Simple Trick to Open a Custom Folder On Windows Explorer Startup
The default opening folder for Windows explorer is “My Computer”, i.e when you hit the keyboard shortcut “Win Key + E” or choose the Windows explorer icon from the start menu, My computer window opens.
If you want to change the startup folder of Windows Explorer to a custom folder of your choice, here is a simple trick which you can use.
How to open a Custom Folder on Explorer Startup
1. Click Windows start menu and go to accessories. Right click the “Windows explorer” icon as shown below:
Change Windows Explorer Startup Folder
2. Select properties and go to the Shortcut tab. Find the Target text box and you will see the address of explorer as following:
%windir%\explorer.exe
3. Change that to
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, /select, custom path
where custom path is the address of the folder you want to open with Windows explorer.
Open a Custom Folder in Windows Explorer Automatically
For example: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, /select, E:\files
This will change the default path of Windows explorer to a folder of your choice.
4. Click Apply and then Ok. You are done.
Now whenever you hit the Windows shortcut key or choose explorer from the start menu, the folder chosen by you will open. This is quite useful when you want to automatically open a desired folder whenever you hit the My computer button from the start menu.
Another advantage is that you do not have to go deep within the explorer’s directory structure, you can directly open a folder which contains important files you frequently work with. This trick works with all versions of Windows including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Reverting Back to The Default Explorer Folder
Later on, if you want to revert back to the default explorer window, right click the explorer icon and select properties. Go to the “Shortcuts” tab and enter %windir%\explorer.exe as the address in the target field. This will restore everything to default and as usual, the “My Computer” window will open on clicking the explorer icon or using the shortcut key.
Also check out our earlier tricks on how to open a custom folder with a keyboard shortcut or how to quickly change the explorer views with your mouse.
