Look at the Registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags
There are a whole lot of numbers there. They represent special shell object including folders.
Under the Shell
subkey they can have a SniffedFolderType
value which is the type Windows thinks is best, or a FolderType
which is the one you have set in Explorer. It can be Generic, Pictures, Documents
etc.
You could use reg.exe or other PowerShell to change these values, except I'm not sure the numbers representing the Downloads
folders are the same for every user and computer. But if you just want to do that for your own user, that should work.
In my case 35
is the Downloads folder, so I can use:
REG.exe ADD "HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\35\Shell" /v FolderType /t REG_SZ /d Generic /f
Apparently you can also disable the whole sniffing business by adding a new string (REG_SZ) value with the name FolderType
under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell
for the data use: NotSpecified