Windows 7 How to make "Favorites" visible (without scrolling) whenever Windows Explorer is launched?

[jyoung77]

Hi,

Each time I launch Windows Explorer, my "Computer" folder is active as default, and the "Desktop" folder is initially expanded. The "Favorites" folder is actually on the top and it's hidden until you scroll the left pane to the top. It's quite inconvenient. "Favorites" means favorites, which should be used the most often. I open Windows Explorer so often that scrolling is a painful, unnecessary, extra job now. Is there a way to change the Windows Explorer's default behavior so that either the "Desktop" folder is initially collapsed or the left pane is automatically scrolled to the top at the beginning. Any help is much appreciated.

JD

 

[jyoung77]

Or, at least, is there a 3rd party product capable of modifying the Windows Explorer behavior?

 

[reghakr]

Right-click on the desktop, and choose New > Shortcut.

Now browse to the Windows directory and choose Explorer.exe.

In the box add /e,c: after explrer.exe and it will open to the C: drive expanded.

 

[Trouble]

I don't really have a solution, that would actually set the focus of the navigation pane to the top or on favorites so if Reg's technique doesn't get you where you want to be you might try something like this;
Open explorer as you normally would and in the left navigation pane right click everything with an arrow next to it and choose collapse. Now in a blank area (all white) of the navigation pane right click and deselect both options. Now from the menu bar (if not present hit the Alt key to bring it up) and choose File | Close
Reopen explorer and see if has at least resulted in a condensed content which, depending on how much monitor real estate you have may save you from scrolling up to select favorites.
Hope this helps.

 

[jyoung77]

Hi "Trouble",

Sorry to call you "Trouble". You actually save my big trouble. Now Windows Explorer behave exactly what I want it to behave. Whenever I launch it, it shows all the items under "Favorites" with all the other folders collapsed. I think the trick is how to close the explorer. I used to hit alt-F4, which somehow cannot remember the last status. Thanks for this great help.

JD

 

[Trouble]

You're quite welcome and I'm glad you're satisfied with the results, sometimes it's all a matter of personal preferences and it's difficult to figure out what might prove a satisfactory resolution. Glad you're there. After the settings, using the "X" in the future should work fine, it's just initially I think the file | close thingy works best. But now that you know how to get where you want to go you can experiment with having various things expanded, collapsed even hidden.
Hope to continue to see you around the forum
Randy

 

[jyoung77]

Yep, you are right. I think the "X" button won't save the last status while the regular menu "close" button will. So I can use the latter to save the last status and then always use the former to keep the status. It's good that these two buttons behave that way. I bet even Microsoft doesn't know its "bug" causes a good result. I will come visit from time to time.

God bless.
JD