Windows 10: Hide or Show Libraries in Navigation Pane in Windows 10

I totally agree with Brink. Libraries is perfect for me. *Party

 

Hi Shawn,

Unfortuantely, none of these tricks seem to be working for me. I have tried:

• https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html
• https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html
• https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html
• How does one remove the Dropbox link from the Navi... - Dropbox Community - 93970

I am using Windows 10 x64, recently cleanly installed on a new laptop. I have not installed any third party software which could interfere. I am viewing Explorer with 'Show all folders' and 'Expand to current folder' enabled.

I checked in the registry whether the DWords were altered, and indeed, the values did change after applying your 'remove.reg'. However, it had no effect.

Any ideas? Thanks a lot! Laurens

 

Hello Laurens, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Turning off "Show all folders" in the navigation pane should help. This will often cause them to continue to show.

 

Thanks Shawn. Though if I'm not mistaken this wasn't necessary in Windows 7 and prior. I have always had 'Show all folders' turned on and was still able to remove specific items from Explorer using RegEdits. I prefer having 'Show all folders' enabled, because then Explorer includes links to the Desktop, the Control Panel and to the Recycling Bin. Any idea if there are ways to remove the previously mentioned items, whilst keeping 'Show all folders' enabled? If not, I'll just deal with it *Wink

 

Usually Option Four will remove Libraries from the navigation pane even with "Show all folders" turned on.

 

Yeah. I have to acknowledge KSDIXON's comment because I'm building an image and wanted to turn Show Libraries on for all users... first I tried to apply the CLSID setting to the default user profile... unfortunately, Win10 doesn't seem to let you use CLSID settings in the default user profile... so I went to option 2 which was to set it for all users. When I tried to do so, I noticed that the key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is locked and owned by TrustedInstaller... so I had to modify the owner of the key. Once I modified the owner and added Administrators, I was able to update the key value. The System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree value can be modified to 1 (default is 0).

C

 

I'm glad you got it sorted Chris, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

 

I regret to report that I cannot remove the Libraries folder from the Navigation Pane in Windows 10 "Fall Creators Update" (64bit) - Version 1709 (OS Build 16299.19), using any of the 4 methods on the first page of this thread. Even the registry edit...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5} - System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree

...didn't work. It was, in fact, already set to zero.

Also, in Explorer / View / Options / Change Folder and Search Options / View / Advanced settings / Navigation pane:

If I turn off "Show all folders" and turn off "Show libraries", then the Libraries are hidden, but so are items that I want.
If I turn on "Show all folders", I always get Libraries shown, irrespective of the state of the "Show Libraries" check box.

*Sad

I suppose I can live with it, but I do like a clean looking pane. *092

 

Hello Zaphod, *Smile

Yeah, I'm afraid that when you have "Show all folders" turned on, Libraries will show as well.

What did you want to still show when you had "Show all folders" turned on? Maybe we can have those items show with "Show all folders" turned off so Libraries will no longer show.

 

Hi Brink, *Smile

Thanks for your reply. I guess I just want Network and any folders that are actually located on the Desktop. So I don't want (don't use) Libraries or Homegroup. I don't really need Control Panel because that's easy to get to from the Start button. Also don't want/need Recycle Bin there.

[ I have four Windows 10 PCs and an XP PC all on my local LAN, with shared folders so I can move stuff around and Teamviewer on each so I can configure them all from the main PC, which is an old, big, XP PC! Three of the four Windows 10 PCs are dual-booting with XP. The newest one - a laptop - is Windows 10 only (no drivers for XP *cry ) ]

On the Windows 10 machines, I have "Classic Shell" installed so my desktop looks very much like XP and I also have "Folder Options X" installed to get rid of the "Full Row Select" problem. I also tweaked the colours to have a light grey Task Bar with a black font - very XP-ish! *chuckle

If there's anything you can do/suggest to achieve the Navigation pane changes, it would be great!

- Zaphod (not my real name, BTW *092)

 

Hmm, I'm not aware of a way to have folders on the desktop show in the navigation pane other than having "Show all folders" turned on.

 

OK. It's not too cluttered the way I have it - OneDrive, Libraries, Homegroup, and Control Panel are all collapsed, so aren't obtrusive.

It's a pity that the way Explorer is coded, when "Show All Folders" is on, the registry setting to not show Libraries is ignored. If I was in charge of Windows development, I'd call that either a bad design or sloppy programming. *Zip

 

I'd prefer to have a setting UI for this to check or uncheck what you want to see in the navigation pane.

 

I totally agree. Microsoft seem to have lost the plot when it comes to giving long-time users what they want. They seem more interested in adding new features that only a minority want, advertise it as if it's the best thing since sliced bread, but not go back and fix the things that have been broken for years - like the "Full Row Select" problem and the "Folder Jumping" problem (goo.gl/7CDypz).

 

Also this one does not work when Show all folders is marked, how to hide Libraries in NavPane?