The updated File Explorer app in Windows 10 has a new default location called Quick Access. It includes two sections: Frequent folders and Recent files. If you are not using it and prefer to not see Quick Access in the navigation pane, here is how you can hide and remove Quick Access from File Explorer in Windows 10.
To hide and remove Quick Access from File Explorer in Windows 10, you need to apply a simple Registry tweak mentioned below. For Windows 10 version 1703 and above, there is one tweak. For older Windows 10 versions like 1607 and 1511, the Registry tweak is different.
For Windows 10 version 1703 and above, do the following.
To Hide and Remove Quick Access Icon in Windows 10,
- Open Registry Editor.
- Go to the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. See how to jump to the desired Registry key with one click. - On the right, modify or create a new 32-Bit DWORD value HubMode.
Note: Even if you are running 64-bit Windows you must still create a 32-bit DWORD value. - Set its value data to 1 to hide and remove the Quick Access icon.
- To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account. Alternatively, you can restart the Explorer shell.
You are done.
To save you time, you can download the following ready-to-use Registry files:
The undo tweak is included.
If you are running an older Windows version like 1607 or 1511, the tweak above won't work. Instead, do the following.
To hide Quick Access in older Windows 10 versions,
- Configure File Explorer as described in this article: Open This PC instead of Quick Access in Windows 10 File Explorer.
- Open Registry Editor.
- Go to the following Registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}\ShellFolderTip: See how to jump to the desired Registry key with one click.
You need to take ownership of this key as described HERE or using the RegOwnershipEx app (recommended). - Set the value data of the DWORD value Attributes to a0600000.
- If you are running a 64-bit operating system, repeat the steps above for the following Registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}\ShellFolder - Restart Windows 10.
- Open the File Explorer app. The Quick Access folder will disappear:
That's it. To restore the Quick Access icon, set the Attributes parameter to a0100000.
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Thanks , this worked. But the shortcut WIN+E , which opens my computer is broken. Any way this can be fixed?
For me this shortcut remained working. Perhaps you don‘t have setting ‘Open File Explorer to’ set to ‘This PC’?
many thanks, you can not have a script that makes the changes automatically
thank
Thank you very much, is possible to have a script that automatically changes
thank
If you do this you lose drag & drop capabilities to navigation pane (something I don’t mind.) But, by changing the Attributes DWORD value to 0 instead of a0600000, then restarting your computer, you will have a small blue star instead of Quick Access (and all its subfolders.) You will also retain the ability to drag & drop to the navigation pane!
On the other hand, that small star when clicked creates a desktop shortcut which can‘t be simply deleted. What is more, it isn‘t very good to have a broken but clickable element in File Explorer.
Friend, No need to mod the regedit for this… Go to Control Panel , File explorer options and you have : Open file explorer to : quick access or This PC.. Exactly the same thing.
This will not remove the icon from the left pane.
Yes.
You don’t need to restart the computer, restarting explorer from the task manager should do the trick.
This ended up creating a Quick Access icon on the desktop for me that I don’t know how to get rid of now. Any ideas?
Ok, so I just toggled a few things to try and it seems when you leave the permissions the same way after editing the the registry it will add the icon to the desktop. After putting the permissions back the way they were, the icon seemed to disappear and remains gone. Just FYI if anyone has the same issue.
In VSCode, (and probably other programs), when I open the file explorer from within the app, (e.g. File -> Open Folder), it still shows the quick access entries.
CAUTION:
It works nicely and got me rid of the “quick access” entry (which is annoying mostly because it sets in belated, so when I start looking at the explorer tree, quick access button sets in an shifts the whole tree).
However, it ruined the explorer capacity to drag and drop files from right to left. Files can still be dragged from the tree view to the right side, and within the right side, but no more from right to left. Dragging files from e.g. 7zip window into explorer does not work anymore, either.
I restored the registry values, and the spook is gone.
Thanks, Felix
I contacted you via email about a few things on winaero, possible adjustments, and about the Quick access removal. Using Winaero to remove quick access disables the drag and drop (move) feature moving a file from right window pane going left to the Nav pane (Folder TREE). To fix this, I had to disable the HUB feature via Register.