Change default view when opening explorer from the context menu

[ScottSouthgate]

Hi,

When I right-click on the Start button and select 'Explorer', it opens explorer and defaults the view to C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu.

I would like to change this view so it defaults to a different drive.

I know there are shortcuts you can add to explorer to do this when running Explorer from the Run command or a shortcut, however I cannot find the registry key to change this on the context menu.

I have found the key which will hide/unhide the Explorer option from the context menu, but I cannot change it from defaulting to the 'Start Menu' view.

The key I have been playing with is as follows: -

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\Shell\Explore


The reason I am trying to do this is because most our users connect to a terminal server session. We have policies in place to Hide the C:\ drive. So whenever a user tries to access explorer using the context menu, an error appears stating

'This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions....."

Then if you click 'OK' explorer opens in 'Desktop' view. This is annoying for the users everytime they use explorer.


Any help with this problem would be much appreciated.


Many Thanks,

Scott S.

[BertImmenschuh]

There's 3 ways to open Windows Explorer, right-click the Start menu and Explore [can't be changed], right-click My Computer and Explore [can't be changed], or the icon in the Accessories part of the Start menu. The first 2 can't be changed because My Computer is essentially a folder and so is the Start Menu. The last one can be changed by putting something different in the Target: box.

Some examples:
C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,C:\,/select

C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /n,/e,D:\

c:\windows\explorer.exe c:\myfoldername

explorer /select,c:\Your Folder

C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,C:\

A way I've found to gray-out the Explore choice is to use TweakUI and uncheck a couple of hard drive letters in the My Computer, Drives section.

Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement

[Brf]

When you right-click and choose Explore, it explores the object you are right-clicking on. Therefore, when you right-click on the start-menu, it explores the start-menu, which is located in your Documents_and_Settings folder. If you wish to explore a different folder, you can create a shortcut to that folder on your desktop and right-click on that.