Open Wide

Open Wide is an intuitive software tool that gives you the possibility to configure settings regarding the Open and Save dialog boxes in Windows, such as on-screen position and default viewing mode. It offers support for exclusions and runs in the systray.

Installing this program takes little time and effort, since there are no special options, prerequisite software programs, or third-party components bundled with the setup kit.

The main application window is split into three panes for separately customizing Open and Save dialogs, indicating exclusions, and configuring general preferences.

The size and position of the dialog can be set either by entering the exact left and top distance from the screen as well as the width and height, or by dragging the title bar and margins of a dummy window.

You can set the initial focus of the keyboard input on the directory listing, file name, filetype, "Places" bar or Look in", as well as set the view mode to large icons, tiles, details, list or thumbnails.

Exclusions can be put together by creating a list with as many programs as you want. You can ask the Open Wide to automatically run at every Windows startup until further notice, start minimized, and hide its icon from the system tray.

It remained stable throughout its entire runtime in our tests, without freezing, crashing or showing error messages. CPU and RAM were barely used, so the utility didn't hamper the overall performance of the machine.

Taking into account its straightforward interface and options, Open Wide should come in handy to users looking to personalize the Open and Save dialog windows of their applications. It's free and can be handled even by users inexperienced with such tools.