The Quick Access location is a new folder in File Explorer of Windows 10. It is where Explorer opens by default instead of This PC. Quick Access shows recent files and frequent folders in a single view. You can also pin various locations inside Quick Access. But unlike Favorites from earlier versions of Windows, Quick Access does not let you rename pinned items when you right click them. In this article, we will see how to change the displayed name for folders pinned to Quick Access.
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Suppose you have the following folders on your disk drive.
C:\Test folder\Folder 1\Pin me C:\Test folder\Folder 2\Pin me C:\Test folder\Folder 3\Pin me C:\Test folder\Folder 4\Pin me
See this screenshot:
Now, let's pin every "Pin me" folder to Quick Access.
See the result:
All folders are pinned under the same name. There is no way to tell which folder is located on which drive without clicking it.
Once you rename the target folder, it becomes clear. Unfortunately, sometimes you cannot rename the target folder as it can be in use by other apps and services.
The Quick Access location does not offer an option to rename pinned items:
Here is a workaround.
Rename Quick Access pinned folders in Windows 10
- Unpin from Quick Access all folders you want to rename.
- Create a new empty folder on your disk drive. I suggest you to create it in your user profile folder (%userprofile%, c:\Users\username), because you won't need to use this folder every day but you will need it to organize the data we put there. Inside the user profile folder, the folder will remain safe and you will not see it often.
So, create the following folder:c:\Users\your_user_name\Pinned Folders
See the following screenshot:
- Now, open a new command prompt window and type the following command:
mklink /J "%userprofile%\Pinned Folders\New Name for Folder" "c:\path to original\folder you want to pin to Quick Access"
The mklink command will create a symbolic link to the folder you want to pin to Quick Access but this symbolic link will be stored with a new name inside the "Pinned Folders" directory.
So in my case, I should execute the following commands:mklink /J "%userprofile%\Pinned Folders\Pin me 1" "C:\Test folder\Folder 1\Pin me" mklink /J "%userprofile%\Pinned Folders\Pin me 2" "C:\Test folder\Folder 2\Pin me" mklink /J "%userprofile%\Pinned Folders\Pin me 3" "C:\Test folder\Folder 3\Pin me" mklink /J "%userprofile%\Pinned Folders\Pin me 4" "C:\Test folder\Folder 4\Pin me"
The result will be as follows:
- Now right click the items in the "%userprofile%\Pinned Folders" folder and pin them to Quick Access.
They will have different and recognizable names:
This is quite a tedious method, but it works to give unique names i.e. rename folders pinned to Quick Access. Maybe some day, Microsoft will improve Quick Access feature and add native ability to rename pinned items. As of this writing, the most recent Windows 10 build 14388 does not come with the ability to rename Quick Access pinned items.
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A great work around!
The only caveat is that the path of the newly created link is not having the original path instead it has new one (e.g. if you check the path in cmd)
Thanks,
D.
This only works with local drives. When I tried this I get the cmd window message :Local volumes are required to complete the operation”
Has anyone figured-out (yet) how to make this work for Network drive folder(s)?
You should try symbolic links : /D argument to mklink instead of /J
Using the /D argument does allow the MKLINK command to complete, however the resulting Quick Access link keeps the name of the target folder on the network drive, not the Pinned Folders directory.
this (/D) did not work for me; this is the message: “You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation.”
Excellent! This solved my problem with “renaming” quick link entries. Thank you! :)
You’re most welcome John.
Brilliant workaround. I just needed a quick fix to easily reference and identify local folders, many of which share the same name. The fact that it works well, with instructions that are relatively easy to follow (i.e. this would be beyond some of the people I assist), combined with the images you provided makes this the best solution to this aggravating issue that I’ve found online to date, bar none. Thank you!
