File Explorer has received a major redesign in Windows 11. But at its core, it still has all the key features from Windows 10 and one of them is Quick Access. This is a useful section in File Explorer for easily accessing your frequently used folders and recently opened files. So you can use Quick Access in Windows 11 to quickly open files without navigating through the folder structure.
If you’re curious to learn more about using Quick Access, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll show you how to use, reset, and remove Quick Access on Windows 11. So let’s jump right into it.
Pin or unpin folders for quick access
When you open File Explorer on Windows 11, you’ll be greeted with Quick Access. It shows you the 10 most frequently used folders and the 20 most recently accessed files. That said, you can customize Quick Access by pinning some of your favorite folders to access them quickly. This is the way.
Step 1: Open the Start menu, type data management program, and press Enter. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Windows + E for the same.
Step 2: Next, navigate to the folder you want to add in Quick Access. Right click on it and select Pin to Quick Access.
If you want to unpin a folder from Quick Access, right-click the folder in Quick Access and select Unpin from Quick Access.
Similarly, you can also delete a recent file from Quick Access by right-clicking it and selecting Remove from Quick Access.
Quick access pane shows recent files and folders
While it’s pretty easy to remove a file or folder from Quick Access, you can also prevent Quick Access from showing your most used folders or recently used files entirely. This is the way.
Step 1: Press the Windows + E keyboard shortcut to launch File Explorer.
Step 2: Use the three-dot menu icon at the top to select Options from the list.
Step 3: In the Folder Options window, switch to the General tab. Under Privacy, uncheck the boxes that say ‘Show recently used files in Quick Access’ and ‘Show frequently used folders in Quick Access’.
Finally, press Apply followed by OK.
That’s it. Then Quick Access will only show you the pinned folders.
How to quickly reset access on Windows 11
If you’ve cluttered up Quick Access by pinning too many folders, you can always reset Quick Access and start over. Doing so will also clear the Recent Files history in Quick Access.
To reset Quick Access, you will need to use the command prompt on Windows. Read on to find out how.
Step 1: Open the Start menu, type in cmdand click Run as administrator.
Step 2: Run the following commands one by one.
del /q /f %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\* del /q /f %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestination\* del /q /f %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestination \*
And that’s it. This will reset Quick Access on Windows.
While File Explorer doesn’t have an option to reset Quick Access, it does have an option to clear File Explorer history. So, if you just want to clear the current history from Quick Access, here’s how.
Step 1: Open File Explorer and use the three-dot menu in File Explorer to open Folder Options.
Step 2: In the Privacy section, tap the Clear button to clear the Quick Access history.
How to completely disable Quick Access on Windows 11
If you don’t like the idea of using Quick Access, you can also remove it from File Explorer entirely. To do that, you will need to modify the registry files on Windows. Here’s how to do it.
A word of warning. Since Registry files are an integral part of Windows, you should take some time to back up your registry files before making any changes.
Step 1: Press Windows key + R, type re-edit in the box, and then press Enter.
Step 2: Use the address bar at the top to navigate to the following key.
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Step 3: Right click anywhere on your right blank space, select New and select DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it Center mode.
Step 4: Double-click the newly created DWORD and change its value to 1.
After that, restart your PC and you should no longer see Quick Access in File Explorer.
You can re-enable Quick Access at any time by following the same steps above and removing the HubMode entry.
For easier access
If your work involves frequent use of File Explorer, Quick Access can help you open files and folders efficiently. I always use it to pin and access my favorite folders. But hey, if you don’t like using it, you can always turn it off or replace Quick Access with Windows favorites.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
