CommonPlacesFolder

The CommonPlacesFolder class is one of many that SHELL32 exposes through its exported DllGetClass function. Instances can therefore be created using such well-documented COM functions as CoCreateInstance, by anyone who knows the CLSID:

The class implements the following interfaces (in the SHELL32 version 6.00 from Windows Vista):

• IBackReferencedObject
• IContextMenuCB
• IDelegateHostItemContainer
• IObjectWithBackReferences
• IObjectWithSite
• IPersistFolder2 and its bases IPersistFolder and IPersist
• IRegItemFolder
• IShellFolder2 and its base IShellFolder
• IShellIconOverlay
• ITransferProvider

 Note that several of these interfaces are acquired by aggregating a RegFolder object.

Namespace

As a registry folder, a CommonPlacesFolder object has its namespace built from a standard pattern. Items in the namespace are loaded from registry keys in the following order:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommonPlaces\NameSpace
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommonPlaces\NameSpace
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommonPlaces\NameSpace\DelegateFolders
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommonPlaces\NameSpace\DelegateFolders
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\SessionInfo\session\CommonPlaces\NameSpace
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\SessionInfo\session\CommonPlaces\NameSpace\DelegateFolders

in which session is a decimal representation of the current session ID.

Availability

The CommonPlacesFolder class is implemented in the SHELL32 version 6.00 from Windows Vista, and higher.

Though new for Windows Vista, this class is not documented by Microsoft in the January 2007 edition of the Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows Vista.