Windows 10: How to remove duplicate folder entries in Explorer Win 11

gdstuart · Jan 20, 2023

My never-ending quest to de-clutter File Explorer continues....File Explorer contains two entirely duplicate folder trees:This PC\Users\gdstuDesktop\Geoff StuartThese folders have identical contents. I cannot display Properties for Desktop\Geoff Stuart. It appears to me a "shortcut" to This PC\Users\gdstu. Changing any entry in Desktop\Geoff Stuart causes the same change to be reflected in This PC\Users\gdstu. So I am confident that they are redundant.How can I eliminate Desktop\Geoff Stuart from Explorer? Is this controlled by a Registry key?Thanks.

:)

B_Phillips · Jan 20, 2023

Duplicate microSD card entries in File Explorer

How do I eliminate the duplicate File Explorer entry for the microSD card on my Surface Pro 3?

BACKGROUND: I've just completed a clean install of Windows 10 v.1511 from a USB drive. Everything went fine and I haven't added any apps, not even antivirus or browser, only the default apps. When I check file explorer there are two identical entries for the
microSD. The top one isn't expanded (single line) and a folder list is shown under the second one. Under Settings>System>Storage, I've since set save locations for documents, music, pictures, and videos as Drive E: (microSD); but that was done after I noticed
the duplicate entries. I've also checked the device manager for duplicate entries, but there are none. I've also removed the microSD card in device manager, shutdown, physically removed the card, restarted and reinserted the card. The duplicate entries are
still there.

Thanks.

Bill

JJG10 · Jan 20, 2023

Duplicate Drive Entries in Explorer

Here is a screen shot of the left hand panel of File Explorer. Note it shows two entries for My Passport 1TB (X. That is, of course, my external USB drive. When I open either one of them the same file and folder list appears Why does that drive it show up twice? And, can I deleted one of them?

Thank you.

KeithM · Jan 20, 2023

Duplicate OneDrive entry unexpectedly appears in File Explorer

Thank you for the reply Keith.
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You're welcome

I've just tried what you suggested. The response was a pop-up stating, "This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action. Please install an app or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Apps Settings page.".
...
Finally, I tried the same command on my wife's normal user account and the result was different - on this occasion, a window opened inviting me to "Set up OneDrive"!

If you recall, my wife's account is the only one that has the mystery CLSID in the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID. Furthermore, after searching for the mystery CLSID in the registry on all three accounts on my PC, the mystery CLSID is only visible when searching on my wife's account. This is a revelation to me. I was under the impression that an administrator had access to all information in the registry, but that appears not to be true.
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You do have access, but the data that populates HKCU is only loaded for the logged in user by default. If you want to edit the HKCU data for another user when logged on as Administrator, you have to load their user hive into Regedit, edit as desired, and then unload the hive to save the changes.

Open RegEdit

Select the HKEY_USERS key

From the nemu: File -> Load Hive...

In the Load Hive dialog, navigate to the desired user's profile folder and select the ntuser.dat file

You'lll be prompted for a name, which can be anything -- it's not persistent with the file

And you then have access to the other user's registry hive

The situation was further complicated because OneDrive was again refreshed in the background on my PC today and, as I had feared, this resulted again in duplicate entries of OneDrive in the navigation pane of File Explorer on my wife's account only. (Why is my wife's account being picked on?) So, again, I had to change the value System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree of the mystery CLSID from 1 to 0 in order to remove the duplication. I now feel more than ever that I need to get rid of this mystery CLSID from the registry.
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I'd like to see an export before you delete it! *Biggrin

I would start by deleting the corresponding key under:

<User>\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

In the hope that it might help the situation, and because my wife and I don't use OneDrive, I have now used the Group Policy Editor to enable "Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage" in the path Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\OneDrive. Among other things, this has the effect of removing the OneDrive entry from File Explorer and the standard CLSID for OneDrive, {081D…1FE6}, is no longer visible as a key in the registry.

For information ... It appears that I have only one version of OneDrive on my system. This is the desktop version that came with Windows 10 and is apparently officially called Microsoft OneDrive. The version of OneDrive that is available from the Microsoft Store is not installed.
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