Windows 10: Recent folders / frequent folders / recent files / quick access

Ok, this is driving me mad.

Until recently there was a fantastic feature in Windows called Recent Places (or something like that). It's no longer available and this must cost me 5 minutes per hour (for which I will invoice Microsoft.)


Now there is the Quick Access menu, which performs a somewhat similar function, but very, very poorly.


Here's what was good about the Recent Places:

• As soon as I used a folder, it was available in recent places
• As soon as I used a FILE, it was available in recent places
• Recent Places was always available - in searches, in context menus and in Save As
• When I was working in three different applications (say, creating a graph in Excel, image-editing it in Illustrator then dropping it into PowerPoint) I was instantly able to access the place I had saved it in each application, because saving the Excel file triggered that folder to appear in Recent Places.
• I could also open a file in a different application (save it in Gimp and then open it in Photoshop) by finding the file in the recent places folder.

Here's what doesn't work about the Quick Access menu

• It does not automatically add the folder to the window until it has been used a certain number of times.
• This is hopeless, because if I need to access the folder, say, 5 times between my three applications, then by the time the folder is in Quick Access I NO LONGER NEED IT! I need the same folder immediately after I have used it, not 25 minutes later when the system realises "hey - you seem to use that folder a lot".
• It does not keep files - only folders.

What I want to happen

• 10 out of 10 solution: I want the old system back.
• 9 out of 10 solution: Quick Access tracks files and folders and immediately adds them when saved
• 8 out of 10 as a workaround. Even if files can't get to Quick Access, it would be great to be able to tweak the algorithm that gets a folder into the Quick Access location. The sensitivity for getting a folder into Quick Access should be settable, even with just two settings: "place folders in Quick Access immediately when used" and "Place folders in Quick access when used often."

Please please please return this functionality. It was a major, major timesaver, particularly when working at the end of a long folder path.

:)

 

Win 10 Quick Access mixes frequent folders and recent files


Hello,

I've learned to like the "Quick Access" feature of Win 10. Recently it has shown a strange trait. That is, instead of listing my "frequent folders" in a list in a pane at the top of the window and "recent files" in a pane at the bottom at the bottom of the window (in a separate pane), both "frequent folders" and "recent files" show up on the same detail list (in a single pane).

Likewise, the entries are all sorted by name instead of (recent) date, as I would like.

See image:




Here is a sample (imaged grabbed from Internet) of how it should look. ("Recent folders" in a separate pane at the top and "recent files" at the bottom. This is how I want my Quick Access window to look again.





How can I get Quick access to once again separate the "recent folders" from the "recent files"... and make them sort by "most recent date first"?

By the way, I tried "restore defaults" but that was to no avail.

Thanks!

cbi

 

Quick Access is missing "Frequent Folders" and "Recent Files"

Thanks for the explanation and sorting tips, ThePhinx. I'm now using the "Recent Items" workaround in my File Explorer jump list.

One thing that I hadn't realized was that the (now useless) "Recent Folders" entry pinned in the jump list is somehow linked to its instance pinned to the Quick Access list. Removing it from the jump list removes it from Quick Access, which is not what
I intended. So I'll have to live with a non-working "Recent Folders" in my jump list, I guess.

It's somewhat annoying that I cannot reorder the jump list to move "Recent Folders" lower in the list. I want "Recent Folders" at the top of my Quick Access list, but at the bottom of my jump list. Windows does not seem to allow that.

 

Recent folders rather than frequent folders in windows 10 quick access

In Win 7 we had Recent Folders and Recent Files. In Win 10, for some reason the Folders are "Frequent" instead of "Recent". I find it less practical.

How do I list recent folders rather than frequent folders in windows 10 quick access?