Adding ‘Recent Places’ to SSMS

Adding ‘Recent Places’ to SSMS

1-17-2012 12-09-09 PM
Generic Open File dialog in SSMS

I was recently frustrated by the plain Open File dialog box presented in SQL Server Management Studio. The Look in: options are limited to Desktop, My Projects, and My Computer. I make frequent use of ‘Recent Places’ in Windows Explorer, so I wanted to add it to the SSMS dialog box as well.

I tested these instructions on a 64-bit Windows 7 Enterprise version, using SQL Server 2008 R2. They have not been tested on other versions of Windows or SQL Server.

WARNING: The following instructions modify the registry. Always back up the registry before making changes. Changing the registry improperly can do significant harm to your computer. If you are uncomfortable modifying the registry, do not proceed.

Open the Registry and navigate to the following location:

\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\Open Find\Places\UserDefinedPlaces

NOTE: Depending on your version of SQL Server, you may see 90, 100, or something else.

Add a subkey for each additional ‘Look in:’ shortcut you wish to add. Name them Place0, Place1, Place2, Place(n).

Add two REG_SZ values for each subkey added:

Value Name: The display name of the shortcut; Value Data: The path of the shortcut.

To add Recent Places, make the Value data field equal to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent.

Replace <username> with your profile name.

1-17-2012 12-25-51 PM

This is the end result:

1-17-2012 12-23-08 PM
SSMS Open File dialog with Recent Places added

I hope that helps you as much as it did me!

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