Confused about File Explorer settings

dacrone · Saturday at 1:00 AM

Trying to learn said:
@dacrone Oh thank you! I'll try this right now.

desktop will be last in the sort order for whatever reason (who knows why Microsoft does the 'stuff' they do), but you can fix it via registry edits. see this comment on a later page of that thread:

.https://www.elevenforum.com/t/add-or-remove-folders-under-this-pc-in-file-explorer-in-windows-11.7122/post-565151

Trying to learn · Saturday at 1:05 AM

@dacrone I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. It's not working for me. I unpinned the folders that had been pinned to quick access, so that nothing was showing in the navigation pane except 'this PC', 'local disk (C:), and the USB drive that I have plugged in to the tower. Then I right-clicked to 'show all folders', which shows a whole bunch of stuff we don't want in the view. But I thought I was supposed to do that before trying to use the first .reg file? I downloaded the first one, to add the desktop folder, and it didn't work. I tried rebooting also and still nothing. I haven't tried the others yet. I wasn't sure there was any point to download the other .reg files if the first one wasn't going to work for me.
Any idea on what I'm doing wrong?

Trying to learn · Saturday at 1:10 AM

@dacrone Meant to add that before I tried with the tutorial for the navigation pane, I first undid the previous reg edit (the one that showed the desired folders but puts them in the right-side pane). Should I not have undone that one before trying the last tutorial you linked to? (I undid it because hubby doesn't want that group of folders showing in the right-side pane. he only wants to see 'Devices and drives' on the right side when File Explorer opens.)

dacrone · Saturday at 1:19 AM

Trying to learn said:
@dacrone I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. It's not working for me. I unpinned the folders that had been pinned to quick access, so that nothing was showing in the navigation pane except 'this PC', 'local disk (C:), and the USB drive that I have plugged in to the tower. Then I right-clicked to 'show all folders', which shows a whole bunch of stuff we don't want in the view. But I thought I was supposed to do that before trying to use the first .reg file? I downloaded the first one, to add the desktop folder, and it didn't work. I tried rebooting also and still nothing. I haven't tried the others yet. I wasn't sure there was any point to download the other .reg files if the first one wasn't going to work for me.
Any idea on what I'm doing wrong?

no - do not show all folders.

just set it like that, then add the folders per that tutorial.

Trying to learn said:
@dacrone Meant to add that before I tried with the tutorial for the navigation pane, I first undid the previous reg edit (the one that showed the desired folders but puts them in the right-side pane). Should I not have undone that one before trying the last tutorial you linked to? (I undid it because hubby doesn't want that group of folders showing in the right-side pane. he only wants to see 'Devices and drives' on the right side when File Explorer opens.)

if you want to do this all via GUI for ease, do this:

1) run WinaeroTweaker as portable and

2) then run ThisPCTweaker as portable and uncheck show in Folders for each one and check show in navigation pane for each one

*ThisPCTweaker isnt available on winaero's site anymore, so i've attached it as a .zip. just extract it and run it. no installation.

once done, you can delete the WinaeroTweaker and ThisPCTweaker folders.

Trying to learn · Saturday at 1:32 AM

@dacrone I just tried again with the desktop reg file and the documents reg file. And it still doesn't work. It's as if I haven't tried to add anything at all under This PC. So the only way we can get those folders is to either pin them to quick access or keep navigating into the Users folder for them. Either way it's a hassle since the only way the folders will be expandable is to go after them in the Users folder. This is crazy. Why has Microsoft done this? *smh*

Trying to learn · Saturday at 1:37 AM

@dacrone Thx for the reference to the 3rd-party tool. I'm too tired to try to learn all about another tool just yet. It sure is frustrating and disappointing that MS has messed this up. There should be a way to sort it out within Windows itself without needing anything extra. I must be doing something wrong somehow, though I can't figure out what as the tutorial steps are simple... or maybe it's something about there being different coding in our OS build # than what the coding was when the tutorial was last updated? (Our build is Win11 Pro 23h2 22631.5189) What do you think, @Brink ?

I've got to go to bed now. I'll have to come back to it after some sleep... Hope you guys have a good rest of the day/night, wherever you are. :)

dacrone · Saturday at 1:39 AM

those 2 winaero tools only modify the registry for you, thus you can delete them when done. but yes, you can set your nav pane settings like my screenshot and use those tutorial .reg files to add the other folders. just offered them to save you time/effort. if you add them via those tools, you can remove them via the tutorial .reg removal mods too.

abactuon · Saturday at 3:46 AM

Trying to learn said:
I don't know enou

Just download the portable version (archive) Far Manager v3.0 build 6446 x64 and unzip to any location.

Far Manager Official Site : download

www.farmanager.com

Brink · Saturday at 9:12 AM

Trying to learn said:
@dacrone Thx for the reference to the 3rd-party tool. I'm too tired to try to learn all about another tool just yet. It sure is frustrating and disappointing that MS has messed this up. There should be a way to sort it out within Windows itself without needing anything extra. I must be doing something wrong somehow, though I can't figure out what as the tutorial steps are simple... or maybe it's something about there being different coding in our OS build # than what the coding was when the tutorial was last updated? (Our build is Win11 Pro 23h2 22631.5189) What do you think, @Brink ?

I've got to go to bed now. I'll have to come back to it after some sleep... Hope you guys have a good rest of the day/night, wherever you are. :)

Hello,

The tutorial below will only add the folders in the main window of File Explorer > This PC. It doesn't add them to the navigation pane. Be sure to close and reopen File Explorer to apply after merging the REG file(s).

Add or Remove Folders under This PC in File Explorer in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the 3D Objects, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and/or Videos folder(s) in File Explorer > This PC for all users in Windows 11. Starting with Windows 11 build 25136 and build 22621.160, Microsoft is introducing a refreshed layout...

www.elevenforum.com

Trying to learn · 2025-05-18T01:19:46-0400

@Brink yeah, I read about that. My question was about the other tutorial you made:
Add or Remove Folders in File Explorer Navigation Pane in Windows 11.

I was wanting to get the folders back under 'This PC' in the navigation pane on the left, with the ability for them to expand there (like a tree). That's how it always was in XP, 7 and 8.1, and I thought your other tutorial (that I've linked to in this comment) was supposed to give that ability back, so that it could be like it used to be in 8.1 for us:

https://www.elevenforum.com/account/th-attachment-manager/134284/view

It feels completely bizarre if that we can't have that same kind of simple setup on Win11. Like, what's the point of a navigation pane if we can't fully expand the folders in it anymore, know what I mean?

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