Quick Tip: Windows Explorer, best shortcut ever!!!
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I think when Win 7 (or 10?) came out, people were saying that the Quick Launch was completely gone, but it isn't. I also have shortcuts for starting Word and Excel empty -- no open document.
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It's gone on Win 11 unless you use a third party app (ExplorerPatcher). I'd still be on Win 10 without ExplorerPatcher.
So, what does ExplorerPatcher do? Create the directory?
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At work they have Windows Explorer set to automatically traverse to a place that I rarely, if ever, need to access. Why?!? It kind of drove me crazy, because I'd open Windows Explorer then click multiple drives & folders to finally end up in my
UserProfile, because 99% of the time I needed to be there to save some data. Life-Changing Shortcut I don't think I'm overstating this. :rolleyes: Anyways, one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time was simply 1. Create a shortcut that opens File Explorer directly into my %UserProfile% directory -- that's c:\users\\ 2. Add the following Target:C:\windows\explorer.exe %userprofile%3. Add a shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + Right (arrow) to immediately run the shortcut. Here's a snapshot of what the shortcut looks like[^]. Now, any time I want File Explorer I just Ctrl+Shift+Right(arrow) and it opens up. Shortcut Seems Faster Also, I've discovered that for some reason this copy of File Explorer seems to open faster than if you click the one on the TaskBar (Maybe because this one doesn't have to hit the network since it is going directly to a specific path???) I've been using this for months now it has provided many benefits: 1. Less folder clicking 2. Less screaming, "Why am I automatically navigated to this @#&%@#!!! network folder!!" 3. I used to be bald and all my hair grew back. 4. Previously I was 5'2" and now I'm 6'4" tall 5. A bag of money fell out of the sky and landed next to me. 6. Various other benefits which are too good to mention here. :rolleyes: -
So, what does ExplorerPatcher do? Create the directory?
It basically gives you the Win 10 taskbar in Win 11. You can then move the taskbar to the top, bottom or the sides. Gives you tool bars so you'll be able to enable Quick Launch, etc. It's basically indistinguishable for the standard Win 10 taskbar. I've been using it for months now and it appears to be working just fine. I also use Open Shell to replace the funky Win 11 start menu.
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Someone else mentioned that. However, if your admins set your (env variable)
HOMESHAREthen when you do that you will be taken to that network location\\network\username\whatever-Admin-Created\I wanted it to load directly to:c:\users\
the local user directory. However, if your admin has set the HOMESHARE, then even when I follow your instructions and use: [win+R][Period][Enter] or [win+R][%userprofile%][Enter] Then it takes me to :
\\network\username\whatever-Admin-Created\Only when I doc:\> explorer %userprofile%does it take me to the local user directory. That's why I was so happy to finally "hack" it. -
Someone else mentioned that. However, if your admins set your (env variable)
HOMESHAREthen when you do that you will be taken to that network location\\network\username\whatever-Admin-Created\I wanted it to load directly to:c:\users\
the local user directory. However, if your admin has set the HOMESHARE, then even when I follow your instructions and use: [win+R][Period][Enter] or [win+R][%userprofile%][Enter] Then it takes me to :
\\network\username\whatever-Admin-Created\Only when I doc:\> explorer %userprofile%does it take me to the local user directory. That's why I was so happy to finally "hack" it. -
Very interesting. Because of your post, I started searching for the windows explorer command-line options to see what /n and /e meant. Those are very difficult to find. There is no :
c:\> explorer /?Only thing I could find was: https://superuser.com/questions/21394/explorer-command-line-switches[^] Do you know of a way to get the available options? -
At work they have Windows Explorer set to automatically traverse to a place that I rarely, if ever, need to access. Why?!? It kind of drove me crazy, because I'd open Windows Explorer then click multiple drives & folders to finally end up in my
UserProfile, because 99% of the time I needed to be there to save some data. Life-Changing Shortcut I don't think I'm overstating this. :rolleyes: Anyways, one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time was simply 1. Create a shortcut that opens File Explorer directly into my %UserProfile% directory -- that's c:\users\\ 2. Add the following Target:C:\windows\explorer.exe %userprofile%3. Add a shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + Right (arrow) to immediately run the shortcut. Here's a snapshot of what the shortcut looks like[^]. Now, any time I want File Explorer I just Ctrl+Shift+Right(arrow) and it opens up. Shortcut Seems Faster Also, I've discovered that for some reason this copy of File Explorer seems to open faster than if you click the one on the TaskBar (Maybe because this one doesn't have to hit the network since it is going directly to a specific path???) I've been using this for months now it has provided many benefits: 1. Less folder clicking 2. Less screaming, "Why am I automatically navigated to this @#&%@#!!! network folder!!" 3. I used to be bald and all my hair grew back. 4. Previously I was 5'2" and now I'm 6'4" tall 5. A bag of money fell out of the sky and landed next to me. 6. Various other benefits which are too good to mention here. :rolleyes:raddevus wrote:
At work they have Windows Explorer set to automatically traverse to a place that I rarely, if ever, need to access. Why?!?
