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Add Location to Open File dialog window in SSMS
   

Add Location to Open File dialog window in SSMS

Recently I realized I kept going to the same folder over and over...  I have my "play" files on my C:\ drive, but I have a network share that I keep scripts and project related stuff that I really dont want to lose.  Most of my stuff is database development related, so the stuff on my C:\ drive is also in the DEV database (and I am lucky enough to be the main one who works in DEV - only 2 others really do and that is minimally).

I put a shortcut in the My Documents folder, but realized that it didnt help as much as I wanted.  Therefore, I found a way of putting a shortcut in the left hand pane of the Open dialog box. Look at the "home" option in the image below - that is custom :)

To do it yourself:

  1. Open your registry editor (Start > Run > regedit)
  2. Navigate to the following:
    • \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\Open Find\Places\UserDefinedPlaces
  3. Right click within the white space and create a "Key" (creates what looks like a folder) - name it whatever you want
  4. Inside that key/folder, create a string value titled "Name"
  5. For the value of that "Name" string - type in the text you want to display within the dialog window pane.  For my purposes, I put the value as "home"
  6. Inside that same key/folder, create another string value titled "Path"
  7. For the value of that "Path" string - type in the full path to the folder you want to use as a shortcut.  For my purposes, I put the value "\\networkshare\home"
  8. You may or may not have to restart SSMS - then click Open - voila!  You will see your shortcut in the left pane.
  9. If you look in the registry again, you will see that the Path string is gone and 2 other references are in it's place.

For reference, here is a copy of what mine looks like:

 There you go - laziness at it's best! :)

 

I am using Windows XP, but the following article is what pointed me in the right direction, and it gives more info for other OS versions (gotta love SQL Server Central.com!!) :)

 http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic907188-391-1.aspx

Thank you for visiting!