Enable/Disable "Other" System Folders in Windows 7 Computer / My Computer window

Help & Support
1

1st - kudos on the new v.12 -- greatly enjoying it!

Now - remember in TweakXP tool, and also in Nuhi's nLite/vLite -
you could enable/disable the "Other" system folders showing in Computer / My Computer window -

[b]* All Control Panel Items

  • Devices & Printers
  • Network Connections
  • Printers
  • Recycle Bin
  • Run[/b]

... and probably a few others

would you be able to either explain how to change those Registry or Group Policy settings,
or refer me to an article that would?

Searching through Preferences, I don't see a way to do that in dOpus.

I've searched like a madman on the 'nets but haven't been able to come up with it.

Thanks very much for your help.

2

Where are you seeing those folders within Opus? Could you post a screenshot so we can see what you're seeing?

3

disclaimer -- I do run as Admin

4

.
THis screenie includes Windows Explorer (running under QTTabBar) to compare w/ dOpus :

5

Sorry for off-topic, but what's the reason/advantage having countless tiny partitions (except they're VMs, sysdrives or images) instead of folders and enough overall space when needed?

6

Those extra folders are put there via registry settings. It's not something Opus has a configuration window for, but Opus will use the same settings that the rest of Windows uses.

(Note that on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, we filter out a lot of those folders, because the OS itself decided to clutter the list of drives with several folders which also appear nearby in the folder tree, which we felt made things messy, confusing and redundant. But on Windows 7 we don't do that filtering, since the OS doesn't clutter the list by default.)

The relevant part of the registry is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace

If you search for that, most things are about how to remove the folders from Windows 10 which Opus already filters out by default, since they annoy a lot of people, but you can also find information and tools which let you add folders. I am not sure of the exact details of how the settings work, however, since they're a Windows thing more than an Opus thing, and I myself have only looked into them from the point of view of removing unwanted folders and not adding additional ones.

If you're already using a tool to modify those settings, which you are by the sound of things, then it should work the same in Opus and Explorer, and appears to be working from your screenshot. Is there an issue where something isn't working, or were you just looking for information on how things worked behind the scenes?

7

Thanks for your attention to my question, mates --

@Sasa - good question - one of my computing objectives w/ GUI is
"ever-only-1-click-away", and while it's not totally attainable,
the majority of it is no more than 2 clicks away -
so using my partitioning schema vs nested folders helps me do that

@ Leo - here's what I've done & what I've found --

  1. Using Regshot 1.9.0 x64 ANSI, took "before" registry Shot, then ...

  2. Using Yamicsoft Windows 7 Manager 5.1.9 >
    Customization > Computer Manager > Devices and Printers > Disable

[disabled "Devices and Printers"]

  1. back to Regshot for the "After" Shot, then Compare --

Keys deleted: 1

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A}

Keys added: 1

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace-{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A}

So this uses the documented value for Devices and Printers :
{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A},

then puts the minus sign [ - ] in front to delete the value.

  1. Checking in both Windows Explorer & dOpus, the listing for Devices and Printers was GONE,
    as desired/expected.

  2. Reversing the procedure using the GUI tool Yamicsoft Windows 7 Manager again,
    and now the icon for Devices and Printers shows up again.

OK, fine, it works -- but, I 'essentially' already understood how to do this
by using these known values and placing the minus sign [ - ] in front to delete the value,
but here's the thing --

When I initially visited the registry location you mentioned, Leo, --
the ONLY entry under NameSpace is "DelegateFolders" !!

And, after using Yamicsoft to perform these procedures,
I still don't see any entries in that Registry Key !!

