[yoyo52]

I know this is a pretty simple thing to do, but for the life of me I forget how to do it. I lost my IE preferences and want to reset them so I can have the desktop as the default folder for downloads. How do I do it? Kinda embarrassing to have to ask about so simple a thing

[Cipher13]

Go to the Explorer Preferences panel, and go down to "Download options", and hit the button near the top that says "change location".
Or if you mean the OTHER default folder (the one you're taken to in a file dialog box), go to the General Control panel and at the bottom right, there it is

Cipher13

[yoyo52]

Thanks, but I guess I wasn't clear. When you go to IE Preferences and click on the change location button for downloads, the dialog window that comes up doesn't give you desktop as an option. It used to be that you could click on the Trash icon and that would make the desktop be the default folder for downloads, but now there's no Trash icon in the dialog window. I sort of remember that there's a keyboard combination that you can use to select the desktop, but I forget what it is. You know, when you get to a certain age, memory goes and there's just no HD upgrade available

[Paul Crawford]

Hi yoyo52,

I guess that your version of IE (5.x?) uses the new-style Navigation Services (NS) Open dialogues? Your IE probably still acknowledges the Downloads folder that's set by Internet Config (i.e., the old freeware app that was the predecessor of the Internet control panel)... If so, and you still have a copy of the Internet Config app around somewhere (it uses the old-style SF Open dialoges), then you could change the Downloads folder the old-style way.

However, as you suggested, it is indeed also possible to select the Desktop Folder itself in new-style NS dialogues. See Apple's TIL article Mac OS 8.5: How To Select The Desktop In Navigation Services for a couple of useful "undocumented" tips. These techniques work in the Internet control panel's Web tab's 'Select...' NS dialogue, and they should also work in IE's 'Change Location...' NS dialogue. [Actually, the second tip at least is now documented in Mac OS 9.0.4's Mac Help, although in a confusing manner since the tip is described for an NS Save dialogue, the one place where it is not necessary (see the 'Files and programs | Saving a document' topic, or search for 'choose desktop folder').]

Regards,

--Paul

[Cipher13]

Paul, sorry haven't got time to read your reply...
Hope I'm not doubling up here.
Yoyo, try making the Desktop Folder in your HD's root visible then selecting it.
Then make it invisible again.

Cipher13

[yoyo52]

Thanks, Paul--the TIL article was exactly what I'd been looking for.