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.
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.
This is the end result:
I hope that helps you as much as it did me!