The Windows 2000 Professional Places Bar appears at the left of the Open dialog box generated by the
ComDlg32.dll library. The Places Bar includes icons for the History, Desktop,
My Documents, My Computer, and My Network Places folders, making it easy to
open documents in these common folders. In the previous tip, we taught you how
to create a registry subkey that cleared out the
Places Bar. Now it’s time to add entries to the key to fill the bar with your
own icons.

The
Places Bar can contain up to five icons. The registry values that reference
these icons and their associated folders are named Place0 through Place4.
Adding your own folders to the Places Bar is, therefore, a relatively simple
matter of creating these five entries in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\ComDlg32\Placesbar key.

You
can reference folders either by their absolute path string or the system ID for
the folder. Using the string is best for folders that don’t change location
based on current logon and for nonsystem folders.
Using the ID is best for system folders such as My Documents, because the path
can vary based on current logon and for other reasons.

To
add a folder, open the Registry Editor and open the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\ComDlg32\Placesbar key. Right-click in the right pane
and choose New | String Value. Name the value Place0 and set its value to the
path to the desired folder. For example, you might enter C:\Docs\Personal to
add that folder to your Places Bar.

To add a system folder to the Places Bar, right-click in the right
pane and choose New | DWORD Value. Set the name to Place1 and set the
value to the ID for the folder, which you’ll find in the following list.

  • Favorites:
    6
  • Fonts:
    20
  • History:
    34
  • My
    Computer: 11
  • My
    Documents: 5
  • My
    Network Places: 18
  • My
    Pictures: 39
  • Network
    and Dial-Up Connections: 49
  • Printers:
    4
  • Recycle
    Bin: 10
  • Send
    To: 9
  • System
    Root (WINNT): 36

    • Repeat
    the steps to add values for Place2 through Place4. Open a standard Windows 2000
    accessory application, choose File | Open, and verify that your folders are
    correct. You can adjust or correct values as needed.

    If
    you ever want to restore the default Places Bar, simply delete the registry key
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
    CurrentVersion\Policies\ComDlg32.

    Note:
    Once again, be sure you have a verified backup before editing the registry.

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