Windows 10: Change Names in Quick Access

You used to be able to change the names of the items in quick access - like you can a shortcut - in Windows 8, but now you can't. Other than replacing all of them with shortcuts, has anyone found a way of changing this?

:)

 

How to add Shortcuts to the Explorer Quick Access bar?

I have the same issue and need the ability to change name for "shortcut"/Quick Access entries, without changing the actual folder name.

Please provide a fix for this.

 

Quick Access vs Favourites

TSmithME - I think you may find that doing what you say changes the name of the underlying folder, not just the name in Quick Access ... and that's the problem - I don't want to change the name of the underlying folder

 

I still look at what I have in Quick Access as pinned (shortcuts), although perhaps a more direct link now...

I too seem to remember being able to easily rename my pinned 'Favorites' (Win 8.x)... what I've done in Quick Access is to rename the original folder (usually, you can double-click the pinned shortcut, and back up the tree one level to rename the original), which is often quickly reflected in the Quick Access pin name... although not always. One folder rename wouldn't change right away for me in Quick Access, but did finally update later... not sure what I did. However, recently I didn't want to wait for a pinned name to update, so I simply right-clicked the old pinned name, then clicked 'Unpin from Quick Access' and then repinned my newly renamed folder.

 

I have system folders pinned that would cause problems if they were renamed.

 

This may be a bit late, but I signed up just to give a recommendation to you. This may be a usable solution for you.

Create a folder in your c : \ users \ your name here \ just to keep organized

Open the command prompt as an Admin. Navigate to your user folder.

Example cd c:\users\login

You can go one folder at a time as well if you want

cd\
cd users
cd "your name"
cd "new folder"
The quote can help when you have a multi word folder name

Once in the new folder use mklink to make a junction to the folder you want.

mklink /j "Name" "location"

So in this case lets say you want the system32 folder on quick access called system stuff

mklink /j "System Stuff" "c:\windows\system32"

You should not have a System Stuff folder that can be pinned.

This method has 2 downfalls, but they may not be an issue for you.

Using a junction does NOT work over a network /d allows for a symbolic link, but that is another story. Also note that pinning a symbolic link made to a network share will show the drive letter. See the image below.

As far as windows is concerned the files will reside in the c : \ users \ name \ new folder \ system stuff folder. The shortcut arrow will show it as a junction. Programs will think the files are in your users folder. They do not actually waste any space.

 

Thanks for the information. I use these to access my games folders on my C and D drives, as well as appdata. Any programs I'll be running through this method will be fine running from any folder, so that shouldn't be an issue. Is there any performance drop with this?

 

Should be no performance drop. I used to use this to move steam games before they added libraries.

Just keep an eye out to ensure programs do not get confused with the "new" location. Most of my junctions are to make programs think they have not been moved.

So my steam games would be on d : \ games \ game name and steam would still see them in c : \ program files (x86) \ steam \ steamapps \ common

I also use the /d option to map folders to network shares or mapped drives. I do not even have a hard drive in my game / windows 10 system because all files are on a network share and just Windows and games live on 2 ssds.

To make this even better, I share save games across systems this way(because they are all on one system) and my Windows 7 and 10 use the same steam install(installed steam on 10m then removed the folder and linked it to my Windows 7 ssd.).

It only gets confusing when you start linking stuff all over the place and happen to have the shortcut arrows tuned off.

You can see them in the command prompt as well.

This is what I did when I was sick of all the random game save locations. I created junctions for the games to follow(after moving the saves to the My Games folder) and hid the junctions after. Now my document "folder" is cleaner looking.




What you are doing to make links is rather harmless, but if you start to move software this way, you will want to take a backup of the folder in case something goes wrong and never move parts of the operating system this way.

 

Yes, but that's a real problem potentially.

Let's say I set up a junction this way:
cd C:\Junctions
mklink /j "Games (F)" "F:\GAMES"
(and then I add "C:\Junctions\Games (F)" to Quick Access)
.....so that I could have a "Games (F)" in Quick Access. If I click on that link, and then run a program from within it, (as you pointed out) that program will be convinced that it is running from within "C:\Junctions\Games (F)" (because the "current directory" is not the destination directory). This will cause trouble with the vast majority of programs that actually use current directory information.

Further, if the program doesn't simply puke up an error, you could seriously hose yourself over time, because it could be saving away state information in its own configuration files and/or registry. The program would have to be written where it is continually checking (am I really in the right place?), and if it didn't you could get a mishmash of saved away state.

MS really screws up routinely by trying to fix something that was so wonderfully NOT BROKEN, and it's tiring.