General Move or Restore Default Location of Searches Folder in Windows 11

Brink · Sep 4, 2022

This tutorial will show you how to move or restore the default location of the Searches folder for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

The Searches folder (shell:Searches) is a component of the user profile that is used as a unified location for storing personal data. By default, the Searches folder is a shell folder in the user's profile (%UserProfile%) that is used as a default storage location for saved searches.

If you like, you can move the Searches folder and its content to a location you want it at instead.

If the current Videos folder path is incorrect or is no longer available, you can use the Restore Default option to restore the default path.

Contents

Option One: Move Location of Searches Folder in Properties
Option Two: Restore Default Location of Searches Folder in Properties
Option Three: Restore Default Location of Searches Folder using BAT file

Option One

Move Location of Searches Folder in Properties

1 Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2 Navigate to the location (ex: "D") you want to move your Searches folder to, and create a new folder named Searches at this location. (see screenshot below)

3 Type shell:Searches into the address bar of File Explorer, and press Enter to open the Searches folder no matter where it is located.

4 Right click on an empty area in the opened Searches folder, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)

5 Click/tap on the Location tab, and click/tap on the Move button. (see screenshot below)

6 Navigate to and select the new Searches folder from step 2, and click/tap on Select Folder. (see screenshot below)

7 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

8 Click/tap on Yes to move all the files from the old location to the new location. (see screenshot below)

Option Two

Restore Default Location of Searches Folder in Properties

1 Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2 Type shell:Searches into the address bar of File Explorer, and press Enter to open the Searches folder no matter where it is located.

3 Right click on an empty area in the opened Searches folder, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)

4 Click/tap on the Location tab, and click/tap on the Restore Default button. (see screenshot below)

5 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

6 If prompted to create a Searches folder at the default location, click/tap on Yes. (see screenshot below)

7 Click/tap on Yes to move all the files from the old location to the default location. (see screenshot below)

Option Three

Restore Default Location of Searches Folder using BAT file

This option can be very useful if Option Two is not available.

This option will not move the contents of the Searches folder from the old location to the default location. You will need to manually move the contents after restoring the default location if wanted.

1 Click/tap on the download button below to download the Restore_default_location_of_Searches_folder.bat file.

Download

(Contents of BAT file for reference)

Code:

@echo off

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

timeout /t 2 /nobreak >nul

if not exist "%UserProfile%\Searches" mkdir "%UserProfile%\Searches"

reg add "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "{7D1D3A04-DEBB-4115-95CF-2F29DA2920DA}" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Searches" /f

reg add "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" /v "{7D1D3A04-DEBB-4115-95CF-2F29DA2920DA}" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d %%USERPROFILE%%"\Searches" /f

attrib +r -s -h "%USERPROFILE%\Searches" /S /D

timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul

start explorer.exe

2 Save the BAT file to your desktop.

3 Unblock and run the BAT file.

4 You will now see a command prompt open and close to kill the explorer process, run the commands to restore the default location and attributes of the Searches folder, and restart the explorer process.

5 You can now delete the BAT file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn Brink