How to make Vista always default-save to same folder (ie desktop)

[Ric]

I use my desktop as "working space" where I save stuff I'm working on before
filing it away somewhere else. With XP, "saving" in any program would always
default to desktop, which was excellent.

With Vista, it keeps defaulting to differnet locations - eg if I save a file
it recognises as a picture, it tries to save it my pictures folder. How can
I make Vista behave like XP and always default to desktop?

 

[Bob]

It has nothing to do with Vista. Photo editing, word processors,
spreadsheets, etc. default to the last location used to save a file.

 

[Mary]

And Vista does not like to save to Desktop, which is just a folder. Make a
new folder and name it Downloads and use that for most downloads. Then every
download will be easy to find and easy to store.

 

[Ric]

I use my desktop as "working space" where I save stuff I'm working on
before filing it away somewhere else. With XP, "saving" in any program
would always default to desktop, which was excellent.

With Vista, it keeps defaulting to differnet locations - eg if I save a
file it recognises as a picture, it tries to save it my pictures folder.
How can I make Vista behave like XP and always default to desktop?

I suppose because nobody has replied to this that it is not possible to do
this.

This was a "feature" that I absolutely hate on Macs - seems Microsoft have
blindly copied Mac on this one too.

 

[Dave]

You've had a couple of replies.

You never said how you are saving these files. Are you downloading them, or
copying from another disk or device?

If you are downloading files, IE7 does what you want by default. You go to
download a file, a box pops up, it shows you the default folder, you can
navigate to a different one if you wish, and save.
Next time, it should go to the same folder.

In FireFox, there's a setting, where you tell it what folder to save to. It
saves files there, every time.

IMHO, the desktop is a poor place to save downloaded files. If you have a
lot of shortcuts, the DL'd files can get lost, or you can accidently delete
some of your shortcuts. I use a specific folder (C:\DL).
With either IE or FF, it automatically offers to open the downloaded file,
so you don't even have to navigate to the folder.

 

[Ric]

Most of the time it seems to remember that I like to save things to Desktop,
but then it forgets and goes somewhere else - eg if I save any *.bmp, or
*.jpg, it tries to save to Pictures folder. Why??? I don't want my Pictures
folder full of old temporarily downloaded files etc - I want them on the
desktop where I can later delete them or file them away if I want to keep
them.

I use my Desktop as working space - there are no shortcuts on it at all. All
I have on it are files I am working on. As soon as they are finished, I
store them away somewhere in Documents.

 

[Dave]

I assume you are using IE7, though you didn't say.

It appears that IE will keep saving to whatever folder you select, only for
that session. When you close IE and reopen it, it will go back to the
Pictures folder, or wherever it decides.

I don't use IE much, I prefer FF, which doesn't do this.

In Googling for a solution, I've found a few... don't know if they work....
1. Turn off UAC
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/577702-solved-ie-save-picture.html

2. Edit the registry
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/587790-save-picture-internet-explorer-vista.html

3. Drag & drop (this works, but you have to answer a "Are you sure?"
question.