GUIDS of a Control Panel applets (Vista)

Today I’ll show how to create a special shortcut to the Control Panel applets, of course everything concerning the Windows Vista. You can also use that policy in the Windows XP, but not every object (applet), which I described here exists in XP (GUIDS are the same in both systems).

GUID - Globally Unique Identifier is a 128bit (16bytes) number that specify an object (ex. shell folder) in the Windows systems.

Lets take a look at the list below.

Each applet is represented by one unique number (GUID). Now, I’ll show you how to create a special shortcut with using that numbers.

We will put our shortcut on a Desktop. Run a regedit, and open following key (pic1):

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

Pic.1

Inside this key create new key with a name {ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921} (pic2)

Pic.2

Now refresh the Desktop, you will see a new icon - Personalization

If you want to remove new shortcut from the dekstop, just delete
{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921} key.

You can also add the shortcuts to the others special places (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\..):

• Control Panel - ControPanel\NameSpace
• Desktop - Desktop\NameSpace
• MyComputer - MyComputer\NameSpace

I only presented the GUIDs of the Control Panel applets. In the near future, I will show you the numbers of the others shell objects.

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Vista (User) Shell Folders - Registry (part 2)

Now let’s see current user profile paths.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\…\Shell Folders

- Windows XP -

AN - AccountName

- Windows Vista -

AN - AccountName

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\…\User Shell Folders

%USERPROFILE% - the environment variable - C:\Documents And Settings\AN

- Windows XP -

%USERPROFILE% - the environment variable - C:\Users\AN

- Windows Vista -

Both, Windows Vista and Xp stores the current user profile in one directory (XP - C:\Documents and Settings\AccountName, Vista - C:\Users\AccountName), but in Vista the major role plays C:\Users\AccountName\AppData folder with \Roaming and \Local subfolders. The C:\User\AccountName\AppData is equivalent of the C:\Documents and Settings\AccountName\Application Data

We can also find the difference deep inside the profile folders nodes, but the main directories in the Windows Vista are:

• C:\Users,
• C:\Users\Public,
• C:\Users\AppData (\Roaming, and \Local),
• C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows.

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Vista (User) Shell Folders - Registry (part 1)

Yesterday I showed you the structure of windows vista profiles folders. As you know, a lot of changes ensued in new OS. The folder names was simplified, some places doesn’t exist anymore, and an old names referring to a new objects. Today we will compare a registry values, which contains a paths to suitable profile folders.

User Shell Folders - This subkey contains the path to Windows Explorer folders for current users and for all users. The entries that appear in user User Shell Folders take precedence over those in Shell Folders.

Shell Folders - The subkey remains in the registry to support programs designed for Windows NT 4.0 or earlier.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\…\Shell Folders

- Windows XP -

- Windows Vista -

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\…\User Shell Folders

%ALLUSERSPROFILE% - the environment variable - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

- Windows XP -

%PUBLIC% - the environment variable - C:\Users\Public

%ProgramData% - the environment variable - C:\ProgramData

- Windows Vista -

Analyzing those four tables we can see the difference between profiles folders. Windows Xp have only one folder to store
the all users profile files - C:\Documents And Folders\All Users , however Vista have two folders - C:\Users\Public and C:\ProgramData\Microsoft (the rest of folders in C:\ProgramData are links (JUNCTIONS) to C:\Users\Public and C:\ProgramData\Microsoft).

End of Part 1

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Windows Vista Profiles folders

Two days ago I finished downloading the Windows Vista (RC1) Build 5600 x64 version. The installation completed without any problems, errors and BSODs. I’m very happy of that, because I read on a few forums that people had a problems during the installation, so I was wonder if I will have any, but everything works fine.

The last few days I spent searching for a difference between XP and Vista especially in a registry and a directory structure, preparing for changing the location of a profiles and a program files (and Program Files (x86)) folders. Those tricks which I used in XP doesn’t works, something will have to change.

The table below shows the first node of profile folders in Windows XP.

AN - AccountName

AN - AccountName

In the Windows Vista the structure of a profile folders is little different. All profiles are stored in C:\Users folder, the Documents And Settings still exists but as a link (JUNCTION) to the C:\Users folder. For more information about junction on NTFS read this

In the USERS folder we can find the names that are similar to those in the Documents And Settings in WinXP. The All Users folder is a symbolic link to C:\ProgramData, as you will see later in C:\ProgramData are links (JUNCTIONS) to C:\Users\Public (that folder contain informations that concerns all of the users).

AN - AccountName

Let’s take a look at account folder. The main difference is that the Appclication Data folder no longer exist it is only a link (Junction) to a new location C:\Users\AN\AppData\Roaming

I think that Microsoft decide to use short names without space for all the system folders (Local instead of Local Settings, Public instead of All Users, Documents instead of My Documents etc.)

AN - AccountName

The ProgramData folder contains links to the C:\Users\Public, the Application Data for All Users seems to be a ProgramData folder, All Users and All Users\Application Data folders points to ProgramData.

There’s a lots of changes in the profile folders structure. If I want to change the location of all the profiles folders I should reconstruct the whole structure on a different partition. It’s not that simple as was in XP, copying files is not enough. There will be a lot of work to do, but I take a challenge…

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