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In Windows7, when you open the Windows Explorer using the pinned Windows Explorer button on taskbar, it opens WE and points it to My Documents folder.

Is there a way to change this so it doesn't open My Documents, but rather "Computer" just as Windows+E keyboard shortcut does?

5 Answers 5

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Have you tried the method that used to work in XP and Vista?:

  • Open Explorer, and go to your Start Menu folder.
  • Find the shortcut for Explorer, right click on it, and select Properties.
  • Click on the Shortcut tab, and change the Target so it reads: c:\windows\EXPLORER.EXE /n, /e, d:\myfolder (where c:\windows is your Windows directory, and d:\myfolder is the directory in which you want Explorer to start.)

From Easy Tweaks (Vista)

On my XP machine I have "Start in" set to "%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%" which opens Explorer in My Computer from where I can see all the drives etc.

NOTE I haven't got Windows-7 to check this, but I thought it ought to be mentioned

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  • The problem is that I don't want it to start in a folder, but rather in "Computer", so my disks are shown. For now, this will do, but I wonder what should I write there to get to the Computer (virtual) folder Sep 30, 2009 at 20:44
  • Ah - sorry, missed that bit of your question.
    – ChrisF
    Sep 30, 2009 at 20:46
  • Does work under 7, ChrisF. No worries. I'd just change "c:\windows\" to "%windir%\"
    – A Dwarf
    Sep 30, 2009 at 20:46
  • No longer works on windows 10
    – Wasif
    Sep 19, 2020 at 16:54
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This would be the target line to open Windows Explorer with 'My Computer':

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,::{20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d}
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  • this was (and still is) the correct answer for Windows XP. Still using it for win 10. (although win 10 allows you to leave out the /e, and stil get the two-pane classic explorer window)
    – BISI
    Jul 15, 2020 at 0:35
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%windir%\explorer.exe /n, /e, /select, C:\

The above selects the C:\ drive, but it does not open it, effectively making Computer your selected folder on the left pane.

Enjoy :)

It is not meant to ignore other answers that already addressed it. My vote goes to them. But I prefer human-readable stuff to abstract things like ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}.

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  • No longer works on windows 10
    – Wasif
    Sep 19, 2020 at 16:54
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If you want to change it from "Quick Access" to "My Computer" there is a much simpler solution found by @scott-hanselman.

Windows Explorer > View > Options > General > Open File Explorer to: [choose]

Source: https://twitter.com/shanselman/status/631287927184621568

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Nothing but a workaround trick (For Windows 10, should work from Windows 8 I think):

  • First Right-click the folder you want to make default > Hover on Send To > Click Desktop (Create Shortcut).
  • Open %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar folder.
  • Move the shortcut which has been created in Desktop to the folder.
  • Delete existing shortcut named File Explorer.
  • Rename the newly moved shortcut to File Explorer.

It will only work if explorer was opened from pinned shortcut in Taskbar.

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