It's because most business users don't care about File Explorer taking a few seconds to open, but they do care that if they break their laptop they may lose stuff, so they want it stored on the network so it's safe and backed up etc, but they don't want to actually have to remember to do anything. So it's easiest if group policy or whatever is set so that every user of every PC gets a default network folder opened unless they do something different. Then when you, having stored files locally, accidentally pours coffee on your hard drive and loses a month's work, IT can just shrug and say "Your own fault..."! :)
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At work they have Windows Explorer set to automatically traverse to a place that I rarely, if ever, need to access. Why?!? It kind of drove me crazy, because I'd open Windows Explorer then click multiple drives & folders to finally end up in my
UserProfile, because 99% of the time I needed to be there to save some data. Life-Changing Shortcut I don't think I'm overstating this. :rolleyes: Anyways, one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time was simply 1. Create a shortcut that opens File Explorer directly into my %UserProfile% directory -- that's c:\users\\ 2. Add the following Target:C:\windows\explorer.exe %userprofile%3. Add a shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + Right (arrow) to immediately run the shortcut. Here's a snapshot of what the shortcut looks like[^]. Now, any time I want File Explorer I just Ctrl+Shift+Right(arrow) and it opens up. Shortcut Seems Faster Also, I've discovered that for some reason this copy of File Explorer seems to open faster than if you click the one on the TaskBar (Maybe because this one doesn't have to hit the network since it is going directly to a specific path???) I've been using this for months now it has provided many benefits: 1. Less folder clicking 2. Less screaming, "Why am I automatically navigated to this @#&%@#!!! network folder!!" 3. I used to be bald and all my hair grew back. 4. Previously I was 5'2" and now I'm 6'4" tall 5. A bag of money fell out of the sky and landed next to me. 6. Various other benefits which are too good to mention here. :rolleyes:Not to forgo the coolness of this, but I have an app that uses Tabs (for years), and always remembers my locations (I have about 10+ of them). So yeah, whenever I open it, it picks up where last left off. Windows Explorer is, to put it simply, pathetic.
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At work they have Windows Explorer set to automatically traverse to a place that I rarely, if ever, need to access. Why?!? It kind of drove me crazy, because I'd open Windows Explorer then click multiple drives & folders to finally end up in my
UserProfile, because 99% of the time I needed to be there to save some data. Life-Changing Shortcut I don't think I'm overstating this. :rolleyes: Anyways, one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time was simply 1. Create a shortcut that opens File Explorer directly into my %UserProfile% directory -- that's c:\users\\ 2. Add the following Target:C:\windows\explorer.exe %userprofile%3. Add a shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + Right (arrow) to immediately run the shortcut. Here's a snapshot of what the shortcut looks like[^]. Now, any time I want File Explorer I just Ctrl+Shift+Right(arrow) and it opens up. Shortcut Seems Faster Also, I've discovered that for some reason this copy of File Explorer seems to open faster than if you click the one on the TaskBar (Maybe because this one doesn't have to hit the network since it is going directly to a specific path???) I've been using this for months now it has provided many benefits: 1. Less folder clicking 2. Less screaming, "Why am I automatically navigated to this @#&%@#!!! network folder!!" 3. I used to be bald and all my hair grew back. 4. Previously I was 5'2" and now I'm 6'4" tall 5. A bag of money fell out of the sky and landed next to me. 6. Various other benefits which are too good to mention here. :rolleyes:I don't know if this was
Quote:
Life-Changing Shortcut
I added a desktop icon and made a shortcut to here C:\Users\Dwight\AppData\Local\Temp So I can delete all the files VS 2019 piles up when I am playing (developing) NOW if I was brave I would write a Batch File to delete these files TOO scared I would delete something I should not delete
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I don't know if this was
Quote:
Life-Changing Shortcut
I added a desktop icon and made a shortcut to here C:\Users\Dwight\AppData\Local\Temp So I can delete all the files VS 2019 piles up when I am playing (developing) NOW if I was brave I would write a Batch File to delete these files TOO scared I would delete something I should not delete
Very interesting. You can use %temp% to get the same directory. For example, a user on win10 (probably win11 too)should be able to: 1. go to file explorer 2. type %temp% <ENTER> and it will take her to the windows temp directory while supplying the proper user-name: c:\users\<user-name>\AppData\Local\Temp I did just that and was blown away to discover that my work computer has: 12.9GB of temp files in there!! :wtf: :wtf:
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At work they have Windows Explorer set to automatically traverse to a place that I rarely, if ever, need to access. Why?!? It kind of drove me crazy, because I'd open Windows Explorer then click multiple drives & folders to finally end up in my
UserProfile, because 99% of the time I needed to be there to save some data. Life-Changing Shortcut I don't think I'm overstating this. :rolleyes: Anyways, one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time was simply 1. Create a shortcut that opens File Explorer directly into my %UserProfile% directory -- that's c:\users\\ 2. Add the following Target:C:\windows\explorer.exe %userprofile%3. Add a shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + Right (arrow) to immediately run the shortcut. Here's a snapshot of what the shortcut looks like[^]. Now, any time I want File Explorer I just Ctrl+Shift+Right(arrow) and it opens up. Shortcut Seems Faster Also, I've discovered that for some reason this copy of File Explorer seems to open faster than if you click the one on the TaskBar (Maybe because this one doesn't have to hit the network since it is going directly to a specific path???) I've been using this for months now it has provided many benefits: 1. Less folder clicking 2. Less screaming, "Why am I automatically navigated to this @#&%@#!!! network folder!!" 3. I used to be bald and all my hair grew back. 4. Previously I was 5'2" and now I'm 6'4" tall 5. A bag of money fell out of the sky and landed next to me. 6. Various other benefits which are too good to mention here. :rolleyes:Quote:
Maybe because this one doesn't have to hit the network since it is going directly to a specific path???
I think you right on that. I had a toolbar that was taking 50+ seconds to open. I was blaming it on the security software, but it turns out I had a short cut to a decommissioned server in the toolbar. I deleted the bad shortcut and now it pops!
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So, what does ExplorerPatcher do? Create the directory?
Can we make Templates for it? If yes that would be easy.
