Microsoft renamed Computer to This PC in Windows 11/10. Along with this name change, Microsoft introduced the display of 6 folders namely Documents, Pictures, Videos, Downloads, Music, and Desktop in This PC in Windows 11/10. Those who did not want to display these folders found a way to hide these folders from This PC in Windows 8.1. This procedure will not work in Windows 11/10, as things are a bit different.
Remove the User Folders from This PC in Windows 11/10
Even though you know how to show or hide folders from This PC in Windows 8.1, the same way is not possible in Windows 11/10 as Microsoft has changed Registry Keys a bit in Windows 11/10. But, do not worry. In this tutorial, I will let you know how to remove the six personal folders from This PC in Windows 11/10.
Using Ultimate Windows Tweaker
To add or remove the folders in This PC the easy way with a click, use our Ultimate Windows Tweaker. You will see the setting in Customization > This PC > Customize inbuilt folders.
Using Windows Registry
In Windows 11/10 Microsoft is maintaining a string ThisPCPolicy with a value of Show or Hide based on which folder is shown or hidden in This PC.
If you set the ThisPCPolicy value to show, then that particular folder is shown in This PC, and if you set that value to Hide, then that folder is hidden from “This PC” in Windows 11/10.
Follow These Steps to show or hide folders from This PC in Windows 11/10
First backup your Registry or create a system restore point.
Next, press WIN+R key and open the RUN Dialog box and type “regedit” and hit enter. It opens the Registry Editor.
Next, we need to go to the following keys one after the other and need to change the value of ThisPCPolicy to Hide to hide that particular folder from “This PC” window in Windows 10.
Documents Folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{f42ee2d3-909f-4907-8871-4c22fc0bf756}\PropertyBag
Pictures Folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{0ddd015d-b06c-45d5-8c4c-f59713854639}\PropertyBag
Videos Folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{35286a68-3c57-41a1-bbb1-0eae73d76c95}\PropertyBag
Downloads Folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7d83ee9b-2244-4e70-b1f5-5393042af1e4}\PropertyBag
Music Folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{a0c69a99-21c8-4671-8703-7934162fcf1d}\PropertyBag
Desktop Folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}\PropertyBag
As an example, let me show it for Pictures Folders and hide it from “This PC” window.
Open Registry Editor and navigate to the key specified and change the value of ThisPCPolicy to Hide.
Now, close the Registry Editor and open the “This PC” folder. You could see that Pictures folder from “This PC” window has been removed.
To get back the Pictures folder back, go the respective key and change the value of ThisPCPolicy to Show and you could see the Pictures folder again.
In this way, you need to change the value of ThisPCPolicy to Hide for all the six keys to hide them from the This PC window.
All the keys mentioned above have the ThisPCPolicy string except for this key which is related to the Desktop folder-
{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}
For this, you need to create the string ThisPCPolicy for the desktop key and change its value to Hide.
Now you need to go and check your Save, Save as or Open file dialog boxes. If you still see the folders there, you need to set ThisPCPolicy string to Hide for the following keys, as well:
For Pictures folder in any of the Browse dialog boxes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{0ddd015d-b06c-45d5-8c4c-f59713854639}\PropertyBag
For Videos folder in any of the Browse dialog boxes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{35286a68-3c57-41a1-bbb1-0eae73d76c95}\PropertyBag
For Downloads folder in any of the Browse dialog boxes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7d83ee9b-2244-4e70-b1f5-5393042af1e4}\PropertyBag
For Music folder in any of the Browse dialog boxes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{a0c69a99-21c8-4671-8703-7934162fcf1d}\PropertyBag
For Desktop folder in any of the Browse dialog boxes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}\PropertyBag
For Documents folder in any of the Browse dialog boxes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{f42ee2d3-909f-4907-8871-4c22fc0bf756}\PropertyBag
I hope this helps.
PS: You can also remove the 3D Objects folder from This PC in Windows 10.
How do I change my user folder location in Windows 11/10?
If you want to change the location of a user profile folder, say Downloads, in your Windows 11/10 computer, then first access a drive where you want to move that folder, create a new folder, and rename it with the same name (Downloads). Now access the Properties window of the Downloads folder, access the Location tab, and press the Move button. Select the destination folder to move existing files, and press Apply and OK buttons.
Can I move the C:\ Users folder to D:\ Drive?
It is not recommended to move the entire Users folder to another drive as a slight mistake will corrupt your user profile or have other adverse consequences. Instead, you should move your user profile data folders (Documents, Downloads, Desktop, etc.) to the same drive in another partition, another drive, or another computer available on your network.
You might want to also check out our freeware System Folders Customizer that lets you add Internet Explorer, important System folders, Control Panel applets to your Computer folder, Libraries and Desktop.
