Change Explorer’s Default Folder in Windows 10

In Windows 10, launch Explorer and it opens the “Quick Access” window, by default. If you are like many of us, you may want or even need to change the default folder location when opening Windows Explorer. Usually people want it to open the root system view, which is “This PC” in Windows 10. You may even need it to open to a custom folder of your choice. No matter, lets find out how to do both.

BONUS TIP: Press windows+E to open your new Explorer window anytime you want without even touching the taskbar, start menu, or the mouse for that matter. Works in 7, 10, XP and probably all other windows since 95. The default-super-convenient-classic Windows shortcut! Enjoy.

Now let’s get to it!

1. Open an explorer window.

Here’s the shortcut…

Windows Key+E

2. Hit the ‘View’ tab. Click the ‘Options’ icon. (This opens the ‘Folder Options’ window). You can also hit the arrow underneath and select ‘Change Folder and Search Options’ in the drop-down menu.

*** The shortcut command to achieve this is:

Alt+V

Y

O

2: In the folder option Window, under the ‘General’ tab you will see “Open File Explorer To”. Its usually set to “Quick Access’. Use the dropdown menu and change it to ‘This PC’.

3: Hit ‘OK’ and you’re done.

I’m sure it’s obvious to you how to undo this one…

Problem solved.

Set File Explorer to open a custom folder in Windows 10

In this example, I will be setting the HTP Innovations user folder as the default when launching Windows Explorer.

1: Right-click the folder you want to set as default and choose ‘Create Shortcut’ from the context menu.

A shortcut link will be created.

You may get a message prompting you to save the shortcut to the desktop. If so, hit YES.

If not, it will be created in the current folder. Move it to the desktop.

2: Now that you’ve got your folder shortcut on the desktop, rename it to ‘File Explorer’.

3: Navigate to:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar

Notice this is where all of your taskbar quick links are stored. There might be a shortcut named ‘File Explorer’ already present in this folder.

4: Move the shortcut from the desktop, to this folder. If asked to replace, DO IT!!

That’s it!

Using the Taskbar, you can change Explorer’s default folder to any folder you want using the steps below.

In this example, I’ll be setting the Everything folder as the default when launching Windows Explorer.

1. Navigate to the folder you want to make the default.

2. Click in the address bar, then highlight and copy the path.

3. Right-click the Explorer Quick Launch icon in the taskbar.

4. Right-Click ‘File Explorer’ and select ‘Properties’.
(The File Explorer Properties window will appear.)

5. Go to the ‘Shortcut’ tab and type or paste the desired folder location into the ‘Target’ box.

6. Hit Apply and let Windows verify and validate the path.

7. Hit OK and you’re done.

And We Are Done!

To Reset the default folder follow these steps:

1. Right-click the Explorer Quick Launch icon in the taskbar.

2. Right-Click ‘File explorer’ and select ‘Properties’.
(The File Explorer Properties window will appear.)

3. Go to the shortcut tab and replace everything in the ‘Target’ box with ‘explorer.exe’.

4. Hit Apply and let Windows verify and validate the path.

5. Hit OK and you’re done.

Explorer will reset it’s default folder back to whatever it is set to in Folder Options.

Simple.