Favorites - Add or Remove from Navigation Pane

How to Add or Remove Favorites from Navigation Pane in Windows 7​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Favorites folder in the Windows Explorer Navigation Pane in Windows 7.

   Tip

The default folder for Favorites is the Links folder located at the location below.

C:\Users\(user-name)\Links

   Warning

• You can only do this while logged into an administrator account.
• This will affect all user account's on the computer.

EXAMPLE: Favorites in Navigation Pane
NOTE: This is the Favorites group added (default) (left screenshot below) and removed (right screenshot below) from the Navigation Pane.




Here's How:
1. Open the Start Menu and type regedit.exe in the search line, then press enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

3. In Regedit, go to the location below: (See screenshot below step 4)

HKEY\CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder

4. In the left pane of regedit, right click on the ShellFolder key and click on Permissions. (See screenshot below)

5. At the top, select the Administrators group. At the bottom, check the Allow box to the right of Full Control and click on OK. (See screenshot below)

6. In the right pane of regedit, right click on Attributes and click on Modify. (See screenshot below)

7. To Add Favorites to the Navigation Pane
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Type in a0900100 and click on OK. (see screenshot below)

B) Go to step 9.
8. To Remove Favorites from the Navigation Pane
A) Type in a9400100 and click on OK. (see screenshot below)

9. If you have 64-bit Windows 7 Installed

   Note

CREDIT TO: Kookster for this addition.

To also add or remove Favorites from the "Open" and "Save as" type windows as well in 64-bit Windows 7, you will also need to do this step.

If you have a 32-bit Windows 7 installed, then skip this step since doing steps 1 to 7/8 will add or remove Favorites from the "Open" and "Save as" type windows as well.

A) In Regedit, go to the location below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder

B) Repeat steps 4 to 7/8 above.
10. Close regedit.

11. Restart the computer to fully apply.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a "Favorites" Shortcut in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Change Default Icon of Favorites in Navigation Pane in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Add or Remove the "Libraries" Folder from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add or Remove "Homegroup" from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add or Remove "Computer" from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add or Remove "Network" from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add or Remove "Control Panel" from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add or Remove your "User Folder" from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add or Remove the "Recycle Bin" from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Hide or Show a Library in the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Turn On or Off Expand to Current Folder in Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Change the Active Navigation Folder Icon in Windows 7
• How to Show or Not Show All Folders in the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Turn the Navigation Pane On or Off in Windows 7
• Fix Empty Favorites in Navigation Pane Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• Restore Default Favorite Links in Navigation Pane of Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Rename "Favorites" in Navigation Pane in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• Add or Remove "Favorites" Links in Navigation Pane of Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Create a Windows 7 "Links" Library with the Correct Icon

 

[kiwichick]

Hi there, I've tried it twice and it hasn't worked. Nothing's broken or looking funny - Favorites is just still there, working as usual. I've rechecked the regkey to make sure it hasn't changed back to default but it still says a9400100. Also for the part to remove Favorites from Open/Save dialog, I'm running W7 64-bit but I don't have a node named HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Wow6432Node. Cheers.

 

[Brink]

Hello Kiwichick,

It definitely works. Double check through the steps to make sure that you have followed them exactly step by step. You may have missed a step or made a mistake with one.

Are you sure that you have 64-bit Windows 7? If you do, you should have the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node key.

 

[kiwichick]

Hi Brink, Thanks for the reply. Hopefully these screenshots will help.

Definitely running Windows 7 64-Bit



Location looks correct. Permissions look correct, Attributes look correct.



Location looks correct but no Wow6432Node



I am more than willing to admit that I may have done something wrong but I can't see what.

 

[Brink]

Kiwichick,

Agreed. Everything looks correct except that you are missing Wow6432Node. Do think you may have deleted it by mistake, or deleted it with a registry cleaning program?

Did you restart the computer afterwards?

 

[kiwichick]

Yes restarted computer afterwards.

Yes may have deleted Wow node with regcleaner. But will that matter to the navigation pane since it says in the post that Wow is only to remove Favs from Open/Save?

 

[Brink]

Yes, Wow will only affect the Open/Save type windows in this tutorial, but there's no telling what else the reg cleaner, or something else, may have affected this from working for you as well.

 

[kiwichick]

Ok this is really strange.

I rebooted into safe mode and checked the registry. Wow node was there so I exported it then restarted normally and ran the exported reg file but I got an error about not all info being added ....

I rebooted into safe mode again and ran the exported reg file but got error message again.

So I created a new user account and Wow node was in there so I exported that but got same error when running it back on normal account.

So I went back to new user account and made registry changes there then restarted into new user account again and Favorites was gone from navigation pane.

And when I rebooted back into normal account Favorites is gone from navigation pane there too.

Now in regards to my obviously now corrupted registry. I have registry backup that I did before the regclean. I backed it up via method two in this topic: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4230-registry-backup-restore.html. Would you advise restoring via method two since this topic explains why I was getting the errors?

