When you use certain Windows applications (such as Notepad) to open a file, on the left side of the Open dialog box are a group of icons and folders (such as My Documents, My Recent Documents, Desktop, My Computer, and My Network) to which you can navigate to open files. A registry hack will let you put just the folders of your choosing on the left side of the Open dialog box. Note that when you do this, it will affect XP applications such as Notepad and Paint that use the Open and Save common dialog boxes. However, it won’t affect Microsoft Office applications and other applications that don’t use the common dialog boxes. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\comdlg32. This is the key that determines how common dialog boxes are handled.
You’re going to create a subkey that will create a customized location for the folders, and then give that subkey a series of values, each of which will define a folder location.To start, create a new subkey underneath EY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\comdlg32 called Placesbar,and create a String value for it named Place0. Give Place0 a value of the topmost folder that you want to appear on the Open dialog box, for example, C:\Projects. Next, create another String value for Placesbar called Place1. Give it a value of the second folder that you want to appear on the Open dialog box. You can put up to five icons on the Open dialog box, so create new String values up to Place4 and give them values as outlined in the previous steps. When you’re done, exit the Registry. You won’t have to reboot for the changes to take effect. If you do not want any folders to appear in common Open dialog boxes, you can do that as well. In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\comdlg32, create a new DWORD value called NoPlacesBar and give it a value of 1.
Exit the Registry. If you want the folders back, either delete NoPlacesBar or give it a value of 0.
