Windows 10: File Explorer Quick Access has Recent Folders pinned but it vanishes..

So File Explorer Quick Access shows Recent Folders, because I pinned it to be there:





But, when you go to "Save as" dialog box, Recent Folders inexplicably disappears from Quick Access:





Why is that? How can I fix it so that "Save as" and "Open" show Recent Folders in Quick Access in navigation pane?

:)

 

Windows 10 replaced Recent Folders with Quick Access. how to change 10 to 20?

Open File Explorer and type shell:::{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99} in the Address Bar. Press {ENTER}, and this opens the Recent folders shell folder. Click the Pin to Quick access button
in the ribbon, to pin it in the Quick access area. The pinned item can be moved by dragging to the top of the Quick access hierarchy if you want.

Source: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/p...ces-navigation-pane-windows-10-file-explorer/

 

Can't we sort Quick Access items?

Hi Cathy,

Items in the Quick access view can't be sorted as you like. It's a special folder designed that way. The "recent files" section, files that are most recently accessed are shown at the top. For Frequent folders listing, its sorted as:

Pinned Special folders

Pinned folders

Recent folders

Two things that can be changed:

1. Mix up Frequent folders and Recent files listing, instead of them being shown in separate groups.

2. Sort "frequent folders" items by name regardless of type (whether it's a special folder, pinned normal folder or a recent folder.)

Unfortunately, both of this involve editing the registry.

For custom sort, AFAIK, that can't be done for Quick access.. and even if it were possible it might involve editing the registry and changing the shell folder bitmask values.

Two other workarounds would be:

1. Pin "Recent folders" in Quick Access.

2. Pin "Recent folders" as a separate namespace item, appearing below Quick access section.

REF: How to Pin Recent folders or Recent Places to the Navigation Pane in Windows 10 File Explorer

Benefit: Items in this view can be custom sorted.

 

You can "Pin to Quick Access" the "Recent" folder in Windows 10. But the "Recent" folder is hidden when you "Save As" from an application, which is very annoying. So here is the fix to get Recent Items showing in Save As dialog boxes:

1) Optional step: In File Explorer, if you have already pinned the "Recent" folder to Quick Access, right-click "Recent" and select "Unpin from Quick Access"




2) Start a Command Prompt
3) Copy and paste the entire following line into the Command Prompt, and then press Enter:
mklink /j "%USERPROFILE%\Recent Items" %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent




4) Close the Command Prompt window
5) Back to File Explorer, either click on your Username under Desktop, or browse to C:\Users\<username>
6) You'll notice there is a new yellow shortcut named "Recent Items". Right-click it and choose "Pin to Quick Access"
7) "Recent Items" will now appear under Quick Access.




8) "Recent Items" will also now appear under Quick Access when you use the "Save As" dialog box from any Windows 10 application.




All done! *Party

-

 

ThePhinx - thanks so much! Before I try it, does it also work with "Recent Folders" and not just "Recent" or "Recent Items"?

When I'm doing "Save as" I'm always looking for a folder, never a file. Rarely use the "Open" dialog box, but I assume it'd be the opposite, always looking for file and rarely a folder.

Anyway, can I just substitute "Recent Folders" for what's used in your solution, "Recent Items" and "Recent"?

Many thanks!

 

I agree that showing only "Recent Folders" is better and less cluttered than the "Recent Items" in Windows 10. I can tell you that Recent Folders exists in Windows 10, but it is hidden and needs to be revived. *Wink


Part 1: How to get Recent Folders displaying in Windows 10 permanently:

1) Start a Run dialog box by either right-clicking the Start button and choose Run, or by pressing the WinKey + R keys.

2) Copy and paste the following line into the Run dialog box, then press Enter:
shell:::{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}

3) File Explorer will open and display the "Recent folders". You'll see that it is located below the Recycled Bin on the left hand side of the screen.

4) Right-click "Recent folders" and select "Pin to Quick Access". You can also select "Pin to Start" if you want. When you close File Explorer "Recent folders" will remove itself from below the Recycled Bin, but will remain under Quick Access.




5) You can drag the Recent folders to any position under Quick Access now.


Part 2: The simple way to get Recent Folders working in Save As dialog boxes in Windows 10:

Recent Folders in Windows 10 has now been revived, but just like the "Recent Items" folder, by default it is hidden from Save As dialog boxes in Windows 10. (I've already posted a fix today - August 29, 2015 - to get Recent Items working in Save As dialog boxes for Windows 10 which you can find posted here and here.) Below is the first of two ways I've now figured out to get the Recent Folders to appear in "Save As" dialog boxes:

1) Within a Save As dialog box, right-click the folder name at the top and to the left of the search box. Now select "Edit Address". The path should turn into text and become highlighted blue.




2) Replace the highlighted text by copying and pasting the following line, and then press Enter:
shell:::{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}




Now you can save inside one of your recent folders!





Part 3: How to enable Recent Folders to work in Save As dialog boxes in Windows 10 permanently:

Important: The following steps are for advanced users only. It changes key permissions and settings in the registry. I've decided to share this because people are asking for it, and I spent the time to figure it out. Proceed at your own risk.

Below are the steps for the second and permanent way to get Recent Folders to work in Save As dialog boxes in Windows 10.

