1. You are viewing our forum as a guest. For full access please Register. WindowsBBS.com is completely free, paid for by advertisers and donations.

Where does IE "store" the Favorites sort order?

Discussion in 'Internet Explorer & Microsoft Edge' started by Christer, 2006/12/27.

  1. 2006/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,577
    Likes Received:
    74
    Hello all!

    I have recently upgraded from IE 6 to IE 7. A few "issues" that I had with IE 6 have been fixed, such as URL shortcut icons being lost when the Temporary Internet Files are cleared.

    An "issue" that persists is that the Favorites sort order is lost when I restore a Ghost Image. Let me elaborate:

    Ever since I gave up sorting my Favorites in an intelligent way, I have sorted them alphabetically. After that, I create a Ghost Image of the system.

    I add a number of Favorites and sort them alphabetically. Next, for some reason, I restore the most recent Ghost Image. After that, the Favorites added since that Ghost Image was created end up at the bottom of the Favorites folder or subfolder within it.

    If it has any bearing on this, I have moved the Favorites folder from the system partition to a data partition.

    If I explore the Favorites folder, the contents is always sorted alphabetically, no matter which the sort order is in IE.

    I have searched the registry for any hint on this but drew a blank.

    Finally to the question: Does anyone know where IE "stores" the Favorites sort order?

    (If it is as simple as a reg key, that one could be exported prior to restoring the Ghost Image and imported afterwards.)

    Thanks for your time,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #1
  2. 2006/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,577
    Likes Received:
    74
    Hmm ... :rolleyes: ... nothing beats asking a question and keeping on searching for an answer. I found a (the?) reg key

    Code:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Favorites
    which I didn't find searching for random names of Favorites.

    I will export that reg key and try to do as I suggested above the next time I restore a Ghost Image.

    (In a way, there is a connection to the moved Favorites folder. If it had been in the default location on the system partition, all "added" Favorites would have been lost too in the restore process.)

    Christer

    Edited: the *.reg file is almost 1 MB in size ... :eek: ... !
     
    Christer,
    #2


  3. to hide this advert.

  4. 2006/12/28
    Bill Castner

    Bill Castner Inactive

    Joined:
    2006/08/30
    Messages:
    1,980
    Likes Received:
    0
    Sigh. I do not want to know how many favorites you have stored, Christer. But no question you have identified the right area of the registry.

    It might be time to consider a third-party bookmark manager.
    http://www.ieaddons.com/default.aspx?cid=home&scid=0
     
    Bill Castner,
    #3
  5. 2006/12/28
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

    Joined:
    2001/12/27
    Messages:
    15,174
    Likes Received:
    412
    WOW... mine is 68KB, and I have 977 favorites in 117 folders :eek:
     
    Arie,
    #4
  6. 2006/12/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,577
    Likes Received:
    74
    Bill,
    I'm gonna tell you anyway ... :cool: ... 959 files in 108 folders. I archive URLs to individual webpages that contain a solution to a problem, such as KB articles. The problem I have is finding them and sorting them in an intelligent way, hence the many subfolders. As I have mentioned, I have given up and just sort alphabetically.

    I have tried the exporting/importing trick and it works to restore the sort order after restoring a Ghost Image. This is the only practical way to do it, at least with as many subfolders as I have. It will restore any sort order, intelligent or alphabetical.

    With a lesser (normal?) number of subfolders and alphabetical sort order, the reg key can be modified manually by deleting the REG_BINARY "Order" for the Favorites folder and each subfolder. This will render the sort order alphabetical and the value for each folder will be recreated when a new Favorite is added or the sort order is altered.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #5
  7. 2006/12/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,577
    Likes Received:
    74
    Arie,
    comparing your figures triggers my curiosity. We have a similar number of files and folders in our respective Favorites folder. According to its properties, the size of my Favorites folder is 333 kB but it occupies 3.80 MB on the disk. My exported reg key is 862 kB.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #6
  8. 2006/12/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,577
    Likes Received:
    74
    This can be done quite easily if the Favorites key is highlighted > Edit > Search > search for "Order" > Find next > DEL > YES > F3 > DEL > YES > F3 > ... and so on til the end of the Favorites key but don't get too trigger happy.

    As a precaution, do backup the key by exporting it prior to deleting the values!

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #7
  9. 2006/12/28
    Bill Castner

    Bill Castner Inactive

    Joined:
    2006/08/30
    Messages:
    1,980
    Likes Received:
    0
    Contents of fix_favorites_order.reg

    REGEDIT4
    [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Favorites]

    This is batcheable (regedit /s fix_favorites_order.reg)

    Or just double-clickable.

    Both of you should explore an inexpensive third-party Bookmark Manager. One advantage is that you can add searchable entries in most cases: For example, you could bookmark this discussion with something like:

    ie favorites sort order registry fix Christer

    And then as a query ask: registry fix favorites sort order

    And return the link.

