In Windows 10, a lot of changes are made to the File Explorer. While some are useful, some not so much. One such feature that annoys me is the new Quick Access view. The Quick Access view shows the frequently used files and folders for user convenience, many don’t this default view. Now whenever you open File Explorer, it opens up Quick View instead of “This PC” and you have to click the This PC link in the navigation pane to access the disk drives and connected devices and it also shows your user account folders (Desktop, Music, Downloads, Documents, Pictures, and Videos) every time.

Change the default location of File Explorer to open This PC:

• Open File Explorer (Win key + E), and click on View tab.
• Click on Options.
• Under the General tab, change the option Open File Explorer to to This PC by selecting it from the drop-down list. This will set the old This PC view as default in File Explorer whenever you open it.
• If you don’t want your frequently accessed files or folders from appearing in the Quick Access view due to privacy concerns, un-check the Show recently used files in Quick Access and Show frequently used folders in Quick Access options under the Privacy section.

Now you have the traditional This PC set as the default view and Quick Access doesn’t show your frequently accessed files and folders.

Completely remove Quick Access

If you want to completely remove Quick Access from the File Explorer, follow the steps below. However, this method involves editing the registry files which if done wrong, can render your OS unusable. So, it’s always better to make a complete registry backup.

We will make the the local administrator account(s) have full control over the ShellFolder, which in turn, will allow the registry keys in this folder to be modified.

• Open the Run dialog box (Win key + R) and type in regedit and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• Now navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}
• To change the permission, double click the ablove key and right click on ShellFolder and click on Permissions.
• In the permission window, click on Advanced button.
  
•  Advanced Security Settings for ShellFolder window should pop up. We now have to change the ownership to Administrators. To do so, click on Change, now click on Advanced.
• Now click on Find Now button, and from the search results, select “Administrators”. Now simply click OK, OK again, then hit Apply, hit OK once more, and again hit OK for one last time to close the ShellFolder Permissions window.
• Now, Inside ShellFolder registry key, double-click on Attributes, and change the data value from a0100000 to a0600000, and hit OK.

Now just restart by opening the Task Manager, and find and select File Explorer, right click and select Restart from bottom-right corner to let the changes take effect.

Now when you open the File Explorer, you won’t find the Quick Access. To revert, simply change the value of the registry key back to the old value.

Ishaan Farooq

Hi, I am Ishaan Farooq, let me introduce myself. I am a Tech Blogger from Lucknow, India and am a big Techo Freak who loves to Surf Internet the whole day and is a Modding, Programming and Customization Enthusiast.