FlashFolder - Toolbar for Windows Open/Save dialogs that allows much better navigation of folders

Posted on July 9, 2007 at 2:40 pm

Wow! Here’s a neat little application called FlashFolder that I found on FreewareGenius that makes browsing through folders in Windows so much easier. I don’t understand how these types of applications don’t make it onto the wish list of features for updates to Windows XP, it’s just a perfect addition.

This application is basically a small toolbar that sits up above the Windows Open/Save and Browse Folder dialog boxes and it allows you to access the most recently viewed folders with a click of a button. It also lets you add folders to a “Favorites” button, kind of like an the Favorites work in Internet Explorer. So let’s say you have some folders that you access all the time at your office and they are located on network drives, instead of having to browse from the default My Documents folder and go through several levels to get where you want, you can just add that folder to your Favorites and select it next time from the toolbar!

List of recently used folders

Network drive folders added as favorites

Another really cool feature is the ability to press one button to change the filter to *.* (All File Types), no need to go down to the drop down box and choose it from there. As an IT professional, I always find myself having to change to All Files and this makes it a lot easier. Also, you can see which folders currently have files open by choosing the left most button. I have seen that this is usually filled with system folders that Windows XP is using, so not superbly useful.

Another useful feature of the FlashFolder bar is that it gives you an address bar like the one you have when you open Windows Explorer from My Computer. Instead of only having the drop down menu in the default Windows Open/Save dialog box, you can use FlashFolder to manually type in the address. And just like the address bar in Explorer, it auto-fills as you go along.

Ability to type in folder location using address bar

One thing I want to mention is that this programs works with Microsoft Office also as long as you are running Windows XP. However, for some reason, the default settings for the program disable the FlashFolder toolbar in Office. You have to manually enable it. Here’s how you do it. First you have to pretend like you’re going to open a file in order to see the toolbar. Next click on the button farthest to the right with the little check in it.

Select Options and then select MS Office “Open/Save”. Now in the options to the right, go ahead and check “Enable FlashFolder for this dialog“. I have Office 2003 and everything worked fine for me. You’ll have to test it out in Office 2007 for yourself.

You must manually enable FlashFolder for Office