Customizing Categories and Items in Windows 10 File Explorer's Navigation Pane for a Better Workflow
Microsoft's File Explorer is a powerful tool for managing files and folders in Windows 10. One of its key features is the Navigation Pane, which allows you to quickly access frequently used folders, network locations, and other important areas of your system. In this article, we will explore how to customize the Navigation Pane to better suit your workflow.
Understanding the Navigation Pane
The Navigation Pane is divided into several categories, including:
- Favorites: shortcuts to frequently used folders
- Quick access: frequently used files and folders
- This PC: shortcuts to hard drives, devices, and network locations
- Homegroup: shortcuts to shared files and folders in a home network
- Network: shortcuts to network locations
- OneDrive: shortcuts to your OneDrive files and folders
Customizing the Favorites Category
The Favorites category is the most customizable section of the Navigation Pane. By default, it includes shortcuts to your Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Pictures, and Music folders. You can add, remove, and rearrange these shortcuts as follows:
- To add a new shortcut, navigate to the folder you want to add, right-click it, and choose
Add to Favorites. - To remove a shortcut, right-click it in the Favorites category and choose
Remove from Favorites. - To rearrange shortcuts, click and drag them to the desired position.
Customizing the Quick Access Category
The Quick access category is automatically populated with frequently used files and folders, but you can also pin specific items to it for easy access. To pin an item, navigate to the file or folder you want to pin, right-click it, and choose Pin to Quick access.
Customizing the This PC Category
The This PC category cannot be customized in the same way as the Favorites and Quick access categories, but you can change the default folders that appear in it. To do this, follow these steps:
- Open File Explorer and click
Viewin the ribbon. - Click the
Optionsbutton in the View tab. - In the Options dialog, click the
Generaltab. - Under the
Privacysection, click theClearbutton to clear the list of frequently used folders. - Close the Options dialog and restart File Explorer for the changes to take effect.
Customizing Other Categories
The other categories in the Navigation Pane (Homegroup, Network, and OneDrive) cannot be customized using the built-in options, but you can still access their settings and options through the Control Panel or Settings app.
- The Navigation Pane in File Explorer is a powerful tool for managing files and folders in Windows 10.
- You can customize the Favorites and Quick access categories by adding, removing, and rearranging shortcuts and pinned items.
- You can change the default folders that appear in the This PC category by clearing the list of frequently used folders in the File Explorer Options.
- The other categories in the Navigation Pane (Homegroup, Network, and OneDrive) cannot be customized using the built-in options, but you can still access their settings and options through the Control Panel or Settings app.