customize my places bar?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jamesg
  • Start date Start date
J

Jamesg

Hi. I am using Windows XP Pro. I like this feature of Microsoft office
where they let me change the folders in My Places Bar. I wanted to do
this for all the applications I am running, not only Office. So I
found this TweakUI thing that let me customize them but only for my
Admin account - which I never use (I use it only when I install new
software). I always work in my Limited account.

Is there a program or tool that lets me customize my places bar for
Limited account?

Thanks.
James
 
Give your account admin privileges
Click to expand...

Not a good idea. This is how most viruses manage to infect the system.
He is doing right by separating Administrator activities and work/
productivity activities.
 
Jamesg said:
... TweakUI only installs in Admin account. Other suggestions?
Click to expand...

James,
If your Administrator acct has a password, in the Limited acct try:
[Start] > Run > CMD [Enter]
RUNAS /user:Administrator C:\WINDOWS\system32\TweakUI.exe [Enter]
 
johnc said:
James, AFAIK there is only one tool that does what you want: Truly
Your Places Bar. You can find the free version here:

http://www.softwarecandy.com/shop/i...uct_free_shipping_info&cPath=2&products_id=22

HTH,
Jon
Click to expand...

I don't know about "only one tool" - there are a couple here
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/system/fwsystweak.html and I've used
Windows Places Bar Editor ("WinPlaE") 1.2 before now. However:

There are two different Places Bars: the general Windows XP one, which is
invoked by apps like Notepad, Adobe Reader and a separate one used by
components of MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook etc). The first
can be customised with TweakUI or direct registry-editing of

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32\PlacesBar

with the usual provisos - be careful, back up first, don't do it in the
first place if you feel you're out of your depth.

If you can't use TweakUI with your account, I'd suggest doing as Peter says
and grant yourself admin privileges; there's no harm in this if you do it
temporarily, just for this exercise. Log in as Administrator (or an account
with Administrator privileges) and add your Limited Account to the
Administrors group. Log out, log in as yourself, do the work with TweakUI
(install it and make the tweaks), then log back in as Admin and remove
yourself from the Admin group. The changes made by TweakUI will hold, I'd
imagine.

The MS Office Places Bar can be customised directly from Office, as OP has
found - in the dialog box, browse to the desired folder then click on Tools
in the top-right corner and choose Add to My Places. NB - this is how it is
is Office 2003, I can't speak for the exact route there in other versions.

From looking at its site, this Truly Your Places Bar only seems to work on
*this* bar, the Office one (which the OP has already customised), not the XP
one that TweakUI addresses. The free version only lets you change one item
in the list, the last one, "My Network Places". They refer to this several
times as "My Network". This mistake and other elements of the site would
lead me not to bother with this product.

After a quick surf, one tool that can be used on *both* bars is Places Bar
Editor, which can be found at

http://melloware.com/products/placesbarv1/

I have no experience of it, but purely judging a book by its cover, it looks
worthy.
 
If you can't use TweakUI with your account, I'd suggest doing as Peter says
and grant yourself admin privileges; there's no harm in this if you do it
temporarily, just for this exercise. Log in as Administrator (or an account
with Administrator privileges) and add your Limited Account to the
Administrors group. Log out, log in as yourself, do the work with TweakUI
(install it and make the tweaks), then log back in as Admin and remove
yourself from the Admin group. The changes made by TweakUI will hold, I'd
imagine.
Click to expand...

Olórin, thanks for your detailed answer. I ended up purchasing the 5-
shortcut version of "Truly Your Places Bar" (only $3) as this was
quicker for me and I can re-use it as many times as I want.

The procedure you described is very much appreciated but this is too
much hassle for me. I tried some of the other tools you described but
they all have the same limitation as TweakUI - they work for
Administrator account only.

John, thanks for bringing this little tool to my attention. I didn't
know about it before. It works for me and I am happy now.

James
 
Jamesg wrote:
Olórin, thanks for your detailed answer. I ended up purchasing the 5-
shortcut version of "Truly Your Places Bar" (only $3) as this was
quicker for me and I can re-use it as many times as I want.

The procedure you described is very much appreciated but this is too
much hassle for me. I tried some of the other tools you described but
they all have the same limitation as TweakUI - they work for
Administrator account only.

John, thanks for bringing this little tool to my attention. I didn't
know about it before. It works for me and I am happy now.

James
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting back with the update - so many don't!
 
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