More pseudo-folder fun

Thanks to WinInfo subscribe Denis Howlett for this tip: many of you willremember (for good or bad, I suppose) last week's "hack" to get cascadingfolder items on your Start Menu. This is similar to that, but involvescreating Internet Mail and News

Paul Thurrott

January 28, 1997

1 Min Read
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Thanks to WinInfo subscribe Denis Howlett for this tip: many of you willremember (for good or bad, I suppose) last week's "hack" to get cascadingfolder items on your Start Menu. This is similar to that, but involvescreating Internet Mail and News "pseudo-folders" that can display insidethe Windows Explorer program. The way it works is that an Internet Mailor News icon will appear in the left pane of Explorer. When you click onthe icon, it loads into the right pane of Explorer--not a separate window. You might recall this effect from the early previews of IE 4, or maybe even from the first release of Internet Mail and News, when this was actually how they worked. That's all changed, but you can get this interesting effect back bycreated a new folder, and naming it one of the following:Mail.{89292102-4755-11cf-9DC2-00AA006C2B84}News.{89292103-4755-11cf-9DC2-00AA006C2B84}As you might expect, an Internet Mail or News folder will appear. Place the icon anywhere in your drive hierarchy and view it with Explorer (notMy Computer). Click on the icon in the left pane and watch the programload into the right. This is the way Microsoft advertised all Internetprogram execution early in the development stages of IE 4: Web page werealso loaded into this pane in the same way and the toolbar would changeto support the current program.By the way, this doesn't affect your Registry at all, so if that is a fear,please be advised. Also, the TweakUI "Create As File" option only createsa file, not a "pseudo folder," so this is the only way I'm aware of tocreate this effect.--Pau

About the Author

Paul Thurrott

Paul Thurrott is senior technical analyst for Windows IT Pro. He writes the SuperSite for Windows, a weekly editorial for Windows IT Pro UPDATE, and a daily Windows news and information newsletter called WinInfo Daily UPDATE.

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