Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Help Forums https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85487-common-file-dialog-box-...

Join Forum | Login | Today's Posts | Tutorials | Windows 10 Forum | Windows 8 Forum

Welcome to Windows 7 Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find support and solutions for any problems regarding your Windows 7 PC be it Dell, HP, Acer,
Asus or a custom build. We also provide an extensive Windows 7 tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks.

Windows 7 Help Forums Windows 7 help and support Tutorials »

Windows 7: Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar

Page 1 of 6 1 2 3 > Last »

Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar

How to Customize Common Open File Dialog Box Places Bar in Windows
Published by Brink
17 May 2010

How to Customize Common Open File Dialog Box Places Bar in Windows Published by

Information

When you save or open a file in an application that uses Windows common dialog box, the Places bar on the
left side of the dialog box can help you navigate quicker to a location.

This will show you how to customize the list of items displayed in the Places Bar in the Windows XP style Brink
common open file dialog box (ex: Save As, Open) for all users in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

You can specify from 1 to 5 items to be displayed in the Places Bar.

Note

The valid items you may display in the Places Bar are:

1) Shortcuts (full path) to a local folder -- (ex. C:\Windows)

NOTE: Do not include full path in quotes.

2) Shortcuts (full path) to remote folders -- (\\server\share)

3) FTP folders

4) web folders

5) Shell Commands in Windows 7 or Windows 8 for locations

6) Common Shell folders -- (examples)

MyComputerFolder
MyDocuments
MyFavorites
MyMusic
MyPictures
MyNetworkPlaces
MyFavorites
CommonDocuments
CommonMusic
CommonPictures
Desktop
Printers
ProgramFiles
Recent
shell:desktop
shell:documentsLibrary
shell:Libraries
shell:MusicLibrary
shell:PicturesLibrary
shell:VideosLibrary
shell:MyComputerFolder

1 of 8 08/06/2020, 3:03 PM
Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Help Forums https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85487-common-file-dialog-box-...

EXAMPLE: Default and Custom Places Bar Items in Common Open File Dialog Box
NOTE: These will be the smaller Windows XP (ex: Browse type) common dialog box style windows that have shortcut icons (places) instead of
the normal Navigation Pane that has a folder tree.

OPTION ONE
Customize Places Bar using the Local Group Policy Editor

1. Open the all users, specific users or groups, or all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want
this policy applied.

2. In the left pane, click/tap on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows
Explorer (Vista and Windows 7) or File Explorer (Windows 8), and Common Open File Dialog. (see screenshot below)

2 of 8 08/06/2020, 3:03 PM
Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Help Forums https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85487-common-file-dialog-box-...

3. In the right pane of Common Open File Dialog, double click/tap on Items displayed in Places Bar to edit it. (see screenshot
above)

4. To Restore Default Items Displayed in the Places Bar

A) Select (dot) either Not Configured or Disabled. (see screenshot below step 6)

B) Go to step 6.

5. To Customize Items to be Displayed in the Places Bar

A) Select (dot) Enabled. (see screenshot below step 6)

B) Under Options, you can type in up to 5 separate items (locations) for Places to display. (see screenshot below step 6)
NOTE: See the NOTE box at the top of the tutorial for more on valid items you may display in the Places Bar.

6. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

7. Close the Local Group Policy Editor window.

3 of 8 08/06/2020, 3:03 PM
Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Help Forums https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85487-common-file-dialog-box-...

OPTION TWO
To Customize Places Bar Manually in Registry Editor

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes (Windows 7/8) or Continue (Vista).

3. In regedit, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

4. To Customize Items to be Displayed in the Places Bar

A) In the left pane, right click on Policies, and click/tap on New and Key. (see screenshot below)

B) Type comdlg32, and press enter. Right click on comdlg32, and click/tap on New and Key. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you already have the comdlg32 key, then you can skip on to step 4C below.

4 of 8 08/06/2020, 3:03 PM
Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Help Forums https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85487-common-file-dialog-box-...

C) Type Placesbar, and press enter. (see screenshot below step 4D)

D) In the right pane of Placesbar, right click or press and hold on an empty space, and click/tap on New and String
Value. (see screenshot below)

E) You can specify up to 5 places, so type Place0, Place1, Place2, Place3, or Place4 for each one you would like to
customize, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

F) Repeat steps 4D and 4E to add each Place# string value for how many custom places you wanted to be displayed as
items in the Places Bar.

G) In the right pane, double click/tap on the Place# to modify it. Type in the item location that you want to have displayed
in the Places Bar, and click/tap on OK. Repeat for each Place# that you have added in step 4E above. (see screenshot
below)
NOTE: See the NOTE box at the top of the tutorial for more on valid items you may display in the Places Bar.

5 of 8 08/06/2020, 3:03 PM
Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Help Forums https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85487-common-file-dialog-box-...

H) Go to step 6.