    I use: LinkStash -- free trial available
    http://www.xrayz.co.uk/linkstash/

    There may be better and worse bookmark managers, but it is very fast and does handle the query needs I have. And I have used it for years so I have not really explorerd alternatives, although there is a section on them in my original post and link. It will import your existing bookmarks. Be sure to clean out all the default bookmarks it also installs. Like Windows Explorer, it will sort on any column header. It has a one-click URL grabber.

    It runs within IE 6 or IE 7, including Vista.
     
    Bill Castner,
    #8
  10. 2006/12/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,577
    Likes Received:
    74
    Bill,
    thanks for the link!

    If my habit of restoring Ghost Images "breaks the connection" between that reg key and the Favorites folder on D:, I'm not sure that a third party Favorites Manager would really "manage it ". I have myself to blame because if my Favorites folder was still in its default location, we would not have this discussion (I think).

    It is possible that I have blown this out of proportion, it really isn't a problem, only a minor annoyance that I have now found a reg fix for (if I remember to export the key ... :rolleyes: ...).

    I will make a note in Moving Windows XP default folders Rev1, linking to this thread. Maybe a few members have followed my advice and are in the same predicament.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #9
  11. 2006/12/28
    Zander

    Zander Geek Member Alumni

    Joined:
    2002/01/07
    Messages:
    4,084
    Likes Received:
    5
    Well, FWIW, I find this kind of odd. If you make an image of your disk, it should be an exact image. Registry and all. If the registry is copied in the image, the image should contain the registry key in question. If the key was correct before the image was made, why not after? :confused: Seems to me the image of the registry should contain the necessary information for where the favorites are stored (whether the default location or not) and everything should work as expected.
     
    Zander,
    #10
  12. 2006/12/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,577
    Likes Received:
    74
    I have always advocated that separating the programs from the operating system makes no sense. When a program gets installed and used, the registry is written to and files end up on the system partition no matter what you do. Separating the programs from the operating system would necessitate two images, one of each partition, to be kept synchronized. This seems to be the case with the Favorites too.

    The key contained in the image is the correct one for the status of the favorites when the image was created. Adding favorites or sorting them will continously update that key but any changes made to that key will be lost when restoring the image > the Favorites folder and the reg key get out of synchronization.

    The Favorites issue is corrected by exporting/importing a single reg key but the same cannot be done when it comes to programs.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #11
  13. 2006/12/29
    Bill Castner

    Bill Castner Inactive

    Joined:
    2006/08/30
    Messages:
    1,980
    Likes Received:
    0
    A third-party Bookmark Manager does not use the Favorites folder. It has its own database. Most allow you to have several databases if you wish, and choose between them.

    Thus it is not dependent on the SortOrder registry key. It has its own sort indexes.

    You could therfore completely empty the Favorites folder without issue to the Bookmark Manager. It cares only about its own database and indexes.

    Since it has seperate indexes for all columns, you are no longer restricted sorting by Favorite name. You can also sort by URL, by your own comments, by the Header of the shortcut, by date created, by date last accessed, .etc. If you have a lot of shortcut Favorites, these can prove very helpful. For example: "Where is that link I found and stored yesterday?" Sort by date created. It also stores for the session your searches. If you search for 'christer favorites' and return four entries, you can copy and paste one, and pop-up the Window to paste the second, etc.. Later, you can use these temporarily stored search result returns to paste link 4, or whatever.

    I particularly like that you can write to yourself a several line comment about each bookmark, and the contents of the comment are also searched. For example, if in the comment I wrote: "Be sure to see thread #4 in this link to see a revision of the original registry key discussion by Christer. "

    The comment not only is useful in finding the right link, but as searchable would be returned if I queried: 'christer registry favorites' along with other matching entries. I can then see from the Comments that it is link #5 that I want in a certain case, but not the other links.

    To transfer to another computer, say your laptop, just copy the database files and indexes. Done. If you multi-boot OS instances, just use a commonly accessible folder to all to store the database and index files. Your Bookmark Manager thus has all its entries no matter what OS instance you are using.
     
    Last edited: 2006/12/29
    Bill Castner,
    #12
  14. 2006/12/29
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

    Joined:
    2001/12/27
    Messages:
    15,174
    Likes Received:
    412
    My favorites Size: 65.8 KB occupying 3.81 MB on disk.
     
    Arie,
    #13
  15. 2006/12/29
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,577
    Likes Received:
    74
    I could certainly benefit from a comment. Trying to give a link a desciptive name is difficult and I probably have several instances of the same link under different "descriptive names ". To be honest, just looking at 75% of the links give no clue as to where they will take you.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #14
  16. 2006/12/29
    Bill Castner

    Bill Castner Inactive

    Joined:
    2006/08/30
    Messages:
    1,980
    Likes Received:
    0
    A bookmark manager should give you a several ways to comment:

    The Title -- These are autofilled from the URL, but I edit them. If I want to post a link in a thread, the Title is what I will first paste, then the URL.

    The comments section is worth its weight in Gold, particularly as it is searchable.

    Most of my entries are just search terms: christer registry favorites search order or similar, to remind me why I saved this link, and to speed up their retrieval.
     
    Bill Castner,
    #15

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Accept Learn More...