This tutorial will guide you in setting custom “shortcuts” in the Windows XP “Save As” dialog box. note: this also works in Windows Vista Ultimate Edition – but I’m not sure about the other versions of Vista.
- Below you’ll find a screenshot of the default “Save As” dialog box in Windows XP. Make note of the shortcuts that you actually use, so you can make sure to keep them.
- Click Start and select Run. In the Run window enter gpedit.msc and click OK.
- The Group Policy editor will appear.
- In the left window select the + (plus sign) next to User Configuration to expand the list. Next select the plus sign next to Administrative Templates and then Windows Explorer. Finally, select the Common Open File Dialog entry.
- Double-click the Items displayed in Places Bar entry in the main Group Policy window.
- The Items displayed in Places Bar Properties window will open.
- Select Enabled and then enter in the locations you’d like to have displayed in the Save As dialog box. You need to enter the full path to the location for the shortcuts to work. For example, if you want to have a shortcut to your My Documents folder, enter in:
C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\My Documents\
Once you’ve entered in all the locations you’d like to appear in the Save As window, click Apply and then OK.
- Back in the Group Policy editor, you should see that the Items displayed in Places Bar is now Enabled. Close the Group Policy editor.
- Test it out by saving a file – you should now have the new shortcuts displayed.
- The same shortcuts will be used in the Open dialog box – not just the Save As box.
- This will also work in Windows Vista – though I’ve only confirmed that it works in Vista Ultimate edition.
In Windows XP home there’s no gpedit.msc. But you can configure the Places Bar with Tweak UI.
Download it on this MS-Site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Dobby -
Excellent comment/tip, thanks!
Also, Office may not adhere to these rules, as Office is wont to do.
Very nice article. It helped me quickly to set right the save as Dialog Box. I have thinking of doing it for long. Thanks so much. Keep up the Good Work.
great information. Thanks! a clever tip in a few steps.
I agree with Colin: what about OFFICE “save as” dialog box? can we change that too?
thank you for this very useful information!
thanks for this – very useful, didn’t know TweakUI could do it, otherwise, I would have done it years ago!
under administrative templates i only have windows media player not any of the other things that are shown in the example.
very nice i figured it out but i need it for solidworks
Awsome tip…I curse myself for not stumbling upon this at all or why it never crossed my mind that these default things can be changed..Thanks a ton.
Thanx 4 the tip. Used it straight away.
for office places check http://www.petri.co.il/customize_the_places_bar_in_office_xp_2003.htm
or google office places
Ben, Did you ever get it figured out for Solidworks? Thx.
I can’t thank you enough!
Thank you for the wonderful tip. It works great.
great work. Thanks you so much!!
keep up with other good post~
SUPER solution… SIMPLE, Straight to the point and WORKS 100%.
Thanks….
Thanks this is great. Excellent work.
In some (?) applications in Windows Vista the open and save as dialogs shows a bar with shortcuts who are defined in: C:\Users\\Links\
In some (?) applications in Windows Vista the open and save as dialogs shows a bar with shortcuts who are defined in: C:\Users\[username]\Links\
it works man
thanks alot
Awesome!
I’ve been wanting to customize this for years! If only I had known it was this easy! Thanks for the tip. Much appreciated.
OHH finally!. Not only was this VERY useful for me to configure the locations, but to reenable it, because for some reason it was gone and I had NO locations at all.
Eternal thanks for this!
BTW there’s also a way to add some places to that bar if you use Office 2003 (at least it helped me): click “Service” button near to upper right corner of dialog and then select “Add to places bar” element. A shortcut to folder, which is opened at this moment, will appear in Places bar.
P.S.: Not sure about actual buttons names ‘coz I use localized cyrillic version of Office. Advice right names if it’ll be helpful, please.
Actually, in Vista, all you have to do is drag and drop a directory onto the favorite links bar.
very nice, thanks!
Actuall, Will, that only works for Explorer dialogs, eg when browsing your folders. Try ‘right click, save as …’ an image from this page, and you get those stupid stock standard folders on the left, which I just couldn’t change…. UNTIL NOW!
THANK YOU for this post – it does exactly what I want. I can FINALLY get to where I need much more quickly, especially in Photoshop!! It’s always frustrated me why we couldn’t just click and drag our favourite folders for Save As dialog boxes, just like Explorer. I still can’t figure out why it needs to be this convoluted just to do what this post explains. Go figure – it is Microsoft, after all!
nao estou conseguindo achar a minha caixa de entrada de emails do windows live messeger e agora, ja fiz de tudo e nada
Thank you! This is a great help!
))))
having a problem. under Windows Components all i have is
Search
Windows Media Player
Windows Update
can someone help?
There’s a much easier way…
In the ‘Save As’ dialog, go to the Tools menu and select “Add to My Places”
Why you would want to use regedit or gpedit for this I dont know.
Greg,
Just curious – what OS are you using, as there certainly isn’t a Tools menu in the Save As dialog box that I’m aware of. Perhaps a link to a screenshot would help
Awesome, real timesaver.
Thanks!
THANK YOU
Brilliant tip. What else in Win XP or Vista is customizable to make it user friendlier? Any chance with keyboard shortcut assignments?
I can confirm that this works on Windows 7 Beta build 7077
Increíble!! No puedes imaginarte cuanto te lo agradezco. Saludos!!
In Vista you don’t need to do it that way.
Just put links to the desired places into your “links” folder inside your userfolder, done.
Even easier in Vista: drag and drop your favorite folders in the links part of your save/open dialog boxes. You can even change the order of your favorites by drag and drop and delete the unwanted ones.
One quick Question. This was great to set up all my own dialogues, but how do i get the default “My Computer” back in the list?
I can’t find a path to My computer as it is above the drives….
In Visa Business – located in:
User Configuration\Windows Components\Windows Explorer\Common open file dialogueAnd Adam, to put My Computer in the list, just type
My Computeras the path. It will work.http://www.auxtools.com/download/pbsetup.exe
AuxTools Places Bar do this with 2 click.
This procedure is not necessary in Windows Vista because you can drag and drop to the shortcuts list
se me borro una shortcute , pero no me aparece de donde se saco esta ruta que debo hacer
When I want save as a file in the the desktop (or any drive), I can not see shortcuts (which I constructed formerly) in the diolog box. How can I solve this problem?
thx, this is really a good tips,
but pls help me, because in my gpedit there isnt any windows explorer in the administrative list->windows component (point 4), there are only search & windows media player..
how come?
Perfect! I was looking for it for so long, now finally found it. Thanks.
Very useful and well explained with illustrations.
It really saves time and effort to storing our regularly used folder shortcuts in Save As dialog box.
For those of you who don’t have the Windows Explorer folder in the User Configuration/Windows Components folder:
Right-click on Administrative Templates folder in left pane of Group Policy
dialog box
Choose add/remove templates
Click Add button
Double -click on system.adn (in WINDOWS/inf folder)
Close the dialog box
Now you’ll find the Windows Explorer folder in the left pane.