Thanks for all your patience and help.

 

[Brink]

Kiwichick,

I'm happy to hear that you got it working.

The error message you see at the bottom in that tutorial is only a what to do if you get that error only while doing that specific tutorial, and not for anything else.

If you are not having any problems currently now, then you might consider leaving things as is. If you are having other issues, then you might consider doing a system restore using a restore point dated before you had the issues.

 

[kiwichick]

I can't do a system restore because there isn't a restore point from before the regclean. I know there used to be one but I think it was probably deleted by the system after subsequent restore points were made because the default disk space reserved for system restore was really small - only 2%. I have changed it to 15% on advice from another topic here but too late for a regfix.

I really want the node back along with anything else I've removed. This is a new computer and I don't want to start off with registry issues. And you said yourself that who knows what other things it may be affecting. Explorer is showing an odd behavior since I got the Favorites thing sorted. And the reason I want to get rid of the Favorites was because of this other topic I posted http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-favorites-opening-new-window.html#post814036 which now looks as though it's probably happening because of my regclean.

I will do a complete recovery if I have to but I'd rather not if I can try something else first. So is a command line registry restore better than a full system recovery? Or do you know of anything else I can try? Could I at least copy all the Wow6432Node entries in the regbackup to a new regkey and run that from the command prompt?

 

[Brink]

Kiwichick,

I do not know of any other way to get back to like it was without doing a factory recovery/restore. If you decide to do this, be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose first.

 

[kiwichick]

Thanks heaps Brink. Yip that's exactly what I'm going to do. It'll just eliminate any possibility of further problems. I'm backing stuff up right now. Thanks for all your help. Windows 7 Forums ROCKS !!!!

 

[Brink]

I hope the install goes smoothly for you. Please let us know how it turns out.

 

[kiwichick]

Well the recovery went well. Wow6432 back in registry. Everything seems to be going fine now. I have noticed a couple of small things though.

In Explorer on the button toolbar next to the Organize button is what I guess is an 'Action' button and it displays an icon depending on what filetype is selected. I'm not sure if this was happening before the recovery but when I select an EXE file the icon isn't displayed.



I also noticed a couple of program shortcut icons in the start menu weren't displaying either. You can see the NTI icon displays correctly. Norton doesn't. McAfee was the other one that didn't display correctly but I changed it. But I couldn't change it via right-click / properties. I had to go the program folder and create a new shortcut.

 

[Brink]

Kiwichick,

I'm happy to hear things went pretty well so far.

The default "Open" application icon on the toolbar is a bug in Windows 7 and is normal. However, the tutorial below will show you how to fix this icon.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/41363-open-application-toolbar-context-menu-icon-fix.html


You might see if uninstalling and reinstall the Norton Online Backup program will be able to fix it's icon.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[kiwichick]

Thanks yet again Brink, Would be nice if it showed the application icon but it's definitely better than before. I was wondering if it might have been something I just hadn't noticed. Glad to know it's a bug and not my computer.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Kiwichick.

 

[Shag00]

Hate to poor water on the flames but this tutorial just does not work for me and I suspect for others as well.

I have Win 7 x64 and have tried 3 variations of the tutorial:
1/ as written
2/ just the 32 bit section
3/ just the 64 bit section

and none work, in addition the registry location given for the 64 bit change appears to be incorrect. I installed the system yesterday so there is no registry corruption or whatever, this is what I believe the 64bit registry entry you are referring to is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder

In the mean time anyone else reading this tutorial please be aware of my results.

 

[Brink]

Hello Shag, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm sorry to hear that. Did it work for you using the other registry location that you mentioned?

The tutorial has been thoroughly tested on both 32-bit and 64-bit and does work perfectly as written. Please double check to make sure that you have not made a mistake somewhere in the steps, or missed one.


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes is a symbolic link to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432Node, so a change in one will be made to the other after restarting the computer. It really doesn't matter which one you use.

See this Microsoft link for more information about these two registry locations.

Registry Keys Affected by WOW64 (Windows)

 

[Shag00]

Thank you for your reply Brink,

sorry I was not clear in my first post, the link I gave I substituted for the link in the tutorial as it was obviously the key that was being referred to, so to answer your question, no it did not work.

If I understand you correctly then both 64bit registry key paths should work, assuming this is so, can the path I provided be included in the tutorial? After having read your Microsoft link I do not understand why that key path is not in my registry as it essentially a mirror. Do you think it may be because I only have the Home Premium version?

I will have another go at the tutorial some time in the next few days and report back.

 

[Brink]

Shag00,

There's not a point in adding the other registry path in the tutorial since they are linked, and a change made in one will change the other.

Double check your registry. Sometimes they tend to blend together and are not easy to notice, but you should have the path that's in the tutorial as well.