Clicking on pinned folder in taskbar opens new file explorer

Hey guys,

This has been annoying me from quite some time and I can't help but think how the hell such a low number of people have complained about this issue. I followed multiple guides to pinning specific folders to taskbar which involve place "explorer" before the shortcut and then dragging it onto the taskbar. This works fine but whenever I click on my folder it opens a new file explorer tab which is really irritating. Example: Screen capture - af374ac3341a67e7df4ec1179c72120a - Gyazo
Please can someone clear this up for me as it makes pinning folders useless in my opinion.

The only post I could find about this was https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/....skbar_without/
He says he solved it by " followed this guide. What you need to do is change the default folder for the File Explorer. "
I tried what he did (although I had no faith that it would work) but renaming my folder to "File Explorer" in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar . This did not solve my issue and so I have no idea what to do.

Just for FULL clarification by pinned folders I mean I followed this -> YouTube tutorial and he has the same issue if you see that he clicks the icon and it opens a file explorer to the right. Anyone who can help out would be great.

If anyone has any idea please try to be as detailed as possible as to how I can do this. Thanks

My Windows 10 version: Version 2004 (OS Build 19041.329)

Explorer opening separate windows is annoying to me too! Didn't do this on my previous computer. I have access to my previous hard-drive so tried to use a "file explorer.exe" from it but that didn't work (or maybe the one on new hard-drive over-rode that one?). And, since my taskbar is set to always combine buttons, why does Explorer think it shouldn't combine either?

Hellos!

Registered for answering as I think I solved it.

Shut down all explorer windows and un-pin your current file explorer.

Open explorer with pressing "WIN"+"e" keys

Pin that to the task bar.

Mine does not open separate icons after I did that.

Hope this helps!

wictro said:

Hellos!

Registered for answering as I think I solved it.

Shut down all explorer windows and un-pin your current file explorer.

Open explorer with pressing "WIN"+"e" keys

Pin that to the task bar.

Mine does not open separate icons after I did that.

Hope this helps!

It helps indeed, thank you. Worked for me.

I know this is an old thread, but I have been experimenting and have some results that might be relevant here

I started experimenting because I have been using QTTab, and was somewhat dismayed when I found that clicking on the same folder shortcut on the taskbar would always open a new window instead of just going to the already open window.

Initially, I thought I had discovered the cause... the "Explorer" in the target box of the shortcut.... Explorer D:\sandbox\foldername .... because if you make these two shortcuts to the same target on you desktop...

A - C:\Windows\explorer.exe D:\Sandbox\foldername
B - D:\sandbox\foldername

Shortcut A will always open a new window each time, but shortcut B will only open one window and subsequent openings go to the already open window.

When shortcut A is pinned to the taskbar - (shortcut B cannot be pinned) it always opens in a new window, and even if you right click on the A taskbar shortcut, and left click on the shortcut name in the drop-down list, it still opens a new window every time.

However, what I found was that if you right click the task-bar shortcut, right click the shortcut name, choose "properties" and delete the "C:\Windows\explorer.exe" part from the target box.and click "Apply", this changes the behavior. Even though clicking on the taskbar shortcut still opens a new window every time, what I found was that if you right click the taskbar shortcut, left click on the shortcut name in the drop-down list, it only opens the first new window, and every subsequent attempt using this method goes to the same already open window.

Hearsepilot said:

Check your folder View settings to see if you have Launch folder windows in a separate process checked.

Yeah, that was the first thing I did. Its set to the top one... "Open each folder in the same window"


In any case, I got around the problem. I have one folder shortcut that I needed users to be able to open with one click with any software running, without them having to return to the desktop (which can only be done from the taskbar) and without opening a new window every time. I pinned a shortcut to a .cmd file that calls a batchfile to open the folder (the .cmd was needed to allow hiding of the command window when the batch file runs).