Like Windows 7 with Vista, Windows 10 was an effort on Microsoft’s behalf exists to improve on the mistakes and criticisms that came with Windows 8, complete with small, biannual updates and mandatory security patches to keep computers safe during everyday use. It isn’t a stretch to say Windows 10 is the best operating system Microsoft has ever shipped, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. Like any other operating system, Windows 10 has its fair share of problems and complaints, and some longtime Windows users may take umbrage with certain changes made when shipping the newest updates.

One of the revamped features in Windows 10 is the “Quick Access” view in File Explorer. Quick Access replaced the “Favorites” view from Windows 8.1 and aims to blend user-defined favorite locations—i.e., Desktop, Downloads, and Documents—with an automatically generated list of frequently and most recently accessed files and folders.
Some users may find Quick Access in Windows 10 to be helpful, as it has the potential to keep a user’s most important information easily accessible from a single location, but those who prefer to manually manage their data will likely find Quick Access more annoying than useful. While Quick Access can’t be disabled completely in Windows 10, it can be tamed to the point where it operates similarly to the File Explorer Favorites from Windows 8.1. Here’s how to clean up and restrict Quick Access in Windows 10.The Windows 10 Quick Access settings are found in File Explorer’s Folder Options interface. To get there, open a File Explorer window and navigate to the View tab at the top. Once on the View tab, find and click on the Options button, which by default is located on the far right side of the File Explorer toolbar. This will launch the Folder Options window.
In the Folder Options window, make sure you’re on the General tab and then locate the “Privacy” section at the bottom of the window. These options control how Quick Access populates and displays your data.
If Quick Access has cluttered its interface with files and folders that you think aren’t relevant or useful, the first step you may wish to take is clear everything from Quick Access and basically start over. You can do this by clicking the Clear button, and you’ll instantly see all of your data disappear from the Quick Access interface in File Explorer.
If you prefer to be more surgical in your approach to taming Quick Access, you can always manually remove any file or folder by right-clicking on it and selecting Remove from Quick Access.
If Quick Access has taken the liberty of pinning a file or folder for you and you wish to remove it, the process is similar, except this time you’ll right-click on the item and select Unpin from Quick Access.
These steps will help you clear the files and folders that Quick Access has gathered thus far, but if you stop now, then Quick Access will simply start collecting recently and frequently accessed data all over again. To stop this process and prevent Quick Access from automatically populating itself with your data, you’ll need to also uncheck one or both of the check boxes in the Privacy section of File Explorer’s Folder Options.
The two options — Show recently used files in Quick Access and Show frequently used folders in Quick Access — behave as their names indicate, and will prevent Quick Access from further populating its interface with new files or folders going forward. If you wish to completely limit Quick Access, check both boxes. If, however, you like the idea of having Windows automatically track your most frequently used folders but not your recent files — or vice versa — then check only one of the boxes as appropriate.
Going further, you can avoid Quick Access entirely by changing the default view when you open a new File Explorer window. We’ve discussed this tip in the past but, briefly, simply change the “Open File Explorer to:” option at the top of the Folder Options window from Quick Access to This PC. Once you’ve made your choice on how Quick Access operates, click Apply and then OK to save your changes and close the window.
Just because you’ve tamed Quick Access in Windows 10 doesn’t mean that it’s completely useless. You can still manually pin your favorite folder locations to the Quick Access sidebar for easy access.
To do so, simply right-click on any file or folder in File Explorer and select Pin to Quick Access. The folder will be immediately added to the Quick Access section of the File Explorer sidebar, where you can arrange it among your other manually pinned Quick Access locations by dragging and dropping them into the desired order.
A final note: for those new to Windows, it’s important to point out that manipulating files and folders in Quick Access does not change or alter the original files or folders in any way. Quick Access (along with Favorites and Libraries in previous versions of Windows) acts only as a pointer to the original files on your PC, and removing a file or folder from Quick Access doesn’t remove or delete the original.
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30 thoughts on “How to Clean Up and Tame Quick Access in Windows 10”
Right-click Quick access, and choose Open in New Window.
Select all folder icons in the window.
Right-click one of them, and choose Unpin from Quick Access.
I love the fact that when you say “save a file” like a screen shot of something, you immediately want to access it, like attach to an email.
If you grab it from Quick Access, the “last location” you accessed in File Explorer attach a file is not lost – I find this really handy.
I would love to know how to make the “Quick Access” always be pinned to the top of the same Attach a File dialogue window. At the moment it is a massive scroll to the top…. which I would love to change. Any ideas? Pin Quick Access to the top haha.
– in the left pane click on “This PC”
– right click in the right pane of the part labeled “Network Locations” and select “Add a network location” from the context menu
– there is a silly wizard that you can just click Next twice on
– for “Internet or network address:” enter the UNC path name of the network folder you want a shortcut for then click “Next”
– click “Finish” and you’ll see the new shortcut, which is renameable like the old “Favorites” listed under “This PC” on the left pane
Thanks!
What the **** is a File Explorer window and how do you open it?
Dear Windows Engineer, Look at the options available in the GUI in Linux, then translate those into options for Windows. Don’t disable or hide things because it might confuse grandma. Thanks, Not an Idiot
I can’t even pin that folder to the explorer shortcut, pinning it to the start menu is forbidden.
What use are features you can’t use in the first place.
How to rename the “Quick Access” text button?
Is that possible to rename the “Quick Access” in navigation explorer pane of Windows 10?
Via registry I managed to rename the “Libraries” in “Αrchives”, but for
Quick Access I failed to find something.
Do you know how?
(I’m sorry for my poor english from google translate) Thank You!!
I do use Quick Access and what I would LOVE is a shortcut to expand it and be at the top of it. Every time I’m in Explorer and I want something from Quick Access, (which is almost always) I have to scroll to the top of the window. I feel irritated at MS every time I have to scroll to get to the top of the quick access folder list. I really wish it was a pull down menu from the menu bar.
Regardless if that is renaming the Quick Access link or technically renaming the actual folder, the fact that you can’t rename the folders in Quick Access sucks in many ways.
I have read of at least one other person with the same issue, but appreciate it if anyone can throw any light on it. As a temporary fix I’ve had to create shortcuts to the network folders I want to access and then save those within a local-folder, which I can then ‘pin’ to the Quick Access facility. However, if I have to carry on this way, I’ll also need a fix to rename ‘Quick Access’ to “Drawn-Out and Tedious Access” 😉
Thanks.
I have not seen this issue personally, but I just tested it with Insider Build 10532 and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. With three separately mapped network drives, I was able to pin a folder from each to Quick Access without any problems. Not sure when Microsoft will roll this fix out to the stable version of Windows 10, but you should hopefully see it soon (rumors point to November for the next major Windows 10 update).
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