General Add and Remove Favorites in File Explorer Home in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to add, remove, or clear and reset Favorites in File Explorer Home for your account or all users in Windows 11.

Starting with Windows 11 build 22593, Quick access in File Explorer (Win+E) is now called Home. The name Quick access has been repurposed for the pinned/frequent Folders section, and Pinned files is now called Favorites to align with Office and OneDrive. Recent and pinned files (Favorites) displayed in Home are now searchable using the search box in File Explorer even if they are not local files, so you can find Office files recently shared with you.

Home in the navigation pane is the default homepage of File Explorer (Win+E) that allows you to quickly access and view your pinned/frequent locations (Quick access), Favorites (pinned files), and Recent files from one location.

You can Add to Favorites and Remove from Favorites files you want in File Explorer Home.

File Explorer provides you with quick access to files that have been shared with you. If you are signed into Windows with your Microsoft account, you will be able to view files that have been shared with your account, such as email, Teams chat, etc. If you are a commercial customer who is signed-in with your Microsoft Entra ID account, you will additionally be able to view files that they have shared with others. You can access this feature by launching File Explorer Home and clicking on the ‘Shared’ tab item. You will also be able to view a broader set of file types in their Recent, Favorites, and Shared sections on the homepage. For example, if you’ve recently opened/edited files in Designer, Loop, Power BI, Forms, etc. these files will now be available in your Recent list.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.7019 (24H2) and build 26200.7019 (25H2), File Explorer Home now offers on-hover actions for faster file management. Hovering over a file with your mouse in File Explorer Home will display commands like Open file location and Ask Copilot about this file. You will be able to try out the Copilot integration and attach files easily. This experience currently only works if you’re signed in with a Microsoft account. Work or school account (Entra ID) support is coming in a future flight. This change is not yet rolling out to Windows Insiders in the EEA (European Economic Area).

Starting with Windows 11 build 26220.7523 (Dev and Beta), for Windows Insiders signed in with a Microsoft account (consumer cloud), File Explorer will now begin showing people icons under the “Activity” column on File Explorer Home and in areas like Recommended, Favorites, and Recent. When you hover or click on a people icon, File Explorer will display the new Windows People Card (WPC), giving you lightweight context about who recently interacted with the file and providing quick actions like starting a chat or a call through your preferred communication apps. This brings the people context experience—previously available only for work and school (Entra ID) files via the Live Persona Card (LPC)—to consumer cloud files as well, enabling a more consistent and intuitive collaboration experience across File Explorer. This is an update to the originally released feature which was previously documented in the Dev and Beta channels August 2025.





EXAMPLE: Favorites in File Explorer Home







1 Select one or more files you want to add. (see screenshot below)

2 Right click on the selected file(s).

3 Click/tap on Add to Favorites.







1 Open Home in File Explorer (Win+E). (see screenshot below)

2 Click/tap on the Favorites tab.

3 Select one or more files under Favorites you want to remove.

4 Right click on the selected file(s).

5 Click/tap on Remove from Favorites.

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

This will not remove the Favorites section from File Explorer Home. It will only hide or show Recent files and pinned files (Option One) under Favorites.

Starting with Windows 11 build 22635.3930 (Beta), build 26120.1843 (Dev) and build 27783.1000 (Canary), this will only leave the Recent and Favorites sections empty instead when set to hide.

1 Do step 2 (hide) or step 3 (show) below for what you would like to do.





(Contents of REG file for reference)

This is the default setting.

(Contents of REG file for reference)

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.

6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8 If Home in File Explorer is currently open, then refresh (F5) or close and open the window to apply.

9 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.





1 Open Windows Terminal, and select Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

del /f /s /q /a "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\5f7b5f1e01b83767.automaticDestinations-ms"

3 You can now close the command prompt if you like.







1 Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2 Perform the following actions. (see screenshot below)

• Click/tap on the icon to the left in the address bar of File Explorer.
• Copy and paste %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations into the address bar, and press Enter.

3 Delete (Ctrl+D) the 5f7b5f1e01b83767.automaticDestinations-ms file in the AutomaticDestinations folder.

4 You can now close File Explorer if you like.




That's it,
Shawn Brink