Friday, April 2, 2010

Windows 7 & Vista Canonical Folder Names

In Windows Vista Microsoft introduced a feature which allowed file system folders to be used as junction points. By appending a GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) as an extension to a folder name that folder can act as a junction point to another folder or control panel item.

For example, appending {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} as an extension to the folder "trash" (trash.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}) will change the folder "trash" to a junction point for the Recycle Bin.

A list of available GUIDs is available on MSDN. However, this list does not contain all the possible GUIDs available in Windows 7 & Vista. Also, not all of these GUIDs will work in Windows 7 & Vista. Some GUIDs may work in both, some may be specific to Vista or 7 and some may work depending on the hardware and software installed on the system.

The following batch file will create a folder called "Canonical". In this folder, it will then create sub-folders using the GUIDs available from MSDN plus some others found from the internet. These include the infamous "All Tasks" folder, Computer, Recycle Bin etc.

Canonical
MD5: 1DFC67F49E50DE23B500C095C43E2AB0
SHA1: F535E660FD130369CEBE46DB5C97410C912A2964