Perhaps he was an early advocate of simplicity.
The world has leapfrogged ahead since he made this observation and so has computer technology.
If we dissect the razzmatazz of technology, life has been rendered simpler in some ways.
Launches of new apps and software suites continue to push the agenda for productivity.
Where would Windows tips and tricks or say, Firefox add-ons be without this central idea?
And we continue to search for productive ways to do the same old things.
Windows tips and tricks abound.
We only have to pick and adapt what we want for ourselves.
TheCommon Dialog Boxis where most of the action takes place.
The five normally should serve as quick access clicks to the most common areas of the computer.
But every user has an individual idea of his commonly used folders and locations.
A few posts back Karl talked about thePlaces Utilityfrom Simpli Software.
Here are four more for the customization job.
Hacking the Registry
Okay, that sounds scary.
Novices shouldn’t dive into the registry without a sense of what they are doing.
And as with all engineering related to the registry,backup your registrybefore a tweak.
Toopenthe registry editor:Run- Typeregedit- clickOK.
To back up the entire registry: in the registry editor - ClickFile-Export Registry File.
Save to a preferred location.
That done, drill down to the following entry “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies.
Sub-keys can be created with a right select an empty area.
With Policies selected, right tap on an empty area and selectNew - Key.
Then, selectcomdlg32and create similarly the keyPlacesbar.
Right punch each and enter the full path to the folder of choice.
GPE is a " hidden' administrative tool.
So we access it from Run -gpedit.msc.
Double choose theCommon Open File Dialogfolder icon to get into the controls given for common dialog open.
The properties box has two tabs -SettingsandExplain.
Click onApplyandOKto have your custom Common Dialog Places Bar.
Tweaking with Third Party Tools
TweakUI is probably the most well known of Windows modifying tools.
Though Microsoft " officially' does not support it, it is considered to be aMicrosoft PowerToy.
you’re able to also go back to the default look or hide the Places bar altogether.
All Done!
For the sake of simplicity, you now have too many tools for the job.
That’s a bit of a clutter isn’t it?
But the choices are for us to pick.
If you don’t like installing programs, then there’s the registry hack and the GPE.
If you do, then there are the three applications we have covered over the two posts.
Which one isyourtool of choice?
