How to Replace Quick Access With Favorites in Windows 10 – Guiding Tech

Windows 10 offers a Quick Access menu in File Explorer's sidebar. However, the folks using the File Explorer since Windows 7 prefer the Favorites menu in the sidebar. Thankfully, you can replace Quick Access menu with Favorites in Windows 10.

You will need to tweak a few files in the Registry Editor to bring back Favorites from the dead. We recommend taking a backup of Registry Files before moving on, as it could break how your system works. Another way is to make a restore point, which also works great.

Let's begin.

You will need to tweak a few files in the Registry Editor to bring back Favorites from the dead. We recommend taking a backup of Registry Files before moving on, as it could break how your system works. Another way is to make a restore point, which also works great.

Step 1: Search for the Registry Editor in the Start menu and launch it.

Step 2: Drill down to the below folder structure.

Step 3: Create a new key under the NameSpace folder and name it as:

It should look something like this.

Step 4: Now, navigate to the below folder structure.

In the right window-pane, right-click in an empty area to select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value (even if you are running 64-bit version) and name this file with the same key that you created above in Step 3 like this:

Step 5: Double-click on the newly created file and set the Value data to 1. Save changes.

Step 6: At this moment, you should view the familiar Favorites menu at the bottom of the File Explorer.

You need to move it to the top to access it easily. To do so, navigate to this folder structure in the Registry Editor.

And create a new sub-key by the same name again. Right-click on CLSID to do so just as before.

Step 7: Under the newly created key in step 6, you will create a DWORD (32-bit) Value file and name it:

Step 8: Double-click to open the newly created file and set the Value Data to 4.

The Favorites menu should be visibly higher in the sidebar inside File Explorer.

So, we shared how to hide the Quick Access menu and bring back Favorites in the File Explorer sidebar menu. But we are not done yet. The problem is that you can access everything that's inside the Favorites folder, but you still can't expand it in the sidebar. Clicking on the arrow (that expands a folder) yields nothing, and the arrow disappears when you try.

This is where we will switch to CMD or Command Prompt. We will then use a Windows tool called 'mklink,' which is a command-line tool. It allows users to create a symbolic link allowing us to link one folder to another's location. It can be useful in several conditions.

Step 1: Search for and open CMD from the Start menu and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Give the below command to change the directory.

Step 3: I will be adding the Downloads folder and name it Downloads123. Here's the command syntax for that.

Replace SomeName with the name of the link that you want to be and SourceFolder with the location where the link should point to. So for linking to the Downloads folder, the command should look like this:

It created a new folder in Favorites named Downloads123 but more importantly, the dropdown menu works perfectly.

Can't find folder path? TreeSize (link below) is a cool little app that will help you find the correct path for any folder structure quickly and easily.

Download TreeSize

Quick Access is not so bad, but many users are used to the old ways, and we understand that. This is why we found a way to fix it for you. The steps can be a little complicated, and there are certainly quite a few. I suggest you go through the steps once before actually doing anything and then start afresh. That way, you will understand what we are doing and why. Take it one step at a time and check where your screen looks and functions like the one shown in the screenshots.

Let us know in the comments if you got the Favorites menu back. Found another or a better way to fix the issue? Again, do let us know in the comments section below.

Last updated on 1 Feb, 2021The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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How to Replace Quick Access With Favorites in Windows 10 - Guiding Tech