I spend a significant amount of time helping non-techies use their PC's. I realized most of that time is spent trying to explain to them how the Windows folder hierarchy works, where the "open file" dialog is pointing now, and how to find that Word document they saved. All this time, they're telling me they "just want to print the file". They refuse to learn how to read the PC screen, try to memorize a fixed set of steps, and end up calling me back to tell me their files disappeared again.

I realize it's not productive to try to restrict where PC apps (e.g. Quicken) store files. But if there was a Windows utility I could turn on or off that would restrict the Open/Save dialogs in Windows apps, my noob user friends and I would save an enormous amount of time. The goal would be to have all files whose locations are chosen by the Save dialog saved to one folder, and have the Open dialog always point to that folder, until the utility is turned off.

Does such a Windows utility exist?