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Change left side link of the Save As Dialog for a DropBox one?

Almost every time I use the standard Windows (XP) File Open/Save Dialog I get frustrated in how long it takes me to navigate to where I want to go. :-( (I won't even get into the MS Office dialog that makes things even worse)

This is the dialog I'm referring to (with some notes):

File Open/Save Dialog

Notes:

  • Wouldn't a Drive list be handy in here? C:\, D:\, E:\, etc.
  • What about a breadcrumb URI? (the magenta list of links)
  • Why isn't Program Files one of the icons on the left? (green) I'm always going in there for something
  • Why can't I type "../../../" to navigate up multiple directories in the File name box? (blue)
  • (addendum) The ability to force the default view to "details" vs. "list" would also be very handy

There has got to be some utilities out there that can "hijack" or "overwrite" this core windows dialog to provide a much better set of options.

I'm looking for any/all solutions to help fix this dialog.

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60% accept rate
See comments on duplicate – Diago Sep 11 '09 at 11:19
hmmm, sucks that this was closed. It isn't a duplicate of the linked question and Tweak UI is only a partial and limited solution – scunliffe Mar 24 '10 at 13:03
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closed as exact duplicate by Diago Sep 11 '09 at 11:19

This question covers exactly the same ground as earlier questions on this topic; its answers may be merged with another identical question. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

5 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

You can add other places to the left panel (including Program Files) using Microsoft's own TweakUI Powertoy.

I'm not aware of any tool that that can modify other aspects of the Open/Save dialog but I'm sure other people will suggest some.

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TweakUI Powertoy does not work on 64 bit Windows (I just tried it). There may be a 64 bit version, but it is not known if it can be trusted: pronetworks.org/forums/… – Peter Mortensen Sep 11 '09 at 10:52
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up vote 3 down vote

FileBox eXtender is free (as of a couple of months ago) and I've been using it for years. It puts a little icon in your file dialog boxes which allows you to set as many favorites there as you want and also has recent places.

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GNU GPL with source code too... very interesting. – scunliffe Aug 8 '09 at 13:05
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up vote 1 down vote

Dialog Navigator 1.01.

The left panel contains lots of "places".

alt text

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up vote 0 down vote

A Drive List is at the top where it says 'Look in' and you have the Red /\.

You can type in the whole path to where you want to go where it says 'File Name' and you have the Blue ../../../.

Other than that, I guess the TweakUI PowerToy is your best bet.

-JFV

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For the drive list, yes if I open the drop down... and wait... and wait while it renders I can get access but a single click on a trail would be preferred. For the ../../ bit I can't navigate up 2 or 3 or 4 folders to look somewhere... i'm not sure how your Windows works but I can't navigate up using "../" it pops up an alert "The above file name is invalid" – scunliffe Jul 23 '09 at 16:42
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up vote 0 down vote

There's also OpenWide (which I've used for over 12 months now):

OpenWide was written to avoid a few [more] minor annoyances with Windows. This program allows you to specify the position and size of Windows' Open and Save dialog boxes, and also to specify where the initial focus should be and which view will be the default.

Features

  • Set position and size of Open & Save dialogs
  • Set initial keyboard focus
  • Set initial view style
  • Drag & drop folders onto the title bar of an Open/Save dialog box, and the view will change to that folder!
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