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File Explorer has been the default application that is used in Microsoft Windows for years to view your files. Sure, there are third party alternatives such as the OneCommander file manger app, but most people prefer to stick with File Explorer when it comes to managing their files and folders.
When you first open File Explorer, there is a good chance it will open up to the Home section which will show you things such as the default Windows folders (Documents, Pictures, Desktop etc.) as well as favorites and recent files.
And if you go to the Folder Options from File Explorer, you can change this setting from Home to This PC so it will open there instead. But what if you want to have File Explorer open to a different location besides Home or This PC? In this article, we will be showing you how to make Windows File Explorer open to a custom folder location.
To accomplish this, we will be doing a simple registry edit that will allow us to choose whichever folder we want to use as the default folder for File Explorer. To begin, download the registry file here and extract the zip file to a folder on your computer.
Once you have the registry file on your computer, you can right click it and choose Edit in Notepad top open the file in the Notepad app so you can edit the custom folder location.
If you don’t have the Edit in Notepad option, you can right click it and choose Open With and then choose Notepad. Be sure to click on the Just Once button rather than the Always button.
Then you will need to click on the Run button on the next screen. Then the registry file will open in Notepad, and you can edit the folder location as seen below. Just be sure the folder already exists before making the change because File Explorer may not open until that folder exists. Also be sure to keep the two backslashes after the drive letter. And if you change your mind and want to use a different folder to open with File Explorer, you will be able to easily change it later.
Once you make your changes, you can save the file and then double click it to import it into the registry. When you first double click on the file, you will need to click on the Yes button for the UAC prompt.
Next, you will need to click on the Yes button to add the information from the file to the Windows registry.
Finally, you can click on the OK button to finish the process.
Now when we open File Explorer, it will automatically open to our custom folder location as seen in the image below.
If you want to change the custom folder location for File Explorer, you can simply edit the registry rather than edit the registry file and import it again.
To do so, type in regedit in the Windows taskbar search box to open the Registry Editor tool. You can then navigate to the following location or simply copy and paste the text below into the Registry Editor address bar.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1}\shell\OpenNewWindow\command
You will then see a string value named Default with the path to your custom folder location.
If you double click this value, you can then edit the value data and enter the path to the new custom folder you wish to use. Just be sure to keep it in quotes or it wont work.
If you change your mind and want to go back to the default folder for File Explorer, you can simply delete the {52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1} key itself.
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