How to Remove Quick Access from Explorer Pane in This PC?

I want to be able to remove this top section of my drives (which are pinned to Quick Access) in the Explorer file pane.



There is a tutorial that doesn't require any registry changes but next to my START button, I have the Explorer icon (which opens to This PC). But if I right-click on it, I get a list of my drives as they're pinned to quick access. That means the tutorial here: Remove Quick Access Folders from Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11 Tutorial does not work for me.

Is there a registry setting I can change to get rid of them from This PC explorer pane?

Does right-click of the map tack and Unpin from Quick Access not work? I just took Videos off mine then I went to C:\Users\MYNAME, right-clicked Videos and Pin to Quick Access to put it back.

Do I understand correctly that you want to keep all your drives under "Quick access", but when you click on "This PC", you want the section "Devices and drives"-section removed? I don't think this is possible natively but I could be wrong. Or maybe I misunderstand your request.

Sir Topham Hatt said:

I want to be able to remove this top section of my drives (which are pinned to Quick Access) in the Explorer file pane.

View attachment 52179

There is a tutorial that doesn't require any registry changes but next to my START button, I have the Explorer icon (which opens to This PC). But if I right-click on it, I get a list of my drives as they're pinned to quick access. That means the tutorial here: Remove Quick Access Folders from Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11 Tutorial does not work for me.

Is there a registry setting I can change to get rid of them from This PC explorer pane?

Click to expand...

Both work on Windows 11.


Do Option #2, here...








Or step by step...

1. Open the Windows Registry as an administrator by launching the Run command using the Windows + R keyboard shortcut, typing "regedit", and hitting Enter.

2. Navigate to the following registry path:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}\ShellFolder

3. Now you need to change the permissions of ShellFolder, right-click ShellFolder, select Permissions, then click the Advanced button.

4. At the top of Advanced Security Settings for ShellFolder, change the ownership of the folder to "Administrators".

5. To do this, click Change, click Advanced, click the Find Now button, and from "search results" select "Administrators", then click OK, OK again, then Apply, hit OK, and hit OK one last time to close the ShellFolder Permissions box.

6. Now... Under "Group or User Names", choose: Administrators and put a check mark in... "Full Control"
Then click Apply and OK.

7. With that completed, we can now change the settings to remove Quick Access from File Explorer.

8. Inside "ShellFolder", double-click Attributes, and change data value from a0100000 to a0600000, and click OK.

9. You can now either restart Windows 10 or open the Task Manager, find and select Windows Explorer, and click Restart from bottom-right corner.








I also removed "Home" and all those library folders.

Berton said:

Does right-click of the map tack and Unpin from Quick Access not work? I just took Videos off mine then I went to C:\Users\MYNAME, right-clicked Videos and Pin to Quick Access to put it back.

Click to expand...

Nope, this removes them from Quick Access. I don't want to do that as on my START bar, I can right-click on the the Explorer Icon and get shortcuts direct to each drive. If I remove them from Quick Access, I don't have the shortcuts:

hajen said:

Do I understand correctly that you want to keep all your drives under "Quick access", but when you click on "This PC", you want the section "Devices and drives"-section removed? I don't think this is possible natively but I could be wrong. Or maybe I misunderstand your request.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I want the top section removed, which is Quick Access as the drives are listed below anyway.

Ghot said:

Do Option #2, here...

Remove Quick access from Navigation Pane in Windows 10

How to Add or Remove Quick access in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

Click to expand...

I seem to remember setting permissions but I've managed to go through and edit. Will see what happens next time I boot my PC.

KYHI said:

Add or Remove Duplicate Drives in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to add (show) or remove (hide) the drives showing twice in the navigation pane of File Explorer for all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Removable drives are shown as separate groups in the navigation pane of File Explorer by default in addition to being shown...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

This isn't what's required here. This registry setting removes REMOVABLE drives, not hard drives

suit yourself.... try it and if it is not what you want - you can reverse (enable) it... but I think that is what you are wanting to do...View attachment 52203