Not sure when i lost the *whole* set of icons in my file-open dialog box. Actually there are a number of versions for the file open dialog, from different common controls, the OS, various compiler libraries.
my stock windows xp file open dialog box (without user configurable places) lost all it's icons. mind you, not the new dialog used by office 2003, which includes a user configurable 'my places' -- that one was fine.
each time the dialog came up, the 'places' list was totally empty. i haven't really had time to fuss with it till now, and i hoped it would just get automagically repaired at some point (perhaps with a system update).
a search for solutions on the net didn't yield much - at least not until i figured out the portion of the window was actually called 'my places'. previously, i was just searching for "file open missing icons" and whatnot - and quite naturally getting a lot of unrelated chaff.
most pages on the net addressing problems on this spoke to fixing issues with the new control - not the 'old' one, pointing out steps for user customization. fortunately -- but one page addressed the problem -- pointing out the registry settings that define the content for the 'my places' bar in the file open dialog.
here's the deal :
Q: How can I edit the default Places bar quick links in Windows XP's and Windows 2000's Open and Save common dialog boxes?
A. You can modify the five default quick links in the Open and Save common dialog boxes by performing the following steps:
Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32 subkey. (If this subkey doesn't exist, select New, Key from the Edit menu to create it.)
From the Edit menu, select New, Key.
Enter a name of Placesbar and press Enter.
Navigate to the new registry subkey. You can create five entries (Place0, Place1, Place2, Place3, and Place4). Make each entry either a string value (REG_SZ) entry (for a named folder) or a DWORD value (REG_DWORD) entry (for a special folder, such as My Documents or My Network Places).
To create a new entry, go to the Edit menu, select New, DWORD Value or New, String Value (as appropriate), enter a name of Placen (e.g., Place0, Place4), and press Enter.
Double-click the entry and set its REG_SZ "Value data" to a path and folder name or its REG_DWORD "Value data" to a numeric ID (the table below shows a partial list of these numeric IDs--the shlobj.h file, which is part of the platform software development kit (SDK), defines the full list of special numeric IDs).
Close the registry editor.
For example, the registry file below sets shortcuts to My Documents, the CD burning folder, and three named folders.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion Policies\comdlg32\Placesbar]
"Place0"=dword:00000005
"Place1"=dword:0000003b
"Place2"="d:\\temp"
"Place3"="d:\\documents"
"Place4"="g:\\windows"
This change will not affect applications within the Microsoft Office suite but will affect applications, such as Notepad and Paint, that use the Open and Save common dialog boxes. Each new entry you add will replace one of the default quick links.
0 Desktop
1 Internet Explorer
2 Start Menu\Programs
3 My Computer\Control Panel
4 My Computer\Printers
5 My Documents
6
7 Start Menu\Programs\Startup
8
9
a
b
c logical "My Documents" desktop icon
d "My Music" folder
e "My Videos" folder
10
11 My Computer
12 Network Neighborhood (My Network Places)
13
14 Windows\Fonts
16 All Users\Start Menu
17 All Users\Start Menu\Programs
18 All Users\Startup
19 All Users\Desktop
1a
1b
1c
1e Nonlocalized common startup
1f Common favorites
20 Internet Cache
21 Cookies
22 History
23 All Users\Application Data
24 GetWindowsDirectory()
25 GetSystemDirectory()
26 C:\Program Files
27 C:\Program Files\My Pictures
28 USERPROFILE
29 x86 system directory on RISC
2a x86 C:\Program Files on RISC
2b C:\Program Files\Common
2c x86 Program Files\Common on RISC
2d All Users\Templates
2e All Users\Documents
2f All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools
30
31 Network and Dial-up Connections
35 All Users\My Music
36 All Users\My Pictures
37 All Users\My Video
38 Resource Directory
39 Localized Resource Directory
3a Links to All Users OEM specific apps
3b USERPROFILE\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Burning
update: alternate way to do this... TweakUI offer this...
