Description:
This program is an editor for shell objects. You can create new shell objects and delete them when you don't need or want them any longer. For safety reasons, it is not possible to delete shell objects that were not created with this editor by default. You have to switch to "expert mode" to delete other shell objects.

What is a shell object?
The "My Documents" folder is a shell object. It is a special shell object, a shell folder. Shell folders are not real folders on your hard disk, they only refer to real folders. They are a kind of "hard links", a special type of shortcuts.

Ok, you can use shortcuts to hard disks or you can use shortcuts to directories on your desktop to access places on your hard disk you often need to access. But you can't browse them that easy, shell folders are much easier to use.

The screenshot shows some shell folders on a german language Windows XP system. You can browse through their subdirectories on the left side of the view, or you can doubleclick on the right side. They behave in the exact same way as the "My Documents" folder (which, as you can see, is called "Eigene Dateien" in german). With the shell object editor, you can create as many of those shell folders as you want, although we recommend only choosing the folders you use most.

But there are more shell objects. The Internet Explorer, that resides on your desktop by default, is a shell object, too. It is not a shortcut because it has not the typical shortcut arrow. The Internet Explorer is a deleteable shell object, but you can create shell objects that are impossible to delete. This may sound like nonsense to you, but it is useful in some rare cases and such objects can be created with this editor.

Installation
Download the installer and run it. A program group will be created and optionally an icon in your control panel.

When you run the program, a list will appear that is initially empty. It will contain all the shell objects that you create with this editor later. Click the "Create" button to start the wizard which will guide you through the creation process.

If you select one or more shell objects in the list, clicking the delete button will be remove the shell objects immediately. Shell objects that were created by other programs, by the system or by yourself (using the registry editor) do not show up here for safety reasons. This way you can't trash your system by just clicking the wrong item.

However, if you right-click in the list and select "expert mode", all existing shell objects will appear in the list and you are then able to delete some of them - even the control panel or things like that, which would make your computer unusable. Please do not delete Shell Objects that you did not create yourself, use the feature to hide them instead. You have been warned.

Attention
Note that this program uses some undocumented registry entries to do what it does. You are completely on your own with whatever the results may be. We tried the program on different computers and it works and does no harm, but we don't guarantee anything. We are in no way responsible for the results.

Please post bugs & suggestions in the forum (here).

Download History:
Version 2.0 added functionality to rename existing shell objects and to change their icon and comment.

Version 3.0 allows you to change nearly every aspect of your shell objects. You can also copy and move objects (e.g. from the desktop to the network neighborhood) and you can hide them without deleting. The main dialog is resizable now so you can manage a large number of objects if you need to.

Version 3.1 adds support for 64bit operating systems and allows for setting the SortOrderIndex for items in My Computer and on the Desktop.

Version: 3.11 Updated: Wed, 01-Oct-2008
Bugfix: Main window did not display at all in some cases.

Version: 3.20 Updated: Fri, 08-May-2009
Bugfix: Main window displayed (x86) also when using the 64 bit version
Bugfix: Adding a program as shell object did not work in all cases
Feature: Three more property sheets are enabled when enabling the "Add property sheet" option for folders - security, sharing and general attributes

Version: 3.21 Updated: Mon, 18-May-2009
Feature: The four property pages are now in a more intuitive order (thanks gymka for the hint on how to do that)