Dec
30
Windows 7 Tips – Tip #9: Windows Explorer Tip – Set a New Windows Explorer Launch Folder
Filed Under Technology
If you recently upgraded to Windows 7 and want to optimize its features, I thought I would share some tips over the next few weeks from the PC World Magazine article “Top 20 Windows 7 Tips“.
Tip #9: Windows Explorer Tip – Set a New Windows Explorer Launch Folder
“When you run Windows Explorer, it always opens to the Libraries folder. That’s fine if you use Microsoft’s default file organization, which designates Libraries as the overall container for your folders. But what if you don’t? You might prefer to have Windows Explorer open to Computer or any other folder you choose. Here’s how to do it:
1. Right-click the Windows Explorer icon on the taskbar (it’s the one that looks like a folder), and then right-click the Windows Explorer icon from the context menu that appears and select Properties. The Windows Explorer Properties dialog box appears.
2. You’ll have to edit the Target field on the Shortcut tab of this dialog box in order to change the default location at which Explorer opens.
If you want Explorer to open to a specific folder, simply enter the name of the folder, substituting your folder name for Folder, below, like this:
%windir%\explorer.exe c:\Folder
So to open Explorer to the folder named Budget, you would type this in the Target field:
%windir%\explorer.exe c:\Budget
If you want Explorer to open to special, pre-set locations, such as Computer, you’ll need to enter special syntax in the Target field. Following is a list of three common locations and the syntax to use, followed by the syntax for the Libraries folder in case you ever want to revert to the default.
* Computer: %windir%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
* My Documents: %windir%\explorer.exe ::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}
* Network: %windir%\explorer.exe ::{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
* Libraries: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe
3. After you’ve changed the Target field, click OK. Next time you launch Windows Explorer, it will open to the new location you’ve designated.”
