TW Blog :: Archives for November 2003

Cleaning The Desktop

Relates to Registry Hacks

This evening I found myself trawling through the registry on my Windows 98 OS to resolve a number of conflicts, and try and speed up my file system processes. I generally use the Directory Opus shell to drag and drop files onto applications, but I wanted to set up better context menus for file associations so I could right click and save that additional wrist movement.

Just as an idea, I decided to track down a few of the desktop icon ClsIDs to extend their group context menus, and reduce the amount of clutter on my Desktop and in my Start Menu and Quick Launch bar. Firstly I hunted down the ID for Microsoft Outlook, with the intention of placing an additional menu command to open Mail Washer and set this as the default. Since Mail Washer has a custom toolbar button to open Outlook, I could now just run the both from the same desktop icon, and remove supperflous additional shortcuts.

The leading values of ID for Outlook are 00020D75-0000 and to add the new option to the menu I simply added another Key with name OpenMailWasher to the Shell key with Command to open Mail Washer, and set the default string value on the Shell key to OpenMailWasher. While I was about I changed the icon and text for the icon. In RegEdit code this boils down to:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
"InfoTip"="Outlook mailbox for business mail and account testing"
@="Business Organisers"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}DefaultIcon]
@="C:\PROGRA~1\OUTLOO~1\MSIMN.EXE,1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}Shell]
@="OpenMailWasher"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}ShellOpen]
@="View &Mail Boxes"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}ShellOpenCommand]
@=""C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\OFFICE\OUTLOOK.EXE""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}ShellOpenMailWasher]
@="Run Mail &Washer"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
ShellOpenMailWasherCommand]
@=""C:\Program Files\MailWasher\MailWasher.exe""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
ShellOpenProjectList]
@="View &Project List"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
ShellOpenProjectListCommand]
@=""C:\Program Files\MozillaFirebird\MozillaFirebird.exe"
-p tomwright "http://localhost/projects/index.php""

I also added an additional option to open up my PHP Projects Manager API in Firebird. Just recording some of the other CLSIDs of common desktop items (for my own reference - remember adjusting the registry can have grave consequences if you are not sure what you are doing!).

{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

Inbox - in this scenario Microsoft Outlook as default mail client

{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

My Computer

{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Recycle Bin

{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}

Inter$net Exploder

{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}

My Documents

{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}

Network Neighborhood

Not forgetting that the last of these incongrous items can be removed from the desktop by setting a DWORD value of 1 for NoNetHood in HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsPoliciesExplorer. While Win98 is slowly falling off the market shelf, it still offers some fun!?

Posted on Saturday, Nov 08, 2003 at 03:21:17.