Customize folders using the Active Desktop Web View

Active Desktop has a feature called Web Content or Web View that allows one to customize the look of file folders. One can configure a file folder to have a preview pane, which shows certain file details when a file in the folder is selected (If a picture-file it can show the image).

Customize a single file folder:

1. Browse to the folder using explorer
2. In the menu select View and Customize Folder
3. In the Wizard select Choose or edit an Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) template for this folder
4. Press Next and choose the Standard-template and tick I want to edit this template
5. Press Next and open the default-template in your default HTML editor where you can change what ever you like
6. In the folder a hidden file desktop.ini is created, which refers to the modified template

Customize a single file folder to stop the Media Player preview of movie-files:

1. Use the above steps to open the default-template in your default HTML editor
2. Search for the string function IsMovieFile

   function IsMovieFile(ext) {
     var types = ",asf,avi,m1v,mov,mp2,mpa,mpe,mpeg,mpg,mpv2,qt,asx,";
     var temp = ","+ext+",";
     return types.indexOf(temp) > -1;
   }

3. Change the function so it will not recognize any file as a movie file:

   function IsMovieFile(ext) {
     return false;
     var types = ",asf,avi,m1v,mov,mp2,mpa,mpe,mpeg,mpg,mpv2,qt,asx,";
     var temp = ","+ext+",";
     return types.indexOf(temp) > -1;
   }

4. Save the changes to the template file and now media preview of movie files should be turned off for that folder.

Making the customization of one folder, the default for all folders:

1. Browse to the customized folder using explorer
2. In the folder open the hidden file desktop.ini using notepad
3. Find the text-line PersistMoniker to see the folder containing the customized htt-file (The folder is relative to the C-Drive)
4. Browse to the folder %Windir%\Web and make a backup of the default template folder.htt
5. Browse to the folder containing the customized htt-file and copy it to %windir%\Web so it overwrites folder.htt

Related Remove warning about modifying contents in the Windows-folder

More Info MS MSDN: Extending Explorer Views by Customizing Hypertext Template Files
More Info MS MSDN: Customizing a Folder's Web View
More Info MS MSDN: Customizing Folder icon with Desktop.ini