Solved Default File Manager View

Since Win 11 introduced the tabbed explorer, the initial view shows a top level (which I think should be 'Home') named 'Desktop' with all my home folders, including the real Desktop below it. How do I rename this top level folder (or remove this level completely)? Windows 11 Pro Ver 23H2 build 22631.3593

Hello Ian, and welcome.

It looks like you have Show all folders turned on for the navigation pane of File Explorer. Turning this off using an option below will give you back the default view in the navigation pane.

@IanThow

Using the tutorial above, I've made File Explorer look like this.
I removed ALL the folder in the Navigation Pane.
You can remove some or many... it's up to you.








Current pic...

Brink said:

Hello Ian, and welcome.

It looks like you have Show all folders turned on for the navigation pane of File Explorer. Turning this off using an option below will give you back the default view in the navigation pane.

Turn On or Off Show all folders in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off show all folders in the navigation pane of File Explorer for your account in Windows 11. The navigation pane is the far left pane in File Explorer used to find files, folders, and drives on your PC or network. If you like, you can select to...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestion Brink. As you say, this resets the view to the default Win 11 folder view. This includes pinned shortcuts to my user folders (see below) which I find less convenient to work with, so, not what I want.
You will note in my original screenshot that the circled 'Desktop' appears to be a top level folder with everything else listed below it, including the 'real' Desktop and my other user folders. Turning on Show All Folders was actually suggested to me as the way to convert pinned folder shortcuts to my beloved expandable folders in the Navigation pane.
The extra top level 'Desktop' is not a big deal, everything below it works and allows me to navigate Explorer as I have been doing for decades.
However, this duplicated Desktop folder just annoys me by being a duplication and using up column space in the Navigation pane. I was hoping someone knew an easy way to clear this or rename it while retaining the expandable user folders.

@IanThow

Following up on the excellent support from @Brink and @Ghot, I show all of my drives, just as Ghot does, but I chose to add a couple of mapped network access folders and the Network list itself. Works for me.

Mine looks like this.(see screenshot) I have used multiple of Brink's tutorials to get it to appear that way. I do not have what you are calling the top level Desktop folder. My Desktop folder is grouped with all the other personal folders I have pinned. Look through all the tutorials starting with "file explorer" in the following index. There's a lot of them. You should find what you want. Tutorial Index

glasskuter said:

Mine looks like this.(see screenshot) I have used multiple of Brink's tutorials to get it to appear that way. I do not have what you are calling the top level Desktop folder. My Desktop folder is grouped with all the other personal folders I have pinned. Look through all the tutorials starting with "file explorer" in the following index. There's a lot of them. You should find what you want. Tutorial Index

Click to expand...

Thanks Mama Glass, the screenshot is exactly what I was looking for. I have trawled through the tutorial index and cannot find anything relevant. My system was originally Win 10 with various registry fixes to get rid of Quick Access etc. After upgrading to Win 11, and before I found the the Show all Folders option, I had applied various 'fixes' found on-line to replace the pinned shortcuts with expandable folders. It may be that in the midst of this my registry has acquired an obscure entry that is causing this problem. Short of a clean re-install of Win 11, I suspect I am stuck with this rogue level.

Thanks again, Ian