Somewhere along the line (WINXP SP 2, if I recall), MS started putting the
drive letter at the end of a drive's description in windows explorer. There
is a registry fix to return to the most logical format of having the drive
letter first. It involves adding a REG_DWORD value “ShowDriveLettersFirst”
and then setting the value to 4. I've tried that in Vista, but it didn't
take.

Does anyone have a way to put the drive letter first in vista? While we're
at it, I'd just as soon have my old windows explorer display back to just
showing my C drive and its folders; I can find what I want from there without
having to trip over microsoft's cluttered display

Hi Van,

There is a way to make the drive letters appear at the beginning. As you
state, this involves a registry tweak. Open Regedit and browse to the
following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
In the panel on the right there is a DWord variable called
'ShowDriveLettersFirst'. It is this value that you need to change. The normal
value is '0', meaning drive letters at the end, but if you change the value
to '4', the drive letters will appear at the beginning. Note that you might
have to repeat this tweak for each user.
Dwarf

"Van" wrote:
[color=blue]
> Somewhere along the line (WINXP SP 2, if I recall), MS started putting the
> drive letter at the end of a drive's description in windows explorer. There
> is a registry fix to return to the most logical format of having the drive
> letter first. It involves adding a REG_DWORD value “ShowDriveLettersFirst”
> and then setting the value to 4. I've tried that in Vista, but it didn't
> take.
>
> Does anyone have a way to put the drive letter first in vista? While we're
> at it, I'd just as soon have my old windows explorer display back to just
> showing my C drive and its folders; I can find what I want from there without
> having to trip over microsoft's cluttered display[/color]

Thanks. That did it. I had put the same thing, but in wrong place.
(LOCAL_MACHINE instead of CURRENT_USER)

Van

"Dwarf" wrote:
[color=blue]
> Hi Van,
>
> There is a way to make the drive letters appear at the beginning. As you
> state, this involves a registry tweak. Open Regedit and browse to the
> following key:
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
> In the panel on the right there is a DWord variable called
> 'ShowDriveLettersFirst'. It is this value that you need to change. The normal
> value is '0', meaning drive letters at the end, but if you change the value
> to '4', the drive letters will appear at the beginning. Note that you might
> have to repeat this tweak for each user.
> Dwarf
>
> "Van" wrote:
>[color=green]
> > Somewhere along the line (WINXP SP 2, if I recall), MS started putting the
> > drive letter at the end of a drive's description in windows explorer. There
> > is a registry fix to return to the most logical format of having the drive
> > letter first. It involves adding a REG_DWORD value “ShowDriveLettersFirst”
> > and then setting the value to 4. I've tried that in Vista, but it didn't
> > take.
> >
> > Does anyone have a way to put the drive letter first in vista? While we're
> > at it, I'd just as soon have my old windows explorer display back to just
> > showing my C drive and its folders; I can find what I want from there without
> > having to trip over microsoft's cluttered display[/color][/color]

Hi Van,

Thanks for the reply. I have managed to solve your other problem as well. It
involves changing the properties of the Windows Explorer shortcut.
Right-click on the shortcut and select the shortcut tab. In this tab, edit
the target line to read as follows (note that the default target is
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe):
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /root, c:\ /select, c:\
Dwarf

"Van" wrote:
[color=blue]
> Thanks. That did it. I had put the same thing, but in wrong place.
> (LOCAL_MACHINE instead of CURRENT_USER)
>
> Van
>
> "Dwarf" wrote:
>[color=green]
> > Hi Van,
> >
> > There is a way to make the drive letters appear at the beginning. As you
> > state, this involves a registry tweak. Open Regedit and browse to the
> > following key:
> > HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
> > In the panel on the right there is a DWord variable called
> > 'ShowDriveLettersFirst'. It is this value that you need to change. The normal
> > value is '0', meaning drive letters at the end, but if you change the value
> > to '4', the drive letters will appear at the beginning. Note that you might
> > have to repeat this tweak for each user.
> > Dwarf
> >
> > "Van" wrote:
> >[color=darkred]
> > > Somewhere along the line (WINXP SP 2, if I recall), MS started putting the
> > > drive letter at the end of a drive's description in windows explorer. There
> > > is a registry fix to return to the most logical format of having the drive
> > > letter first. It involves adding a REG_DWORD value “ShowDriveLettersFirst”
> > > and then setting the value to 4. I've tried that in Vista, but it didn't
> > > take.
> > >
> > > Does anyone have a way to put the drive letter first in vista? While we're
> > > at it, I'd just as soon have my old windows explorer display back to just
> > > showing my C drive and its folders; I can find what I want from there without
> > > having to trip over microsoft's cluttered display[/color][/color][/color]