Where is the favourites folder in Windows 7?

Question

I wanted to copy my favourites links from another machine onto a newly installed Windows 7 machine, but the system won't let me paste them into the Favourites folder showing at the top of Windows Explorer.

I can't see the old \Documents and Settings\User\Favourites on the C:\ drive any more, so where are they stored now?

Answer 1

The Documents and Settings folder simply changed name to Users in Vista and Windows 7.

%USERPROFILE%\Favorites

will work on all versions.

Answer 2

It should be

%systemdrive%\Users\%username%\Favorites\

If you copy and paste that line in to run, you should be able to get to your IE favourites.

Answer 3

As well as the %USERPROFILE% trick, this also works from the Start Menu or Run dialog:

shell:favorites

Answer 4

Look under \Users\username, the Favorites folder is there.

Answer 5

Go to C:/Users.

You should see a list AppData, Public, <your user name>. Click on the user name – in my case "Ric".

Favorites is in here along with Contacts, My Music, My Pictures, Downloads, My Documents, Desktop etc, unlike in Windows XP where you had to hunt in different places for these files, Windows 7 has them all in the one folder.

Answer 6

The favourites folder for IE in windows7 is located in:

%USERPROFILE%\Favorites

The favourites folder for windows explorer sidebar in windows7 is located in:

%USERPROFILE%\Links

Answer 7

Remember for you to view th favourites folder under C:\Users\Steve\Favorites you must first enable the view hidden files and system files

Answer 8

In Windows 7, they're stored in: C:\Users\username\Favorites (or simply %userprofile%\Favorites).

From there, you can right-click on the file, copy it and save it to a flash drive in case your computer crashes, you will have all of your favorites.

If you have to buy a new computer or have to do a clean install of the operating system, you can go to your new computer's favorites and transfer your old favorites to it.