What is Quick Access in Windows 10?
- Windows 10 Frequent Folders Settings
- Windows 10 Turn Off Frequent Folders Without
- Frequent Folders Option
- Windows 10 Turn Off Frequent Folders
Here is how to disable file grouping for all files and folders in Windows 10: On your desktop, click the Windows Explorer icon to launch it or press Windows key + E. Navigate to any folder of your choice that already has file grouping disabled. Click “View” at the top left to access the View tab. In the View tab in the “Show/hide” group. The easiest way to turn off Recent Items is through Windows 10’s Settings app. Open “Settings” and click on the Personalization icon. Click on “Start” on the left side. From the right side, turn off “Show recently added apps”, and “Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar”.
Quick access is a feature that could help you access to frequently used folders and recently used files quickly when you open a File Explorer window in Windows 10 computer.
Quick Access is surely a good feature in Windows 10. But it doesn't mean that that it is good for everyone. For example, when you don't want to see frequently closed files or folders and you want to view customized folders or files as you open file explorer, it would be a trouble. So in this article, we will go through two methods to disable or remove quick access from Windows 10 file explorer.
Method 1: Disable Quick Access Temporarily
Step 1: Open File Explorer to 'This PC' instead of 'Quick Access'.
1.Open File Explorer, then go to View Options and Folder Options tab.
2. In Folder Options window, you can see the default option for file explorer is selected as 'Quick access'. Now just click the list and select 'This PC'.
Step 2: Uncheck the 'Show recently used files/folders in Quick Access'.
In order to disable quick access feature, it is necessary to uncheck the 'Show recently used files in Quick Access' and 'Show frequently used folders in Quick Access' in Folder Options dialog. Then click Apply and OK to save changes.
Tips: Some of the folders might still be visible in the quick access menu in This PC. To clear out these, click on the 'Clear' button displayed right next to the 'Clear File Explorer history' in the Folder Options settings. This will remove all the existing links.
Method 2: Remove Quick Access Permanently
Before removing quick access in file explorer permanently, please make sure you have been logged into Windows through an account with administrative privileges.
Step 1: Open Registry Editor.
Open Run box with combination keys 'Windows + R' and type 'regedit' in it. Press Enter and Registry Editor is opened.
Step 2: Navigate to 'ShellFolder' in the left pane and change its 'Permissions'.
1. Expand the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT CLSID {679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6} in the left pane of registry editor window and right click ShellFolder to select 'Permissions'.
2. Click 'Advanced' in pop-up dialog of 'Permissions for ShellFolder'.
3. In following Advanced Security Settings for ShellFolder dialog, click Change button.
4. Click Advanced and Find now in next dialog. There will list many usernames. Administrator will be one of them, just select it and hit OK on all the windows.
5. Click on ShellFolder again and you can see Attributes on the right side.
6. Double-click on Attributes and change the value to a0600000.
Now the quick access feature will be removed from Windows 10. If you want to enable the feature, please change the value back to a0100000. Restart your Windows system when all the processes are complete to see the changes in effect.
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With Windows Explorer on Windows 10, arranging your files and folders according to your preferred order is just a few clicks away. The operating system’s native file browser lets you do a lot of cool stuff in addition to the routine copy/paste/move and launch operations. When viewing a folder full of files or subfolders, you can cycle between multiple icon views (extra large, large, medium, small) or dispense with icons altogether and give prominence to details or file content. You can decide to sort your files according to one of the default attributes like name, type, size, and date modified or in ascending or descending order. You can also decide that you’d rather group similar items with each set of groupings ordered by name, size, type, etc.
From the foregoing, it is pretty clear that Windows Explorer places a lot of emphasis on the customizability of folder entries, thereby rendering the interface very easy to use and organized according to the tastes of individual users. The beauty of Explorer is that the sort, view and group options can easily be changed. A user unsatisfied with a certain view mode only needs to click the View option to make another selection.
In the same vein, users who don’t find any use for File Grouping can easily disable it if they wish.
Windows 10 Frequent Folders Settings
How to disable file grouping in Windows 10 Explorer?
Turning off file grouping in Windows will undo all grouping arrangements and revert files and folders to their default order. This can be useful in certain situations where linear sorting proves to be a sufficient method of arranging files.
To turn off file grouping in Windows 10:
- On your desktop, click the Windows Explorer icon to launch it or press Windows key + E.
- Navigate to any folder of your choice whose files you want to degroup.
- Click “View” at the top left to access the View tab.
- In the View tab in the Current View group, click the Group By dropdown arrow to reveal a list of selectable attributes.
- Select “None” from the list.
How to disable file grouping for all the folders in Windows 10
If you would like to make file grouping universally disabled across your system, you can do that too. Disabling file grouping in all your folders will undo all the “Group by” settings you have applied to any folder anywhere on your computer.
In order to successfully perform a systemwide file grouping disable, at least one folder structure should already be disabled. It then becomes a matter of applying the settings in that file folder across your entire system.
Here is how to disable file grouping for all files and folders in Windows 10:
- On your desktop, click the Windows Explorer icon to launch it or press Windows key + E.
- Navigate to any folder of your choice that already has file grouping disabled.
- Click “View” at the top left to access the View tab.
- In the View tab in the “Show/hide” group, click on the “Options” icon.
- In the Folder Options dialog, click “View” to access the View tab.
- Click the “Apply to Folders” button to make the in-folder setting systemwide.
- Click OK.
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All your files and folders should now be free of any previously selected file groupings. You can also install and run a scan with Auslogics BoostSpeed to get rid of any performance errors that can result from this type of action. It will remove all junk files and useless registry entries and clean up your RAM, ensuring that your Windows 10 PC gives you smooth and snappy results.
How to enable local or universal file grouping
Windows 10 Turn Off Frequent Folders Without
If you wish to enable file grouping again, just follow these steps:
Frequent Folders Option
- On your desktop, click the Windows Explorer icon to launch it or press Windows key + E.
- Navigate to any folder of your choice whose files you want to group.
- Click “View” at the top left to access the View tab.
- In the View tab in the Current View group, click the Group by dropdown arrow to reveal a list of selectable attributes.
- Select your desired attribute from the list (date, type, size, etc.).
Once you’ve decided that you’d make your preferred file grouping attribute applicable across all files and folders, do the following to apply systemwide file grouping according to your preferences:
- On your desktop, click the Windows Explorer icon to launch it or press Windows key + E.
- Navigate to any folder of your choice that already has file grouping enabled.
- Click “View” at the top left to access the View tab.
- In the View tab in the “Show/hide” group, click on the “Options” icon.
- In the Folder Options dialog, click “View” to access the View tab.
- Click the “Reset Folders” button to make the in-folder setting systemwide.
- Click OK.
Windows 10 Turn Off Frequent Folders
Voila! You’ve got file grouping enabled according to your preferred view type. You can change your preferences at any time whether for individual folders or all of them in a single move.