WHY NOT ?? I also searched through the entire Registry several times
and couldn't find any added value for when I performed further experiments
for some of the other special folders --

Administrative Tools - {D20EA4E1-3957-11D2-A40B-0C5020524153}

Control Panel - {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Devices and Printers - {A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A}

Flip 3D - {3080F90E-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}

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

Network Connections - {7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}

Printers - {2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

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

Run - {2559A1F3-21D7-11D4-BDAF-00C04F60B9F0}

Search - {2559A1F0-21D7-11D4-BDAF-00C04F60B9F0}

?? I don't understand why I can't see any entries in Registry?

as stated - I'm running as Admin,
and can't figure any reason for any accesses to be disallowed or hidden from me?

However, at least now I can write my own .reg files to enable/disable the display
of any of these icons in Windows 7 "My Computer" / "Computer" window.

Thanks again - and totally understand & agree for how you all left out a bunch of Windows' clutter
when coding dOpus v.12.

8

There may be a similar location under HKEY_CURRENT_USER in addition to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE area you've looked at. That is often the case, but I don't now if it is true with these keys.

Do you know where those things came from in the first place? They are not part of a standard Windows install, so if the aim is to remove them, it might be worth tracking down the thing that added them to see if it has options to undo what it did.

9

< Do you know where those things came from in the first place? >

I just remembered that back when I created my original 7 Ultimate install,
I did use a Frankenstein combination of vLite, WinReducer, the old RT 7lite, etc,
to have as much control over the customization as possible,
as well as reduce overall install file size --
and I bet it was some tick-box choice-option from one of those apps ...

And since you say it's non-standard for that to show in Computer,
they probly did it in a way that didn't/doesn't conform to standard practices,
as far as making proper registry entries during @ install runtime.

Well, thx again - I'm going to go install straight Win7sp1 iso into a VM
w/ no modifications, just to see what the untouched default is like! :slight_smile:

Cheers

10

A wrap-up for anyone with interest in this thread --

Just installed stock Win7sp1x64 Ultimate in a VM, and as Leo described,
the "Other" special file icons are definitely NOT part of a stock/std install --

they came from one of the various Windows 7 roll-your-own-install apps mentioned above --

& the thing is, since I used several apps in sequence to prepare the 1 install image,
I don't know which app did which function.

Also, in the VM - when I use a .reg file to Enable any of those special folders,
then I DO SEE THE ENTRY IN THE REGISTRY !

... and when I run a Disable .reg file, then the entry disappears --

again, my original "complaint" of not being able to see any entries appearing/disappearing in registry --

EVEN THOUGH THE FUNCTIONALITY WAS CHANGING IN THE OS --

is an artifact of whatever tweak program I used.

And another interesting observation I also just made --
in my regular install Registry, I noticed that there is a lower-case " e " in " ...\Version\Explorer " --

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace

and in the VM stock/std install, that same registry key has a Captial E.

I did experiment, and found out that that particular key is NOT case-sensitive,
but it was interesting to me that whatever tweak tool I used, caused the entry to have a lower-case.

Anyone interested in adding such folders to My Computer window can find the instructions here:

h**p://www.askvg.com/how-to-add-recycle-bin-run-searchand-
many-other-useful-shortcuts-in-my-computer/

Cheers :smiley:

11

... and yet one more nugget to add here --

I finally located an archived pdf I'd made of a msdn article that lists all the CLSID names --

these are referred to as "Canonical Names" , and it's handy to have this reference of names + directory paths --
for making shortcuts, etc.

The article is tilted "Canonical Names of Control Panel Items" and lives here at this moment =

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee330741(v=vs.85).aspx

Some other interesting & very useful sub-sections in the article are --

"Using Canonical Names in [setting] Local Group Policy", and :

[quote]Remarks

You might see items in your Control Panel that are not listed here.
Those items are not part of Windows, but instead are added during the installation of various software and hardware,
such as Microsoft Office or a video card.

Non‐Windows Control Panel items may or may not have a canonical name.
To find the canonical name of a Control Panel item not listed here, look in the registry under these paths:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
CLSID
{CLSID of the Control Panel item}
System.ApplicationName

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Classes
CLSID
{CLSID of the Control Panel item}
System.ApplicationName[/quote]

Cheers
.