The
left side of the old-style Save As and Open dialog boxes in Windows 7
include icons for several common locations: Recent Places, Desktop,
Libraries, Computer, and Network, as shown in Figure 1.
Note
If
you display the Save As or Open dialog box and you see the Navigation
pane instead, it means the application uses the updated dialog boxes.
However, you can still customize the Favorites section: To add a
folder, drag it from the folder list and drop it on Favorites; to
remove a custom shortcut from the Favorites list, right-click it, click
Delete, and then click Yes when Windows asks you to confirm.
The
area that contains these icons is called the Places bar. If you have
two or more folders that you use regularly (for example, you might have
several folders for various projects that you have on the go),
switching between them can be a hassle. To make this chore easier, you
can customize the Places bar to include icons for each of these
folders. That way, no matter which location you have displayed in the
Save As or Open dialog box, you can switch to one of these regular
folders with a single click of the mouse.
The easiest way to do this is via the Local Group Policy Editor, as shown in the following steps:
1. | Open the Local Group Policy Editor window, as described earlier in this chapter.
|
2. | Open
the following node: User Configuration, Administrative Templates,
Windows Components, Windows Explorer, Common Open File Dialog.
|
3. | Double-click the Items Displayed in Places Bar policy.
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4. | Click Enabled.
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5. | Use
the Item 1 through Item 5 text boxes to type the paths for the folders
you want to display. These can be local folders or network folders.
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6. | Click OK to put the policy into effect. Figure 2 shows a dialog box with icons for the folders .
|
If
you don’t have access to the Local Group Policy Editor, you can use the
Registry Editor to perform the same tweak. Open the Registry Editor and
navigate to the following key:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Now follow these steps:
1. | Select Edit, New, Key, type comdlg32, and press Enter.
|
2. | Select Edit, New, Key, type Placesbar, and press Enter.
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3. | Select Edit, New, String Value, type Place0, and press Enter.
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4. | Press Enter to open the new setting, type the folder path, and then click OK.
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5. | Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add other places (named Place1 through Place4).
|
Note
If
you don’t use the Places bar at all, you might prefer to hide it to
give yourself more room in the old Open and Save As dialog boxes. To do
that, open the Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to the User
Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows
Explorer, Common Open File Dialog branch. Double-click the Hide the
Common Dialog Places Bar, click Enabled, and then click OK.
