Changing the Default Pictures Folder

Have you noticed that the first time you insert a picture into a newly opened file, PowerPoint takes you to a folder called \My Pictures? Sure, if you navigate to some other folder from there, PowerPoint will remember it, but only for the duration of your PowerPoint session. As soon as you restart PowerPoint, you're back to \My Pictures again. Isn't there some way to change this?
Actually, no. But there IS a way to save yourself a lot of aggravation if you don't WANT to store all your pictures in the \My Pictures folder: Put shortcuts to your actual picture folders in the \My Pictures folder. PowerPoint will still point you to \My Pictures every time, but all you'll have to do is double-click the shortcut folder where your pictures are really stored and you're there.