Keyboard shortcut to hide/show Explorer navigation

Question

Does Windows Explorer in Windows 7 have a keyboard shortcut that hides or shows the navigation pane?

It's pretty annoying each time to click Organize|Layout|Navigation pane...

Answer 1

I don't believe there is a keyboard shortcut (I just tried all the ctrl/alt + alphabet keys, and none of them opened the navigation pane)

Answer 2

Here is how I do it:

1) Shift + Tab

2) Shift + Tab

3) ↓

4) L

5) N

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

you may want to record an action and script it. you and use autohotkey to execute that script with a keyboard shortcut. http://www.autohotkey.com/

Answer 4

Not a direct answer, but you can hide the navigation pane in one folder, and apply this setting for all folders. You will now have to manually enable the navigation pane each time you want to use it.

Here's how:

1. Open Folder Options via the Tools menu (ALT-T, O)
2. Select "View" tab
3. Press "Apply to Folders"

Answer 5

here is a autohotkey script

Win+A toggles the navi pane

/*
Author:  
Date:    
Contact: 
*/

#NoTrayIcon
#Persistent
#NoEnv
#SingleInstance, Force

#IfWinActive ahk_class CabinetWClass
#a::
Send !d{tab}{tab}{enter}ln

Answer 6

Yes, it's not very well thought out on Microsoft's behalf.

If I have a folder on my desktop which contains JUST shortcut to programs that do say "audio" work. When I open the folder I just want to see icons, not the navigation pane.

If I make it vanish for that folder, then the next time I open explorer (say to look at my PC folder structure) it's gone from there also.

Windows 7 should remember whether or not the navigation pane was enabled on a "per folder" basis, or AT THE VERY LEAST, provide a quick shortcut key to display or hide it.

Piss poor if you ask me.

The navigation pane takes up a lot of space, and people who like their folders and work areas looking "just right" won't be very please at this omission. In this respect, the old explorer worked a lot better. (Even if it did forget the layout for ALL of your folders from time to time!). This one doesn't even have options to remember your folder layout with respect to the navigation pane. Probably why M$ couldn't be bothered to fix the original problem with it, electing to just ommit it from future versions instead.

Answer 7

I can't see any keyboard shortcuts (apart from OGR's answer), but there is a plugin which adds a Navigation Pane button to the Windows Explorer bar, which at least makes it quicker to toggle.

Details here: Toggle the Navigation Pane with a Button in Windows Explorer

Answer 8

Here is a macro in PhraseExpress (freely available here):

{#shift {#tab}}{#sleep 500}{#shift {#tab}}{#sleep 500}{#down}{#sleep 500}l{#sleep 500}n

Note: sleep 500 makes it more stable.