Can I change XP quick launch path by editing registry?

[ALBOJay]

As you experts know that XP quick launch's default path is " C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator(or username)\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch", all the shortcuts in quick launch bar are put in this folder. Now a problem is coming up when you recover the system, you will find that the quick launch bar goes back earlier, you lose new shortcuts after you backup the system. I think it is good If we can change the location to non-system drive for example D, via registry.

The similar cases are "my documents", "my favorite“，"cookies", "IE temporary folder", "history", "desktop" and some other items that I can not think of.

Could anyone help? Thanks!

[allen2]

An even better way would be: redirect all profiles folder on D: (for example) this you'll have all users datas stored on another partition.

Also, under XP there is no specific registry entry for quicklaunch, the process explorer.exe get the the "application data" folder from "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\AppData" and then add to it "Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" (most likely written directly in the related dll/exe).

So you'll need to redirect the entire "application data" folder if you want to move the quick launch folder.

Edited September 26, 2011 by allen2

[ALBOJay]

An even better way would be: redirect all profiles folder on D: (for example) this you'll have all users datas stored on another partition.

Also, under XP there is no specific registry entry for quicklaunch, the process explorer.exe get the the "application data" folder from "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\AppData" and then add to it "Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" (most likely written directly in the related dll/exe).

So you'll need to redirect the entire "application data" folder if you want to move the quick launch folder.

Thanks, I think I've understood what you mean. I see in registry the value for this name is "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data", now if I change it to "D:\My Documents\Application Data", then all things in the original application data folder will automatically move to the new one in "D:\My Documents", including quick launch? And if I install the program free launch bar, will this program be automatically redirected to the new folder?

And will this relocation cause bad result? Will uninstallation of program remove info. in the new folder that's due?

What you mention here is only for current user, what about all users? I see in "C:\Documents and Settings" there are three folders, they are "administrator", "all users" and "default user".

Thanks again, a few more questions in here. :-)

Edited September 27, 2011 by ALBOJay

[allen2]

There are no side effects if you copy properly (using robocopy for example and from another account to avoid having locked files) the folders you want to move before trying to modify the path in the registry (you will have to load the hive of the user and modify it then unload it as the current reg entry will be for the current user).

It will affect all applications after the next logon the target user.

If you want to move all the profiles (best option IMHO), you should do it when installing (quite easy, for example nlite can help you) or right after (and then it's quite complex to do it properly). If you still want to do it after some time, you 'll have to check the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList" and the values under. That were all things should be modified.

[ALBOJay]

Many thanks...i need time to understand, they seem quite hard to me.

[ALBOJay]

There are no side effects if you copy properly (using robocopy for example and from another account to avoid having locked files) the folders you want to move before trying to modify the path in the registry (you will have to load the hive of the user and modify it then unload it as the current reg entry will be for the current user).

It will affect all applications after the next logon the target user.

If you want to move all the profiles (best option IMHO), you should do it when installing (quite easy, for example nlite can help you) or right after (and then it's quite complex to do it properly). If you still want to do it after some time, you 'll have to check the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList" and the values under. That were all things should be modified.

(you will have to load the hive of the user and modify it then unload it as the current reg entry will be for the current user).

Could you explain further for this?

Thanks...

[allen2]

If you want to change some settings for another user account of a computer, you have to launch regedit select either HKEY_USERS or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then from the file menu select load hive, then browse to find the hive of the user profile (located in the user profile and named ntuser.dat) and select it then enter a name (it will apear as a folder under the select key and you can choose whatever you want). Then for editing the loaded hive, instead of going to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER Key, go to the name you just entered and do your modifications there. When you're done, select the name enter before and go to the file menu and select unload hive. This step should always be properly done.

The official MS tutorial is there.

For the reasons why you need to do it without the targeted user being logged on:

- if the user is logged on, some files are locked in its profile folder especially in "application data"

- when a user isn't logged on, its hive is unloaded (when he is logged on, the hive is loaded under HKEY_USERS) so you can't edit its registry.

[ALBOJay]

If you want to change some settings for another user account of a computer, you have to launch regedit select either HKEY_USERS or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then from the file menu select load hive, then browse to find the hive of the user profile (located in the user profile and named ntuser.dat) and select it then enter a name (it will apear as a folder under the select key and you can choose whatever you want). Then for editing the loaded hive, instead of going to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER Key, go to the name you just entered and do your modifications there. When you're done, select the name enter before and go to the file menu and select unload hive. This step should always be properly done.

The official MS tutorial is there.

For the reasons why you need to do it without the targeted user being logged on:

- if the user is logged on, some files are locked in its profile folder especially in "application data"

- when a user isn't logged on, its hive is unloaded (when he is logged on, the hive is loaded under HKEY_USERS) so you can't edit its registry.

Thanks a lot.