9

I really want This PC to be the first element in my navigation pane, after Quick access, but things like OneDrive and Dropbox give themselves higher priority:

enter image description here

How can I reorder or remove specific entries?

Improve this question

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
15

On Windows 10...

I have only found the Navigation Pane to be configurable directly in the Windows Registry, without using a third-party tool.

3rd-party entries are under the path \HKEY_USERS\[*SID*]_Classes\CLSID\[*ApplicationHash*]. If you're the only user logged on, your SID (or Security Identifier) will be obvious because there will only be one. It is the long one. Entries only exist for users currently logged in, otherwise you can determine your SID by using the Command Prompt statement wmic useraccount get name,sid.

Entries can be found by searching for the name that shows in the Navigation Pane. The ones listed in the question are as follows:

  1. {018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-xxxxxxxxxxxx} OneDrive
  2. {0E270DAA-1BE6-48F2-AC49-xxxxxxxxxxxx} Creative Cloud Files
  3. {E31EA727-12ED-4702-820C-xxxxxxxxxxxx} Dropbox

Note that different people may have a varying value for the last 12-digit segment in the path.

Entries are configured using the two values System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree (boolean) and SortOrderIndex (integer) which control visibility and the order ranking, respectively:

enter image description here

Reorder the entries by updating all the SortOrderIndex values (ignoring those you disable, of course), with new values such that sorting those smallest to largest would be in the same order you want the Navigation Pane entries3.

For example, to reorder such that This PC comes before DropBox and then OneDrive, you could set SortOrder of DropBox to 998 and OneDrive to 999.

Once you have specified your configuration, force restart Windows Explorer to effect the update by killing it with Task Manager (open directly with Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and re-launching from there (File > Run new task > explorer.exe).

Quick Access can be removed by adding a new REG_DWORD HubMode with value 1 to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. More info.

Notes

  1. You will have to repeat these steps when applications update. Permissions can only be set on the keys (i.e. folders), not the individual values to prevent them from being modified, and denying access to a key has the same effect as setting System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree to 0 (i.e. removes it altogether).
  2. Sort rankings are interpreted modulo 100, so 40, 140, 240, ... are treated as the same value (see comments).
  3. Quick Access and This PC appear to be configured differently and I haven't figured out where they are defined yet, so I am using large sort rankings to ensure 3rd party entries come after.
  4. You might need to run Registry Editor as administrator (use either method here) and take ownership of the values before you can modify them. It works for me only running as Admin without having to take ownership, but I'll leave this here for reference.
Improve this answer
6
  • Disclaimers aren't necessary
    – JW0914
    Commented Dec 28, 2019 at 5:53
  • Yeah it seems kinda like a meme to say it at this point.
    – Elaskanator
    Commented Dec 29, 2019 at 18:02
  • 1
    I will add to this that MEGAsync on my machine uses the has {D387DC59-8DDF-456E-8A57-xxxxxxxxxxxx}, for those that want to re-order that as well.
    – MechanicalMan
    Commented May 14, 2020 at 21:29
  • 1
    This was great - thanks! I found that if you set the values over 100 then it loops back round to the top of the list. 50 put things between "This PC" and "Network" for me - anything more than 60 put it after "Network". This is on Win 11... in case that helps anyone else.
    – x3ja
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 13:14
  • 1
    A few missing details. It can be quite challenging to locate the specific CLSID. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace and take note of the application hash, then find it by appending it to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{xxxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx}. From there you might need to add a new DWORD 32-bit value for "SortOrderIndex"
    – spaceman-spiff
    Commented Oct 17, 2023 at 6:50
3

Not enough rep to comment, sorry! This is building on Elaskanator's answer above.

{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-xxxxxxxxxxx} -> Libraries.

You can enable/disable this through the UI as well.

By default SortOrderIndex (dword) key doesn't exist for this one, but you can add it to maneuver it in the list. (eg I set mine to 0 to make it appear over "This PC" and Dropbox.

Quick Access, This PC, and Network do not have an entry in this list. Additionally, Quick Access doesn't seem to care about sort order.

Improve this answer
2
  • I mentioned in my answer how to remove Quick Access (another question entirely). And thanks for contributing, the above bot comment is very disparaging (I've flagged it as unhelpful - I remember the pain too). Now if only I could stop "3D Objects" under This PC from regenerating every Windows Update...
    – Elaskanator
    Commented Oct 28, 2022 at 21:34
  • Don't worry about not having enough rep to comment, I think pretty much everyone agrees that this limitation is unnecessary and it doesn't prevent or stop spamming or trolling
    – Sasino
    Commented Dec 10, 2023 at 1:25
1

So to fix this problem I used WinAero (free software).
After opening it, look for

"Navigation Pane" -> "Default Items".

Uncheck / check some items and they will appear in that specific order.

Improve this answer
0

I have tried this on Windows 11, found my SID, changed the SortOrderIndex and restarted explorer - no changes. Also restarted the computer without any success.

Does anyone know if this still applies to Windows 11? Or any other approach needed?

Edit: Seems like the only way to re-order is to rename the items as they are sorted in alphabetical order.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .