There are a number of custom folders within Win XP that are based on CLSID numbers … these can be impeded into a desktop.ini file like this one:
[.ShellClassInfo]
CLSID={20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
IconIndex=5
or can be created by creating a folder and naming it with the CLSID number, like the following:
Recycle .{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
The Computer .{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
Control Panel .{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Internet .{2559a1f4-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}
The name before the “.” can be any friendly name. The magic is when windows sees the “.” followed by the CLSID number contained in the {}s. You can try it by creating a folder on your desktop the copy and paste, as the folder name, one of the examples I just gave.
The icon will change to match the icon of the icon for the special folder IE Recycle looks like a small trash can. Then when you click it the “recycle bin” window opens that contains everything that has been deleted. I have a “my computer” special folder in “My Documents” so if I open my documents and need to go to a different drive, I can continue through to my computer without missing a heart beet. No need to close the folder and go back to the start menu.
The desktop.ini method requires you to create a desktop.ini file in the directory but the file needs to be set to hidden and system. Not hard at all; create a folder; open it; copy and paste the above example into a text file (in your new folder) and rename it to desktop.ini; then right click on the folder, go to properties and customize, finally change the icon. The Icon information is also saved in the desktop.ini file — The computer will make it a hidden system file when it saves the icon information into it.
The pro about using the desktop.ini method is you do not have a funny number as the name. The con is that this method won’t work, without making other system changes, on removable drives — such as USB sticks. Yes my USB stick has a my computer icon, using the folder name method, when I don’t seem to be able to remember where I placed a document. And fortunately they don’t have a special folder to open up the desktop - I really would like an icon hack that would closes all the folders I have open.
One other interesting note about these special folders; If you place files in them before you rename them the files will be hidden. If a desktop.ini file is used, you would need to go to a dos prompt then use attrib command to reset the system and hidden files flags. Doing a file search from an open folder would skip past these the files hidden in this manner. So your files will be secure from most people. If the folder name method is used just rename the folder and it becomes a regular folder again.
I would not try to hide information from the government doing this. They know about it.
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October 18th, 2007 at 9:58 am
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