Changing the way a File Folder Opens

I was reading a tip in the pcworld newsletter about how to rename a new folder with the current date by clicking the mouse button. Well I should have realized I wasn't that savvy to do it but I thought it would be a good idea and decided to try it. Following is the tip that was given:
--------------------------
Quote:
Is there any way to name a new folder with the current date simply by
clicking the right mouse button? I mark my customers' folders with the
date on which they bring in files to be printed. So automatically
naming folders by their date of creation could shave my workload.
Fortunately, you can customize menus in Windows 2000 and XP to let you create a folder named with the current date, using just two clicks of your mouse.

Start by making sure that the date format you use is valid for your
folder names. For example, a date like 10/31/05 is verboten because
Windows doesn't allow slashes in file and folder names. You'll
probably want the folders arranged in chronological order even when
sorted by name, so list the year first in the name. (If the month
comes first, any files you create in October, November, and December
will immediately follow the ones you made in January.) A date format
such as 2005-10-31 for your folder names will keep things nice and
sorted.

To have Windows use this date format all the time, open the Regional
Options (or Regional and Language Options) control panel: Choose
Start, Run, type control intl.cpl, and press Enter. In Windows XP,
select the Regional Options tab and click Customize. In both versions,
click the Date tab and choose yyyy-MM-dd from the "Short date format"
drop-down list. Then click OK as many times as necessary to close the
dialog boxes.

Next, add the command that will create a folder with this date format:
Press Win-E to open Windows Explorer, choose Tools, Folder Options,
and in the Folder Options dialog box, click File Types. In the
"Registered file types" list, scroll to and select File Folder. Click
Advanced to open the Edit File Type dialog box, and then click the New
button. For "Action," type the words that you want to appear on your
context menu (such as New Folder With Today's Date). For "Application
used to perform action," type cmd.exe /c md "%1%%DATEf," "h." These represent the month, day, and year. The third line of the
file stores the date variables in year-day-month order, separated by
hyphens, within the variable "today_." The fifth line combines that
variable with the make directory ( "md ") command to create a folder
that has the desired date name.

If you prefer folder names separated by periods (as in "2005.10.31 "),
replace the two hyphens in the third line of the batch file with
periods. Or delete the hyphens in that line altogether to produce a
folder name such as "20051031." Rearrange the "g," and "list.nameemailaddremail.unsub%%
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Unquote

Well my problem is that now when I try to open a folder by double clicking the folder I get a black window that says:
Title is: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
and in the window is says:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Doucments\Christmas

I don't know how to get it back to normal by just double clicking the folder and it opens to show the files.

I do not want the new command I created "New Folder With Today's Date ". I just want the normal opening. I tried to restore my computer to an earlier day but it still makes no difference.

I did go back to the Tools, Folder Options, File Folder and Clicked
Advanced but can't find anyway to delete this new option or return to the original way to open a folder.

Please help if possible. Thank you.

Jean

 

Startmenu run line type regedit and click enter.

The hkey you need is:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory

Click on the plus to open it and then click on the plus for subdirectory "shell ":
Delete the new value you added (it should be listed here in the right pane)
and in the "Default" string make sure the value is none (meaning it has the actual word none set as the value)

If it isn't double click on it and change the value to none.

Close regedit and you should be good to go.

If you prefer there is a reg patch that can do this for you:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

It is his Directory Extension fix:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/xp_directory_reg.zip

==============
Just as a sidenote, I don't know what you did but before I gave you the fix instructions I tried this tweak/tip myself (however I didn't change my date format). It worked, although not as useful or streamlined as the tip suggests without allowing for the time format change. The result was a right click option "named reflected my choice" which created a new folder subfolder in the folder I right clicked on. This was named by Day and month (in my case THU 09 meaning Thursday August and in it was a subfolder named "01" which reflected todays date). I guess I could have dragNdroped any files I wanted into this.

The problem I had was when double clicking on a folder "search" would come up. ODD folder behaviors have been known to happen after this tip. This was forewarned by the article you used and fix's were given:
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,122112,00.asp
Actually I didn't pay to much attention to his instructions until after I did this "my way" but you may find his instructions easier. Here they are:
If you made a mistake while entering text in the New Action dialog box, you have to use the Registry Editor to fix it. For safety's sake, create a backup of your Registry (click here for instructions). Choose Start, Run, type regedit, and press <Enter>. In the tree pane on the left, navigate to and double-click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell. Select the folder with the name of the command you just added (in our example, 'New_Folder_With_Today's_Date'), and double-click the (Default) icon in the right pane to open the command line in the Edit String dialog box. Make your correction, or delete your custom command altogether by closing the dialog box, right-clicking the folder in the left pane, and selecting Delete, Yes; for more details, see "Resort to Regedit" in last December's column.

To sum up....
I didn't spend to much time fully exploring this tip as my purpose was to restore the defaults back to what they were prior to the tip changes as requested by you. I hope I accomplished that for you...

As a sidenote to my sidenote. This tip still may have worked, if I had chose to keep it, just by making sure the Default value was set to "None ". I dunno! I didn't want or need it so poof...gone with the fix. If I ever need to organize files in this way, I think I will do it manually.

 

goddez1, Thank you so much for your help. I did try to do it the easy way as you explained first:
Quote: The hkey you need is: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory
Click on the plus to open it and then click on the plus for subdirectory "shell ":
Delete the new value you added (it should be listed here in the right pane)
and in the "Default" string make sure the value is none (meaning it has the actual word none set as the value)
UnQuote

On my computer when I went into HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory I got
+ Shell
- shell
+ explore
+ open

I didn't see anything in there that I created "New Folder With Today's Date ". I quickly got out of the registry and I download the fix as you suggested:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileasso...rectory_reg.zip
and my folders are opening normally now. Thank you, Thank you.

I agree with you, I don't need this and I will manually name my folders in the future.

Thank you for all your help.

Jean

 

Hi Jean,
You gotta' love those reg patches! I'm glad this helped and your certainly most welcome....