Windows 10: Recent/Frequent Folder in Quick Access Windows 11

I have a few folders pinned to my quick access in file explorer. Up until today, there also appeared a few folders I use frequently/recently. It was very helpful for navigation. I do not want to have to pin 20 different folders, that defeats the purpose. I made sure that "show recently used folders" and "show frequently used folders" are checked. I tried rebooting my computer. Not sure what else to try. Help?

:)

 

Win 10 Quick Access mixes frequent folders and recent files


Hello,

I've learned to like the "Quick Access" feature of Win 10. Recently it has shown a strange trait. That is, instead of listing my "frequent folders" in a list in a pane at the top of the window and "recent files" in a pane at the bottom at the bottom of the window (in a separate pane), both "frequent folders" and "recent files" show up on the same detail list (in a single pane).

Likewise, the entries are all sorted by name instead of (recent) date, as I would like.

See image:




Here is a sample (imaged grabbed from Internet) of how it should look. ("Recent folders" in a separate pane at the top and "recent files" at the bottom. This is how I want my Quick Access window to look again.





How can I get Quick access to once again separate the "recent folders" from the "recent files"... and make them sort by "most recent date first"?

By the way, I tried "restore defaults" but that was to no avail.

Thanks!

cbi

 

Recent folders / frequent folders / recent files / quick access

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I understand your query related to accessing recent items that you have accessed on your PC.



Usually, when you access a file or folder on your PC it shows in the Quick Access menu as recent files.



However, if you are looking for the most recent files that you have accessed from the PC then the simplest way is to access the recent items using the run command.

1. Press Windows key + R. This will open
   Run. Alternatively, you can go to Start and search for
   Run.
   
2. In Run dialog box, type
   shell:recent and hit Enter.
   

This will open a window with all the recent items that you have accessed. You can also pin this folder in the Quick Access menu so that it will be easier for you to access once again.



Kindly follow the steps to pin the recent items on the Quick Access menu.

1. Right click on the Quick Access menu on the left hand pane.
   
2. Select Pin current folder to Quick access.
   

Once you pin the folder you should be able to access the recent items. Refer the screenshot for more information.





Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Explorer & Quick access showing recent not frequent folders

yea i compared them to the tutorial and checked against my vm and they seem to match up. i'm entirely stumped. just to be clear, quick access & the explorer taskbar jumplist should both populated with "frequents" even with this enabled?





- - - Updated - - -

hmm after digging through lots of old threads ive come across such as Windows Explorer's Jumplist reads "frequent" but shows recent it seems its pretty common behavior should you alter the settings in file explorer options even once.

I "think" there is no "fix" to be had and another old ms post indicates it may be a long running bug of some sort https://social.technet.microsoft.com...uent-to-recent





regardless of what the jumplist menu in the taskbar tells you, frequent or recent - it still pulls from the same source/populates with the same items. So apart from not being consistent (which is annoying in and of itself) with what shows in the quick access menu, functionality is identical i think.. or at least thats what seems to be suggested.

We'll see what happens when the time to upgrade to 11 comes. Supposed to be put on the beta channel shortly/this month and im gonna go for it, maybe it'll right itself.