"Paul" wrote in message
...
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
When I open "My Computer" - for example with Windows-E, but I notice
it most when downloading something and my browser has "remembered"
somewhere on the wrong drive, so I have to climb the tree up and then
down again or use the My Computer button in the save window* - it
takes a long time, with the torch waving, before it shows me the list
of drives and a couple of things like "my documents". (If done from
Win+E, also shows the webcam.)

(*Yes, I know browsers can be set to always save in the same place. I
don't want that - I want it to ask me where. That would be
sidestepping the problem anyway.)

I presume it is trying to check for network drives or something,
and/or devices like the webcam. Is there no way it can be told not to
(or whatever solves this)?

For the moment, I have a desktop shortcut to the root of my D: drive,
which opens quickly, but may be covered by a window, and it doesn't
help in the "save" situation above.

This is as close as I could get. GPEDIT usually has a registry
component correponding to the desired behavior, which means
the registry likely contains the kind of entry needed. But
if you do it that way, then *all* Explorer windows could
end up that way. Which isn't very flexible.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...9-4892ddc2bd14

"Hide these specified drives in My Computer"

I was looking for some command line magic, and the closest I got was

explorer /root,,

which opens My Computer.

This article shows some command line examples of using GUID to
do the same thing. However, I don't know if it would be possible
to construct a GUID in a flexible way. It wouldn't do you
much good, if you needed to manually include or exclude things.
Like, plug in an extre hard drive, or map a new network share,
then have to "go and fix it" again.

(Open My Computer)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc938892.aspx

%systemroot%\explorer.exe
/e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

The drives themselves, if you do properties, either show
"Local Disk" or "Network Drive". But I don't see a way to
ask explorer, on a one-off request, to open just a certain
class of drive. I created a mapped drive on purpose, using
a VM as a source of a share to use, and I couldn't prevent
it from appearing.

Does unassigning the drive letter in disk management solve the problem?
If so, that gives me some ideas.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows Live Mail 2009 v14
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 8 Pro w/Media Center