Windows 10: Hide or Show User Profile's Personal Folders in Navigation Pane

New tutorial all finished. *Smile

*Arrow Hide or Show User Profile Personal Folders in Windows 10 File Explorer Windows 10 Tutorials

 

Thank you in advance to everyone for your help and time. Hopefully this write-up is succinct. *Smile
I believe there has to be additional registry modifications to solve this issue.


Problem:
In the Navigation Pane, specifically regarding the Current User folder tree, a Personal Folder (i.e. 3D Objects, Contacts, Desktop, etc... ) continues to show even after making active the Hidden property for that Personal Folder.

Expected Results:
Any Personal Folder that is marked "Hidden" in the File/Folder Listings Area should also be hidden in the Navigation Pane specifically within the Current User folder tree.

Steps to recreate the issue: (the following steps assume that the option is deactivated to see hidden folders.)

• Open File Explorer
• Within Navigation Pane, Right-click over any blank area
• Select menu-option "Show All Folders"
• Select and Expand the Current User folder tree which is listed as a child object to the "Desktop" folder
• Within the File/Folder Listings Area, Right-click on a Personal Folder
• Select menu-option "Properties"
• Within the new Dialogue window, Select the "General" tab, Select to Activate the Attribute "Hidden", Select the "OK" button
• Close File Explorer and then Open File Explorer
• Select the Current User folder in the Navigation Pane
• Notice the recently-hidden folder is still showing in the Navigation Pane even though it is hidden in the File/Folder Listings Area.

System Specs:

• Edition: Windows 10 Home 64bit
• Version: 1709
• OS Build: 16299.371
• Hard Drives: 2 (SSD & Mechanical)
• C:\ = SSD
• D:\ = Mechanical

Current Modifications of System:

• The %UserProfile% system folder was successfully transferred to D:\ by using Sysprep during Windows Setup. This is the only system folder moved to another drive.

Current Modifications of File Explorer in Navigation Pane: (using Regedit)

• Hidden = Quick Access
• Hidden = Libraries
• Hidden = OneDrive
• Hidden = Homegroup
• Hidden = This PC user personal folders

Current Modifications of File Explorer in Folder/File Listing Area:

• Each unwanted Personal Folder was changed to "Hidden" by Right-clicking the folder and Checking the Attribute checkbox marked "Hidden".

3rd-Party Software Installed:

• Classic Shell
• Mozilla Firefox
• IObit Driver Booster
• Macrium Reflect

:)

 

I don't understand the 'left pane' of File Explorer. Can someone explain it all to me?

In File Explorer, View tab, Navigation Pane, uncheck 'Show all folders' and 'Expand to open folder'

That should simplify your Navigation Pane.

Don't delete folders under Di Co, I'm pretty sure that's your User Profile folder and where the REAL FOLDERS ARE. Delete from there & they'll disappear everywhere.

Keith

 

File Explorer is not hiding empty USB drives, despite setting to 'hide empty drives'

Good one! That turned up useful info. It seems that three File Explorer settings may be interacting:

View->Options->View->Hide empty drives

View->Navigation pane->Show all folders

View->(show/hide panel) Hidden items

My Windows preference for decades has been to show all file system items, including 'hidden system' items, so I had the latter two selected. To hide empty drives, I had the first item selected. In sum, I had all three selected.

Thanks to your tip (create a new account), I see I can get the Navigation Pane to stop showing empty drives by unclicking 'show all folders' (regardless, it seems, of how 'hide empty drives' is set). It appears that 'show all folders' overrides or ignores
'hide empty drives' (even though a folder is not a drive!).

View->Hidden items seems to control visibility of system files, and, if 'Hide empty drives' was selected, makes empty drives disappear from This PC (otherwise, ie., if View->Hidden items is not selected, This PC shows empty drives greyed out, despite the
'Hide empty drives' setting).

So, to hide empty drives, I think one should do this:

Select View->Options->View->Hide empty drives

Deselect View->Navigation pane->Show all folders

Deselect View->(show/hide panel) Hidden items (if you care about hiding empty drives on This PC; otherwise, if you want to see system files, select this item; empty drives will still be hidden on the Nav pane).

The Navigation Pane option 'Show all folders' seems to function as 'Show all folders & some empty drives' (it doesn't show empty USB or DVD drives). Closing and re-opening File Explorer may be required to get it to implement the selection.

From previous Windows versions, I thought 'View->(show/hide panel) Hidden items' controlled only display of system files, but it seems to now also affect display of hidden drives (eg., in This PC's display).

'View->Options->View->Hide empty drives' would seem to be an explicit and therefore overriding control, but that doesn't seem to be the case (eg., the Nav pane seems to listen more closely to its own control).

Anyway, thank you RobertJWin, you've helped me get to the bottom of the issue. Others may wish to further explore this (and confirm the above), and Microsoft may wish to review how some of this is implemented, to make it more clear/correct (there may be
a Nav pane issue re media reader slots).

Thanks again, Robert

 

Hello TechGuy737, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

You might see if the tutorial below may be able to help.

*Arrow Add or Remove User Folder from Navigation Pane in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

 

Hello Brink and thank you. This website is a very helpful resource. *Smile

Your suggested answer will hide the User Profile folder in the Navigation Pane.

Instead, this scenario involves not hiding the User Profile folder but hiding specific Personal Folders in the Navigation Pane that are marked "Hidden" in the Files/Folders Listing Area.

My suspicion is that there are more "PinToNamespace" registry entries for me to toggle the DWORD value.

 

Option Two may be a good workaround for this if you like. It will also remove them from "This PC", but you could pin any you still want to "Quick Access".

*Arrow Add or Remove Folders from This PC in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

 

Thank you Brink! I was looking for those Registry modifications. They were the solution! *Smile

The solution was incomplete. I still need the appropriate Registry Keys for the following folders:
Contacts
Favorites
Links
Saved Games
Searches

If I knew how to discover the appropriate Key that matches each of these folders then I could make my own REG files.

Also, the tutorial you pointed at only appeared to be about This PC so I didn't pay much attention to it when searching on the User Profile folder. It may be helpful for future searches if you created another Tutorial post that talks specifically about the User Profile folder modifications with similar-named REG files.

 

I know you are super busy so I did some detective work in the Registry and found the following areas for the five remaining folders I mentioned: Contacts, Favorites, Links, Saved Games, Searches

I've already made my changes and found them to be successful. Here is the Registry code. Please verify when possible.

Thanks,


Code: ; Contacts [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{56784854-C6CB-462B-8169-88E350ACB882}\PropertyBag] "ThisPCPolicy"="Hide" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{56784854-C6CB-462B-8169-88E350ACB882}\PropertyBag] "ThisPCPolicy"="Hide" ; Favorites [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{1777F761-68AD-4D8A-87BD-30B759FA33DD}\PropertyBag] "ThisPCPolicy"="Hide" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7CFBEFBC-DE1F-45AA-B843-A542AC536CC9}\PropertyBag] "ThisPCPolicy"="Hide" ; Links [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{bfb9d5e0-c6a9-404c-b2b2-ae6db6af4968}\PropertyBag] "ThisPCPolicy"="Hide" ; Saved Games [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{4C5C32FF-BB9D-43b0-B5B4-2D72E54EAAA4}\PropertyBag] "ThisPCPolicy"="Hide" ; Searches [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7d1d3a04-debb-4115-95cf-2f29da2920da}\PropertyBag] "ThisPCPolicy"="Hide"[/quote]