object Editor

http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/07/28/how-to-set-custom-shortcuts-in-the-windows-xp-save-as-dialog-box/

Zaman.

Is there any way to modify ComDlg like it’s done with the Office Open/Save? The Office registry hack lets you put Name & Path in as values, so that “Xen’s pics” shows up in Places rather than “z:\images”.

Is there a way to have more than 5 places in the placebar? How is this accomplished if possible?

FYI while in the “Open” dialog box, simply select the folder you want then click “Tools” at the upper right and “Add to my places”

No reg hacking, no tweaks, no need for tweakui.

Thanks very much for this wonderfully detailed and easy to learn step-by-step article, Diana Huggins. Your article really made it very clear and easy to personalise my PC!

Also thanks to Paul for providing us with different DWORD values for different system locations. I was thinking that what if I wanted to keep the Desktop and My Computer folders in the Places Bar too, and pop came his comment!

Thanx very much!

I did not have to create the Placesbar folder, it was already there. When I changed the “Value data” for Place0, Place1, etc, nothing happened. I rebooted and still nothing happened. Any thoughts?

Thanks!