Per Application Save Dialog Folders - Windows Forum


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Per Application Save Dialog Folders

Edwin Siew

13 hours ago

Doesn't anyone else remember that the save or open dialogue in Win 7 (came from there and skipped 8, 10, ME and Vista) almost invariably open in the last generally accessed folder? It has been problematic now in Win 11 because the last accessed folder is different and delineated by the App or software, so to save a document generated in Access would point only to the last folder accessed from Access itself although the 'real' last accessed folder was another one but via a Word application.

I have found that we can get the last accessed folder with the register but for the different apps... which means could not we just write a simple .bat file to populate a new register entry that we can fill whenever we open a folder from any of the Office document, the Browser, directly from File Explorer, and also the folders with the latest seen (this one is really bas when they ignore what was last seen, modification should not be the only activity that determines contemporaneity), re-saved, modified or created Document or Access database.

Would be much gratified is someone could tell me that that was how he recalls it too and there is no Mandela Effect...

BR,
Ed

Richard Rost @Reply

13 hours ago

Ed, I can see why that would be frustrating when you're moving between programs. I wouldn't pin it entirely on Windows 11, though. Windows has supported remembering file-dialog locations separately for each application since before Windows 7, and an application can even remember different locations for different dialogs. Your particular combination of programs may have behaved the way you remember.

Writing one shared Registry value would not, by itself, make Word, Access, your browser and File Explorer all use it. Each program would need to read and update that value, or a separate helper would have to coordinate them. I'd avoid rewriting their internal recent-folder entries as a blanket fix.

For a predictable workflow, copy the folder's full path from File Explorer and paste it into the Open/Save dialog. Within an Access application you control, you can also deliberately remember your own last-used folder. That's a manageable project; tracking every application's folder activity is a much broader one.

	Kevin Yip @Reply 11 hours ago
The global recent file list is in this folder: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent That has never changed going back several Windows versions, since XP, I believe.

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