external drives skipping This PC on Up-Arrow click; plus, can I set it to STOP at This PC?

Preliminary note: have not yet applied today's new update and won't for a while. I'll let all you risky live-on-the-edge types deal with its new bugs and come up solutions first. TIA! (I've never forgotten a headline in a 1998/1999 PC Magazine article on one of Neil Rubenstein's [sp?] fun little Windows 98 utilities: "Because Windows is a Fixer-Upper". Still all too true.)

Main concern for this post is that yesterday, suddenly external drives are skipping over This PC and landing directly into the Desktop folder in Windows Explorer when I keep clicking the Up icon on the toolbar (the one next to the Backward and Forward buttons). This is terrible behavior for my usage pattern: I'm old-school and have used Lesferch's awesome Winsetver, and then eliminated both right and left panels on Explorer windows, to get back to an XP style of navigation and control. So I absolute depend on This PC/My Computer for navigation. And I almost never want to use the desktop folder as a normal folder. Like, maybe, once every six months--or less. I have no idea what inadvertant button click might have created this behavior, but for me it's a major annoyance. How can I put This PC back into the navigation path?

And as long as I'm posting, is there any way to take the Desktop folder out of the navigation path? After all, since clearly I took This PC out for external drives, maybe I can take Desktop out for all drives. That would be awesome. For example, let's say I'm 7 folders deep and want to get back to This PC but This PC is covered up by 5 other open windows and it would be a real pain to move them all. In that case--and it happens a lot--it would be awesome to just speed-mash that up-arrow button and get back to This PC and stop there rather than ending in Desktop, as usually happens when one speed-mashes in this situation.

Hi

schmibble said:

Preliminary note: have not yet applied today's new update and won't for a while. I'll let all you risky live-on-the-edge types deal with its new bugs and come up solutions first.

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You can read comments in the cumulative update threads to check if there is a problem.


As much as I think @LesFerch made a winner with Winsetview, it reads like you’ve gone beyond that and have possibly created your own issues. Not what you want to read, I know. For instance, if you still had the left pane, you could use it to return to the external drives. After all, that's pretty much what the left pane is for.
Perhaps Les has a solution?
Cheers.

schmibble said:

it would be awesome to just speed-mash that up-arrow button and get back to This PC

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Use the Address Bar breadcrumbs, or, double click an empty spot within a folder.

I just did a few quick tests and I always end up at Desktop if I keep clicking the up arrow icon in Explorer, whether I'm using Windows 10, Windows 11, or Windows 11 with the Windows 10 Explorer. For me, it makes no difference if it's an internal or external drive. I'm not aware of a way to make it stop at "This PC", but if I find a way, I'll be sure to post back.

LesFerch said:

I just did a few quick tests and I always end up at Desktop if I keep clicking the up arrow icon in Explorer, whether I'm using Windows 10, Windows 11, or Windows 11 with the Windows 10 Explorer.

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Thanks Les--I pretty much figured that, but decided I might as well ask.

But did you have any solution for external drives suddenly skipping over This PC when the Up button is pressed? It didn't happen immediately upon using making my tweaks with Winsetver and then telling Windows not to show the panes (and that wasn't a registry hack or anything, it was just done through the normal Microsoft Explorer window interface). This is a new thing in just the last couple of days, so must've been something else. Didn't do any tweaks but I must have hit something by accident.

schmibble said:

and then telling Windows not to show the panes (and that wasn't a registry hack or anything, it was just done through the normal Microsoft Explorer window interface)

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I actually wasn’t aware you could do this. I’m going to have a look for interest sake, thanks.

Edwin said:

Use the Address Bar breadcrumbs, or, double click an empty spot within a folder.

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Thx ants--appreciate the suggestions. The breadcrumbs certainly work but for me they're slower than a speedmash. You actually have to look in the popup menu and then take the time to position your cursor, two steps rather than one (its essentially just a single step to put your cursor on the arrow and mash). When I double-click an empty spot in a folder (listview, Winsetver XP mode) nothing happens. Which, really, is how I like it. It would suck if every time I did a double-click that was a little offbase from an icon, I was tossed out to This Pc or even up one folder.

schmibble said:

But did you have any solution for external drives suddenly skipping over This PC when the Up button is pressed?

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I haven't been able to replicate that condition. For me, it always goes to This PC before going to Desktop, so, unfortunately, I have no solution.

LesFerch said:

I haven't been able to replicate that condition. For me, it always goes to This PC before going to Desktop, so, unfortunately, I have no solution.

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Thanks for letting me know. Now I'm really puzzled. Wonder what the heck I did. It's not the end of the world because I'm working on an experimental install right now; I'm just about done with my configuration research and am about to implement everything for real, so I'll be doing a clean install tomorrow. Along the way I'll be taking images so I'll keep an extremely close watch on this issue and if it turns up, I'll restore the previous image, and hopefully I'll have an idea of what happened to cause it.

schmibble said:

You actually have to look in the popup menu...

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Nope.

schmibble said:

And as long as I'm posting, is there any way to take the Desktop folder out of the navigation path?

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Well, the "Desktop" is the effective root for Explorer. Microsoft call it "File Explorer", but you could think of it as an object manager. Desktop and it's standard inhabitants are Shell Namespace objects, and the hierarchy isn't file system based. And there can be more than one path to the same object.

Removable drives appear in Desktop, and in This PC. if you open the removable drive from Desktop, that's the parent/container, if you open it from This PC, that is. Something similar happens with the standard personal folders (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures etc.) You'll see a different parent, depending on whether you open directly from Desktop or Quick Access to opening through your Personal (named) folder in Desktop.

This is a nuisance for those of us who have a clear mental model of a hierarchical file system. But plenty of Windows users don't have that, and Explorer is designed to help them. Well, that seems a plausible explanation for the changes that Microsoft keep making.

So, if you can't find a way of adapting to it, I'd suggest looking for a third party file manager. I've decided I can live with it if I restrict the navigation pane to my personal folder, This PC and Network. Others in this forum have chosen a third party file manger - but I have no suggestions.

Edwin said:

Nope.

View attachment 138914

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Sorry, Ed, but Yep. I tend to keep my window sizes on the small side, and when you do that and the breadcrumbs won't all fit nicely like they do in your screenshot, Windows lops off as much from the beginning of the path as it needs to fit in the ending part--which means that This PC is not visible in about 98% of the windows I have open at any one time.

Hey Skeptic, thanks a ton for the full-fledged theoretical description. I really appreciate knowing what's going on. Helps make better decisions. I might well consider another manager.