Microsoft Weekly

How to master the Quick Access list in File Explorer

By Ed Bott

Quick Access sits at the top of the Windows 10 File Explorer navigation pane; selecting this icon displays two groups of shortcuts in the contents pane, showing folders and files you've created, edited, downloaded, or otherwise accessed recently.

Because Quick Access is a virtual folder, it behaves differently from other folders. You can double-click to open a recent folder or open a file in its associated app. You can also drag an item to copy it to another folder or attach the associated file to an email message. You can't, however, delete or move a file from Quick Access. Pressing the Delete key has no effect, and the Move To option on the File Explorer ribbon is grayed out. To work directly with files, right-click and choose Open File Location.

Quick Access shows only 20 files, drawn from the %AppData%MicrosoftWindowsRecent folder in your user profile. To manually edit the list, select one or more shortcuts, right-click, and then choose Remove From Quick Access.

To completely clear the File Explorer history and start fresh with Quick Access, click Clear at the bottom of that dialog box.

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