By default, the File Explorer in Windows 11 opens to Home. Home shows frequently visited and pinned folders and your favorite and recent files.
In addition to Home, the File Explorer navigation pane (left pane) always shows your frequent and pinned folders, so you can quickly access them from any folder.
If the File Explorer Quick Access is showing several folders that you do not want to see or if it’s not working correctly, you can clear and reset the Quick Access folders by running a command from the Command Prompt window.
This guide shows you how to clear and reset Quick Access folders in Windows 11.
Clear and reset Quick Access folders via Command Prompt in Windows 11
Step 1: Open the Command Prompt window as administrator. To do that, search for Command Prompt in the search, right-click on the Command Prompt entry, and then click the Run as administrator option.
Click the Yes button when you see the User Account Control prompt.
Step 2: At the Command Prompt window, copy and paste the following command and then press the Enter key to clear and reset the Quick Access folders.
del /f /s /q /a “%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms”
You may close the Command Prompt window now.
Clear File Explorer history via Folder Options
Clearing the File Explorer history will clear recent files and frequently visited folder history as well. Please note that this will not clear or unpin pinned folders. Here is how.
Step 1: Use the Start or taskbar search to open File Explorer Options.
Step 2: Here, under the General tab, click the Clear button under the Privacy section to clear File Explorer history. That’s it!
Remove a pinned folder from Quick Access in Windows 11
Step 1: Right-click on the pinned folder you want to remove and then click the Unpin from Quick Access option.
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