This way back to stone age. Last time I used this workaround was in WIN XP. Imporant feature to change the “view”-name in favorvites / quick access
This is just yet another example of why win10 is a huge leap backwards from win7
I just tried this (5/8/2019), and it seems like something may have changed with Windows. I am able to created the “Pinned Folders” folder and generate the symbolic links within it. I did have to use “mklink /D…” instead of “mklink /J…” because I am linking to network folders. However, when I pin that symbolic link, the name that shows up in Quick Access is the name of the folder at the end of the link(i.e. “Pin me”) rather than what I named the link (i.e. “Pin me 1”).
So now this whole method is just a roundabout way to get the same result as if you just pinned the folder itself to begin with. Can anyone else verify that if this method still works for them so I can know if it just doesn’t work anymore, or is specific to me (i.e. me doing something wrong, specific software configuration, etc.)?
I see the same thing as Adam. They have the original name, not the new name.
Not sure how to go about testing for a network drive/server, but had a similar issue with a remote desktop. My laptop (C:) has access to my machine PC (Z:) and both had duplicate folder names. I created the pinned folder and linked them on each respective PC C-drives. When I set the “Z:\…\Pinned Folders” to my quick access they all work and did keep there respective names.
This may not be as easy on a server where you may not have access to run command prompt, but if you create the link on the same drive as the source folder, it may work.
The name of the shortcut is appearing in “Quick Access” only when the shortcut is pointing to a local folder.
If the shortcut is pointing to a network folder, the name in “Quick Access” still shows the actual folder name, but not the name of the shortcut.
Not sure if anyone found a workaround for this. please share.
Right clic the folder you want to rename->Properties->General tab->Put the new Name->Ok->BOOM!
@krimo when I renamed it, it renamed the original network folder. Did anyone find a solution that works?
I found this but did not try as the Registry must be modified. https://winaero.com/blog/how-to-re-add-favorites-to-navigation-pane-of-windows-10-explorer/
The Win 10 change to not allow Favorites to be renamed is extremely frustrating.
Can you restore the Win 7 Favorites properties in Win 10 that allows you to rename the Network Folder Favorite without renaming the actual folder and retain the actual (as opposed to above where it changes the path)? You could do this in Win 7 and it was a HUGE time saver. Here is a link to doing this but the Registry must be modified so I have not tried. https://winaero.com/blog/how-to-re-add-favorites-to-navigation-pane-of-windows-10-explorer/
I found a solution. Create a folder “MyFavorate” and pinned it on the Quick Access. Then create a short cut on the folder you want, drag that short cut into the “MyFavorate” that pinned on the Quick Access. It will add a short into the pinned “MyFavorate” under Quick Access. You can rename the short cut in the pinned “MyFavorate”. Remove the original short cut where ever it is. It works on both folders on the local drive and folders on the server! Done!!!
Or you could just add them to This PC instead:
Add your shortcuts to the following location and name them whatever you like:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
Credits to hongkiat
I followed your advice and ended up taking it a step further. Here is what I did:
• I created two new folders under my %userprofile% one called “batch-macros” and the other “pinned-folders”
• I created a new macro called “linked.bat” saved in “batch-macros” that contains the following text:
@echo off
set /p target_folder=Which current sub-folder?
set /p linked_name=New link name:
mklink /D “%userprofile%\pinned-folders\%linked_name%” “%target_folder%”
cd “%userprofile%\pinned-folders”
start .
• I updated my system environment variables path to look in the new %userprofile%\batch-macros folder
• When I want to put a subfolder into QuickAccess with a unique name, I go to the parent folder of the folder I want to pin using Windows Explorer.
• In the address bar, I just write the name of the batch-macro “linked” (without the .bat” at the end)
• This opens a Windows Command Prompt and runs the script, asking me the two question “Which subfolder do I want to link?” and “What do I want to call it?”
• It creates the symbolic link for me and opens a new Windows Explorer window to my “pinned-folders” location so I can right-click the newly created symbolic link and select “Pin to Quick Access”
Might be cooler if I could figure out how to create a right-click option for folders that would do the same, but this works great for now.
If I remember correctly you need Administrator permission to make these links. The program does run, but it returns an error. I wish there was a way to get “Favorites” back without admin access.