I'm looking for a way to add a custom setting to the list of folder types in Vista (or Windows 7) so that I can use it as a template for other folders.
The template I'd like to add would be identical to All Items, except also have the Date Taken column displayed. How do I add to this list (see image below)?
I was really curious about this question as well so I tried to look everywhere I could. The farthest I got was this link on MSDN.
It looks like these data you're looking for are stored in the registry key here: hkey_local_machine/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/explorer/FolderTypes
Unfortunately I'm no registry expert so I only went so far as to search out the key and investigate. However, the FOLDERTYPEID constants specified by Microsoft do not appear to be in there. Sorry that's not a complete answer but I searched everywhere and all I could find was more questions on the same topic.
There is actually quite a lot broken with the folder templates and customisation within Windows XP. Apparently, this was due to it being incorrectly programmed by teenaged interns (though I can't say whether or not this was true, it makes sense enough to me.)
There is no way to add a new template, but it is possible to achieve a similar effect by first assigning a folder to a particular template, then altering the specifics within the registry.
You need to identify the particular folder after changing it to one of the existing templates within the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags\[Whatever]\Shell\
where [Whatever] will be any number
There is a REG_SZ string Value named FolderType for the TEMPLATE type to use:
i.e. "MyMusic" for Music, "MyPictures" for images, "Documents" for 'Documents of any type'
The text for these is located within the "%WINDIR%/shell.inf" file
The "Vid" REG_SZ String Value contains the Class ID for the "watermark" image. At this time, I cannot comment on what filetypes are valid, but bmp, gif, png or jpg should all be attempted.
As one cannot find the names of the standard folder types in the registry, I believe that unfortunately they are built-into the Windows software.
As a proof I found, for example, "Pictures and Videos" as a unicode string inside shell32.dll. Moreover, it was found among other non-related strings. So it doesn't seem that there was any attempt to package together all the folder types, meaning that they were added one-by-one as new types were invented by the UI designers of Microsoft.
I am afraid that this sloppy and short-sighted manner of programming by Microsoft makes your request impossible. In any case, I don't believe you would want to hack shell32.dll.
