Old trick, but hard to find
Have you ever wanted to modify the Save As default list that is displayed on the left when downloading a file in Internet Explorer? Sure you can always use the Drop-down menu and select a different location, but I always tend to save things into different folders (such as C:\Downloads, etc.) instead of using the built-in folders that are available. I also find it tedious to have to select C:\ from the drop-down list, then browse that folder each time I want to save something.

Anyways, I seemed to recall being able to change that list, or perhaps I had actually done it a white ago, but how to do it now had escaped me. So I Googled a bit and found the following information.

Did you ever want to change the Default locations to where you can save things too and open things from?
The default list (in Windows XP PRo) is:

My Recent Documents
Desktop
My Documents
My Computer
My Network Places

These places can be altered from the following location in the Registry.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

First add a new key titled "ComDlg32". Next, under the ComDlg32 folder, add a new key titled "PlacesBar"

With PlacesBar highlighted, you then add 5 items to the right pane called:

Place0
Place1
Place2
Place3
Place4

The types of entries you can make can be either String values (to denote a custom path name, such as C:\Downloads), or you can create a new DWORD value and use the Built-in values that Windows uses (Hexadecimal values). Some examples are:

DWORD value of 0 = Desktop
DWORD value of 2 = Programs
DWORD value of 5 = My Documents
DWORD value of 6 = Favorites
DWORD value of 11 = My Computer
DWORD value of 12 = My Network Places
DWORD value of 27 = My Pictures

There are lots more values, so you can play around and try different values to see what you come up with - I wasn't able to find a list in my feeble search attempts, but then again, I didn't feel like wasting a lot of time looking for it.

It's also worth noting that this change doesn't affect the Save As menu that Office displays, but there are other methods for changing that menu.

Anyways, it's the little things that make the computing experience easier. :-)


- posted by Ben Winzenz @ 12:16 PM