Windows 10 has the Ribbon UI in File Explorer with a Quick Access Toolbar at the top. Yesterday we saw how it can be customized using tricks described in the article How to add any Ribbon command to the Quick Access toolbar in Windows 10. Suppose some day, you re-install Windows 10 or move to another PC with Windows 10, you wouldn't want to lose all your settings and start over again. Today I would like to share how you can backup and restore the Quick Access Toolbar's buttons and settings and apply them later to your current PC or any other PC.
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Here is how my Quick Access Toolbar looks in Windows 10:
Since I've taken the time to customize it, I most definitely don't want to lose the customized commands and their order.
So, here is the solution.
To backup your Quick Access Toolbar buttons in Windows 10, you need to use Registry Editor.
- Open the Registry editor. If you are not familiar with Registry Editor, follow our detailed tutorial.
- Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Ribbon
Tip: You can access the desired Registry key with one click.
- Right click on the 'Ribbon' key on the left side and choose "export".
- The Export Registry File dialog will appear on the screen. Choose the desired location where you want to save your Quick Access Toolbar settings:
That's it! Now, to restore your Quick Access Toolbar settings on the same PC or on a fresh Windows 10 installation, just close all File Explorer windows and double click the file you have created. The next time you open File Explorer, your Quick Access Toolbar will be restored! The same can be done in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.
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Doesn’t work. Thanks for wasting my time.
It works like a charm. You are welcome.
No sir, it does not. Time wasted on this. Also, this does not work if you try using HKEY_USERS and utilize the Ribbon within the profile’s registry so don’t bother with that either in the case you were thinking to do so..
Nope. This definitely doesn’t work. good thing there is a real working solution in the comments.
put your exported reg hex encoded section into ascii and U’ll see that there is xml with absolute no quick access recovery info, this is no solution at all
SOLUTION:
%appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations
Copy all the files in this directory to another folder. After installing a clean Windows, copy the files you backed up into this directory and close all file explorer windows, and then open them again.
This worked fine.
Works perfectly, thank you!!
It works like a charm, thank you
This works –
to do it you need to open a RUN command and then pop in the: %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations
Copy that and paste in the same directory on the new PC
It’s really fantastic!
Worked fine here, thanks a lot!
After double clicking the exported register key, it does not work. Quick Access remains unchanged.
After importing, restart explorer.exe and you should then see Quick Access populated.
This didn’t work.