Customize the Favorite Links in Windows Vista common dialogs
Microsoft Windows Vista contains new common dialogs, such as the Save As and Open dialogs, which have a new sidebar navigation to the left. The navigation can show the folder tree or your Favorite Links. Windows XP had a similar concept, but not as customizable as in Windows Vista.
If you are like me and like to have your files organized and have easy access to them you can customize the Favorite Links really easy. All the links in the Favorite Links sidebar is plain old shortcuts (.lnk files) which are located in the Links folder of the Users directory, to be precise: %USERPROFILE%\Links\, for example c:\Users\wictor\Links\.
In this Links folder you can place any shortcut to any folder you like. You can have a shortcut to your temporary download folder, a link to a SharePoint site or a network location. Since the links are all shortcut files you can change the icon on them to get just the look and feel that you like.
If you watch the Favorite Links part of the screenshot below, taken from notepad, you can see that I have added a shortcut to my Temp directory and to a custom folder and a SharePoint site (the one called Projects on Portal).
In this screenshot, taken from Microsoft Office Word 2007, you see the Open file dialog and the Favorite Links.
23 Comments
Ron Lockhart said
Thanks, I had no idea how to do this and I'm glad that a Google search turned up your site.
Wictor said
Google is pretty useful, right?
Paulo Perry said
Thanks a lot for the tip. I've deleted this folder at the first day using MS Vista. Thanks again and best regards from Portugal
Wictor said
Thank you for the response and say hello to Portugal from Sweden.
Trackback said
Microsoft Windows Vista has a whole lot of new and exciting stuff and some things that may be disturbing (at least when you're starting with Vista), like the new structure of the folders; X:\Document...
sameer said
i have deleted theis link folder by mistake:( kindly help me in getting it back without any restore points or tht heavy techno garb stuff..
Wictor said
Hello sameer, I would start trying to restore it by copying the Links folder from another account under c:\Users\ to the account from which the Links folder was deleted. Then make sure that it inherites the security from the parent folder.
Tom Groves said
Hi Wictor, Everything seems fine with this, until I add a shortcut to our sharepoint site. In our case, the url is http://gb-gsy2-sp01 The shortcut exists in the Links folder, as an "Internet Shortcut". However, it doesn't appear in "Favorite Links"! Any ideas? Thanks!
Wictor Wilén said
You need to create a .lnk file, not a .url (that IE uses). I also creates my links to sharepoint sites using the \\servername path.
Matti said
God bless you, and Google! I've being trying to figure out how to do this for AGES!
Wictor said
Heya Matti, thanks a lot, and thanks to google to help you find this site. Subscribe to the feed and you will eventually find some more interesting stuff...
Julian said
Thanks Wictor, I've been wanting to do this for ages. May I add something to make the instructions clearer: When in the Links folder, right-click and select New > Shortcut. I first went to the Microsoft Knowledge base, and this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926167 seems to be saying the same thing but in a manner I couldn't understand. Microsoft is so annoying...
Julian said
By the way, I just found out you can also just drag and drop into the Favorites area (from here: http://weblogs.asp.net/lduveau/archive/2007/05/16/customize-vista-favorite-links.aspx)
Mick said
I had this sorted in seconds after months of trying to find folders I wanted, thanks!
Wictor said
Glad I could help.
Bob said
Could you put a "create new folder" command in the favorite links?
Scott said
It is also possible to create a SharePoint link to sites that you can only access via URL, but it is a 2 step process. 1a. Open a folder to 'Computer' from the Start button. 1b. Right click anywhere in Computer and select 'Add a Network Location'. 1c. Select 'Choose a custom network location'. 1d. Paste in the url to your SharePoint folder (minus the default.aspx). e.g. https://sharepointserver.company.com/sites/MyGroup/MyFolder/ 1e. Give it a name. 2. Drag the created link and drop it in your Links pane. 3. There is no step 3.
Doug said
Great post. Thank you. How come I can find this information easily in a Google search and not in Microsoft help files????
Chris said
Hey, thanks, I was getting annoyed with having my Music and Shared folders always on there.
Don said
Wow, great post. I had trouble getting my Sharepoint url to work (formatted like http://...). Scott's follow up posted titled "SharePoint" solved it. Thanks so much to both of you.
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sangeeta said
Accidently my Links folder is deleted by me. I tried a lot to bring it back but I could not do it. Can anyone tell me how I can get it back.
emily said
question: why do different programs show different links in the favourite links bar? eg, i've only left two links in my c:\users\username\Links folder, which are the ones that show up when opening windows explorer. but, when using word or firefox, eg, I get a different list of links (including ones that no longer exist in my \Links folder). where do these links come from???