1) Perform a System Restore point backup of C drive prior to starting

2) Complete all the steps in "Part 1: How to get Recent Folders displaying in Windows 10 permanently" above

3) Open the Registry (regedit.exe) with Administrator privileges

4) Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}\ShellFolder

5) Right-click ShellFolder and select Permissions

6) Click Advanced

7) At the top, click Change

8) Type in ADMINISTRATORS and then click Check Names

9) Click Ok and then Ok

10) Within the "Group or user names:" section, select Administrators so that it is highlighted blue

11) Tick the box corresponding to Allow Full Control

12) Click Ok to close the Permissions box

13) On the right side of the Registry Editor, now double-click "Attributes"

14) Replace the existing Hexadecimal number of 20040000 with 70010020 and then press Ok

15) Now navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}\ShellFolder

16) Repeat steps 5 to 14 once again but this time for this particular ShellFolder registry key

17) Close the Registry Editor

That's it. Now all Windows 10 software applications will allow you to Save As in the "Recent Folders" under the Quick Access menu.




Recent Folders in Windows 10 = Phixed! *Party

-

 

@ ThePhinx: Hi, I tried to enter "shell:::{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}" into CMD as Admin, but it simply says that "The filename, ... is incorrect."

I already thought something was odd when I couldn't find the "Recent Folders" link in both my Links and my "AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows" folder. Is this because I'm on W10 Home and not Pro?

Edit: Never mind, I managed to make it work:
Skip Part 1. Follow Part 2, and on the top open the Home tab and click 'Pin to Quick Access'. Then do Part 3.

Thanks ThePhinx, you're a lifesaver *Biggrin

Edit 2: I'm currently attempting to follow this tutorial for adding it to the Places bar, but it only seems to overwrite the current Places bar:

http://www.howtogeek.com/97824/how-t...ox-in-windows/

Edit 3: There's probably no need to go through Part 1 or 3 as explained by ThePhinx above, if you just want it to show in Quick Access and in Save As dialogues. But of course if it doesn't show, do Part 3 (I didn't revert the changes I made for Part 3 so it may be a factor to why this is working).

Follow Part 2 and then Pin the Recent Folders location to Quick Access, and then do the Places bar registry edit to display the shortcut in Save As dialogues (by following the link above). I suggest overwriting the Network shortcut, as it's not really used.

Below is a guide to some Shell shortcuts.

The Quick Access Shell command doesn't seem to work in the Places bar. I can't figure out why. It's correct, but it just won't show. I'll have to figure something out.

Edit 4: I've decided to swap Quick Access for Frequent Folders (since that's all I use it for anyway). Shell shortcuts updated.

If Frequent Folders accidentally shows up in File Explorer (alongside Quick Access), to remove it simply right click a blank area (e.g. under Network) and click Show/Hide Libraries once or twice to make it disappear. It's weird, but it hides it.

 

Hi,
I did what you explained here to show Recent Items on Quick Access Menu and now I have a problem:
I constantly have 4 folders showing on my Quick Access Menu.
Even when I click "Remove from Quick access" one disappears and than immediately another folder shows.
Many time they are duplicated and sometimes the shortcut to the folder does not even exist.
How can I fix it?
How can I undo the Recent Items method?
here is a photo of my bug:




Thanks for you help

 

Hi ThePhinx,

thank you so much! Windows 10 is just about fixed for me now...

James

 

Tested this hack and all working after a reboot too! Many thanks, Windows 10 now almost fully usable! Actually it fixed quite a few W7 issues on my laptop and speeded everything up so a good tradeoff.
The 1st key where Admin full control needed adding existed but Wow6432Node\CLSID\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}\ShellFolder did not exist and I didn't add it. Nevertheless hack seems to work fine. Most programs can now Save As > Recent Folders. Some (maybe Java based ones?) have a big Recent Items icon instead in the Save dialogue but this behaves for the most part like Recent Folders - acceptable.

The folks at Redmond still need to fix this properly though, I can imagine a lot of locked-down office workers who don't have access to the Registry still needing this functionality.

 

Is the solution for Recent Folders working for anyone in June 2016 in WIndows 10?? Once upon a time it worked for me to get Recent Folders into my Quick Access menu, around last October, then it disappeared several months ago. Frankly, searching through all the false leads in various user forums is so complicated that it's taken me this long to find time to try again.

(Sorry for misunderstanding the instructions in my previous version of this post).

The command in Part 1 of the original solution works to get Recent Items into the Quick Access group, BUT here's what I see when I go there:





I was kind of expecting the usual File Explorer window listing individual files?

Recent Items still strikes me as far below Recent Folders in utility, so I'm still obsessing on getting Recent Folders back.

On the topic of Recent Folders, I'm completely unable to even find Recent anything in my User folder or anywhere else on my computers.

The Run command in Part 2 (Recent Folders) isn't working didn't fix the problem. Here's what I see after the command is run:




. . . and obviously Recent Folders doesn't appear in File Explorer:




Has anyone else noticed the endless confusion surrounding this ridiculous failing in Windows 10? Why can't MS just either fix it or inform us that it's impossible for them to fix for whatever reason. Being able in File Explorer or Save As to quickly get back to a folder to which you saved a file 3 minutes ago is basic functionality. It was flawless in Windows 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

On Part 1 of your solution for Recent Folders, I am getting the message from the Command Prompt, "The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect." Is there a correction I should apply?

[/CODE]

 

Part 1 doesn't mention 'command prompt' which one normally assumes means, the black and white text dialogue you get after entering 'cmd' into the RUN box.
Are you sure you pasted that 'shell:::{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}' string into the RUN box?

 

Perfect help....and outstanding instructions...very clear.

 

Did the trick.
Thanks Phinx!