The Windows 11/10 Taskbar explorer.exe shortcut icon, by default, opens the Quick Access folder. We have already seen how you can make Explorer open to This PC instead of Quick Access. In this post, I will tell you how to make it open ANY folder of your choice.
Make File Explorer shortcut on Taskbar open your favorite folder in Windows 11/10
Right-click the Explorer taskbar icon and then again right-click the small Explorer icon and select Properties.
Now under the Properties Shortcut tab, in the Target box, add the path of the folder you’d like to be opened when you click on the icon, after %windir%\explorer.exe.
In the image, I have used the folder path C:\Users\ACK\Downloads and set it to open my custom Downloads folder.
If you want, say your C drive to be opened, simply mention C:\. Click Apply/OK, once done.
You can make it open any folder of your choice by mentioning its path after %windir%\explorer.exe. You can also make it open system folders.
Here are a few commands for some important system folders which you can use:
To open the Documents folder:
%windir%\explorer.exe ::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}
To open the Network folder:
%windir%\explorer.exe ::{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
To open Recycle Bin:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /N,::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
To open Computer Search Folder:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ::{1F4DE370-D627-11D1-BA4F-00A0C91EEDBA}
To open Control Panel:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\::{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
I hope it works for you!
Or you can use this string: “%SystemRoot%explorer.exe /n,D:” where D: represents any path you may choose.
I’m in the process of changing to a new computer, both running Windows 7 64 bit, the old one is Home Professional, the new one is Professional. I’ve been trying to set up Windows Explorer to give the same view on both machines. On the new machine, Windows Explorer provides a very limited view and many steps are needed to find folders, etc. So I wanted to to recreate the configuration of the explorer on the old machine. I found if I rt-click on the Windows Explorer icon in the tray it brings upImage
a small menu and it I rt-click on properties I get the windows prop image above. So I figured if I opened the properties on my new machine I could compare. Bingo, the target info was different. My solution, change the setting on the new machine to match the one on the old machine. Easily done. Clicked OK and explorer vanished. I managed to get it back but now the propertiesImagereturn the image in capture image above. Note it is no longer Windows Explorer Properties but explorer.exe properties and the shortcut is missing. That seems to be important in getting the appearance I want (at least according to a google search). Any suggestions?