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My user home folder does not display in the Windows Explorer file tree. I have things like Libraries and Favourites, but my user profile folder isn't there. I know it can appear there because I had it there when I was using Windows 7 RC.

How do I get it back?

See below for the evidence that it exists, yet does not appear promoted to the top level of the tree, like it should be:

alt text

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5 Answers 5

Reset to default
6

Browse to "Users" In the right hand pane grab your "Dell" user folder, drag it to the "Favourites" and drop (you will see a prompt to create a link in Favourites before you let go)

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  • That's good enough I guess. I wish I knew how to promote it to the top level of the tree though...
    – Nathan Ridley
    Nov 25, 2009 at 10:44
  • I don't know a way to get it promoted up a level, but you can get it nearer the top of your favourites list simply by dragging - you can sort the favourites by name, but you can manually set it to any order you like by dragging items around.
    – AdamV
    Nov 25, 2009 at 12:51
  • 1
    Colin's answer about "Show All Folders" is what the OP was actually looking for. This is just a workaround.
    – Sam Hanes
    Apr 24, 2013 at 20:01
  • Good call, I've upvoted
    – AdamV
    Apr 24, 2013 at 23:21
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To see your user name as a folder:

  1. From the Explorer toolbar click Organize,
  2. Folder and Search Options,
  3. Check "Show All Folders" in Navigation Pane.

This will give you a Desktop folder, and put everything but Favorites under it, including your user directory. (You can also right click in the Folder Pane itself, but it's tricky because it only works in the margin space. Right click the margin space between Favorites and Library because you want the context to be the pane, not any folders under the cursor)

(I know this is an old question, but I had the same issue, and I've found the solution, so I thought I'd post and help the next person out.)

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1

If Libraries and Favorites are there, then your user profile is still there.

EDIT

Right-click Documents and choose Properties to see where they are.
(You might also do that to Downloads.)

It should give something like:

image

Please post what are these values.

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5
  • Yep, see my edit above.
    – Nathan Ridley
    Nov 24, 2009 at 16:52
  • Please answer my edit.
    – harrymc
    Nov 24, 2009 at 19:30
  • Exactly what you posted above, but "Dell" instead of "harry"
    – Nathan Ridley
    Nov 25, 2009 at 10:45
  • Well, then you're suffering from an infestation of Dell : "Dell" IS your profile name. See "How to rename or move a User Profile folder" at fixya.com/support/r463850-rename_or_move_user_profile_folder. It's for Vista but is probably the same for Win7.
    – harrymc
    Nov 25, 2009 at 11:12
  • My issue was not the fact that it was named "Dell", but that it was not referenced from the top of the explorer tree. I don't really care what it's called... :P
    – Nathan Ridley
    Nov 25, 2009 at 17:12
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An even newer response to an old question.

The first time I had a Windows 7 installation, at a former job, my user profile was shown as a top-level node in the tree. I don't know if this was by default, but I had make changes to my home Win7 install and also at subsequent jobs to get it back.

I found a page at microsoft.com that leads to this convoluted procedure that requires manually editing the registry.

Unfortunately, altho the registry key in question exists in Windows 10, I cannot make the required changes there; permissions seem to be locked down tighter.

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  • External links can break or be unavailable, in which case your answer would not be useful. Please include the essential information within your answer to make the solution self-contained, and use the link for attribution and further reading. Thanks.
    – fixer1234
    Jun 19, 2016 at 3:46
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This registry file worked for me:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}]
"System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree"=dword:00000001

Source: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/88845-add-remove-user-folder-navigation-pane-windows-10-a.html

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