Set a “default” folder for Windows Explorer pinned taskbar icon in Windows 7?

Question

Using Windows 7.

I have a Windows Explorer icon pinned to my taskbar.

When no Explorer window is open, clicking it takes me to “Libraries”, a folder that I never use. Is there a way to set a default folder to show here?

I already followed the steps in the vaguely-related question “Is there a way to set up a default folder for Windows Explorer?”, but it had no effect (indeed a comment there suggested it no longer works in Windows 7).

Answer 1

With all Windows Explorer windows closed, hold down Shift and right-click the Windows Explorer icon that is pinned to the Taskbar. Select Properties from the menu.

On the Shortcut tab, the Target: field is probably:

%windir%\explorer.exe

Add a space and the path to the folder you want to be your default. I changed my target to

%windir%\explorer.exe "C:\Users\william\"

Quotation marks around the folder path are only necessary if the path contains a space.

Answer 2

From this article (Trick to Open Computer or Documents as Default Instead of Libraries Folder with Windows Explorer on Windows 7):

For user who doesn’t actually use Libraries, or prefer Windows Explorer to open up My Documents, Documents, or even Computer (the highest level view that shows all drives available on the computer), this trick will set Windows Explorer to open and show the prefer folder by default.

1. In Windows 7 Start Menu, right click on the Windows Explorer shortcut (typically store inside All Programs -> Accessories) and then select Properties.

   On Windows 7 Taskbar, hold down Shift key, and then right click on the Windows Explorer icon, and then select Properties. If you already have one or more Windows Explorer windows open, right click on the Windows Explorer icon, and then right click on the Windows Explorer link again to click on Properties, as illustrated below.

   

2. In the Target text box under Shortcut tab, change the value to one of the following to open either Documents or Computer by default.

   To Make Documents as Default Folder to Open by Windows Explorer upon Launching

   %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}

   To Make Computer as Default Folder to Open by Windows Explorer upon Launching

   %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

   

3. Click OK when done. Now, Windows 7 Explorer will open Documents or Computer directly, skipping and bypassing Libraries, depends on what you set or configure on initial run.

Answer 3

Simply make it a shortcut to the folder you want to use as default.

Answer 4

As far as I know this function isn't directly supported by Windows.

The fact is, that the taskbar allows you to pin programs, and not directories. So, the only way to get this to work, would be to change the command-line parameters for explorer.exe when it opens.

Right-click on the "Windows Explorer" option inside the Windows Explorer taskbar icon and click on properties.

Here you will find that the shortcut points to: %windir%/explorer.exe

All you need to do, is add the path that you want it to open after that ...

EXAMPLE:

%windir&explorer.exe "C:\Users\usernameHere\Documents\"

Just remember that this is an unclean way of doing it... And remember to keep the quotes around the path to make sure that any spaces in the path don't confuse the command line.