5. To Restore Default Items Displayed in the Places Bar

A) In the left pane, right click on Placesbar, and click/tap on Delete. (see screenshot below)

B) Click/tap on Yes to approve deletion. (see screenshot below)

6. Close regedit.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

How to Hide or Show Common Open File Dialog Places Bar in Windows
How to Enable or Disable Common Dialog Boxes Dropdown List of Recent Files
How to Reset and Clear Common Dialog Boxes Dropdown List of Recent Files
History

17 May 2010 #1

Lomai Thank you Brink for this. Thanks for your time.
Been bashing my head trying to drag <places> into this pane...hard drive sizes these days have made filing and storage a
Win7 HP (x64)/Win7 little difficult to keep up with. This will definitely help.
Ultimate (x64)
1,158 posts
Regards

My System Specs

17 May 2010 #2

Brink Your're most welcome Lomai. :)

64-bit Windows 10

6 of 8 08/06/2020, 3:03 PM
Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Help Forums https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85487-common-file-dialog-box-...

Pro
67,507 posts
Oklahoma

My System Specs

16 Jun 2010 #3

Recent Items vs Recent Places

deejay22
Hi, the note referred to says that you can have Recent Places. When I put that in there is nothing on the dialog box.
Windows 7 'Recent' gives you links to recent items which is not the same as recent places. I wouldn't mind both. For items 'recent' will
13 posts do, but how do I get recent places?

Thanks.
My System Specs

16 Jun 2010 #4

Brink Hello Deejay,

64-bit Windows 10 For Recent Places, you would use this path below. Substitute (user-name) for your actual user folder name though. :)
Pro
67,507 posts
C:\Users\(user-name)\Links\RecentPlaces.lnk
Oklahoma

Hope this helps,

Shawn
My System Specs

16 Jun 2010 #5

deejay22 Many thanks. I get a strange result. The Recent Places is there but clicking it doesn't take
me anywhere. When the Recent Places is there from the Default option then it takes me to the Proper Recent Places folder.
Windows 7
13 posts

My System Specs

16 Jun 2010 #6

Brink Deejay,

64-bit Windows 10 I can't get it to do anything for "Recent Places" either when manually adding. Seems the only way to use "Recent Places" is
Pro
to keep the default settings.
67,507 posts
Oklahoma

My System Specs

14 Aug 2010 #7

semperfi Thank you for this tutorial. I am building a new website for a client and am working with
hundreds of photos in multiple folders. This allowed me to customize the dialog box for Photoshop and is saving me a LOT
Windows 7 of time - it works perfectly!
1 posts

My System Specs
.

14 Aug 2010 #8

Brink You're most welcome Semperfi, and welcome to Seven Forums. I'm happy to hear that it
was able to help you. :)
64-bit Windows 10
Pro
67,507 posts
Oklahoma

My System Specs

31 Aug 2010 #9

No Common Dialogue!
MrCeeTee
Brink, if you don't mind my asking here in this thread...
Windows 7 My problem is that on my office Win7 Pro 64 machine (with Office 2007) instead of getting the usual common dialogue box
Professional 64 I simply get windows explorer. And its not just for Office but every single open/save action no matter which application.
3 posts

On most other Win 7 installations I've done (most all Office 2003) I still get the usual common dialogue box.

7 of 8 08/06/2020, 3:03 PM
Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Help Forums https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85487-common-file-dialog-box-...

In other words, on the problem office PC, in the open/save file dialogue box in the left pane I get the same structure as if I
had opened Windows Explorer.

Any idea how to get back to the original common dialogue box?

Thanks for any help here!

CT
My System Specs
Page 1 of 6 1 2 3 > Last »

« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

Similar help and support threads

Thread Forum

How to customize location drop down list in open/save common

dialog
Hi,My computer OS is win7 enterprise X64. How to customize "save in/look in" location drop down General Discussion
list or hide it. Dose it have registy to change list or disable it? 111_zps2lcxt4zd.png Photo by
Chu_Cheng | Photobucket

How disable/clear File name dropdown lists in Common Dialog Boxes

I recently moved from XP Professional SP3 to Windows 7 Professional SP1 x64 and I note that the
last 20 files that were opened, saved, saved as are automatically stored and accessable/viewable General Discussion
via the "File Name" dropdown list at the bottom of the Windows 7 Common Dialog Boxes. Also if a
file or...

Places bar in Windows 7 common dialog

Hi, I see a tutorial here about customizing the places bar in the common file dialog, but I don't see Customization
how to get the places bar to show up instead of the navigation pane. There is nothing in the
Organize -> Layout drop-down. Thanks, Ed

How to find recent items (NOT places) in dialog boxes

Hi, how do I add to the left of windows dialog boxes 'recent items'? I know how to activate recent General Discussion
items in the start menu and I know what recent places is about but neither gives links to recent
_items_ i.e. files in dialog boxes. For e.g. you want to attach a file you have just worked on to...

Changing Common Places/Favorites in Save Dialog?

Where do you go to change the common places? (common places being the five shortcuts that
show up on most open/save/save as dialogs) I looked for them where the XP ones are supposed General Discussion
to be. No go. Did a quick search for Vista, said it should be under User/Favorites. Went there
added one. No...

Our Sites Site Links About Us Find Us

Vista Forums Contact Us Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized,
sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and
Eight Forums Legal related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
Ten Forums Privacy and cookies
© Designer Media Ltd
Network Status
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:57.

8 of 8 08/06/2020, 3:03 PM