Explorer: Making libraries go away

JKW3 said:

In File Explorer, I have unchecked "Show Libraries" and have added a subfolder of a subfolder of Documents to my Quick Access list. When I open the folder from QA, it expands to appear under
Libraries > Documents > Documents >
and so on, rather than in the main list headed by my username (the one with 3D Objects and all the other useless crap I can't get rid of).

I decided to try deleting the Documents library (the one immediately inside Libraries, that contains the Documents folder) and Libraries went away. But now it seems I can pin subfolders of Documents like Documents\Foo to QA which expand correctly to appear under
Username > Documents > Foo
but not sub-sub-folders like
Documents\Foo\Bar

Then I thought I'd try recreating the Documents library and created a new library and renamed it "Documents". Big mistake. I now have a library item with no name and a file-style icon ( a blank page with the corner turned down) which I can't delete.

So: how can I get rid of the nameless library? And how can I pin a sub-sub-folder of Documents to QA? And how can I do it without Libraries reappearing every time I access it?

I'm using Win 10 Pro v1909 (build 18363.836), 64-bit.

Documents not showing as:
This PC > Documents

makes me think you've already been playing with the shell namespace and ParsingName values. Including the details of those mods might be helpful. But, first things first.
Open a PowerShell window & navigate to:
C:\Users\<UserFolder>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries
which is where Libraries are defined. I'm not sure exactly what you should look for, but you shold be able to find your file-icon library & delete it. If you have difficulty, post a screenshot fo the contents.

Then, if you don't care for libraries, I would suggest deleting all target folders from each Library's Properites:


That alone might be enough. Give it a try. Otherwise, give more details on what mods you appled to the This PC folder.

KeithM said:

Documents not showing as:
This PC > Documents

makes me think you've already been playing with the shell namespace and ParsingName values. Including the details of those mods might be helpful.

No, you misunderstand me. Documents is still there under This PC as well as under Username. The top-level Explorer categories are: Quick Access (Documents is pinned there), Dropbox, OneDrive, Username (Documents is there too), This PC (Documents there too), and Network.

But, first things first.
Open a PowerShell window & navigate to:
C:\Users\<UserFolder>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries
which is where Libraries are defined. I'm not sure exactly what you should look for, but you shold be able to find your file-icon library & delete it. If you have difficulty, post a screenshot fo the contents.

Then, if you don't care for libraries, I would suggest deleting all target folders from each Library's Properites:


That alone might be enough. Give it a try. Otherwise, give more details on what mods you appled to the This PC folder.

OK, that worked. I went to shell:appdata and from there to Microsoft\Windows\Libraries, and deleted Documents.library-ms.

However, as soon as I deleted the Documents library, my pinned subfolder Documents\Foo disappeared from Quick Access, and now not only am I unable to pin Documents\Foo\Bar to QA, I can no longer pin Documents\Foo either.

Is there an under-the-hood way to pin things to QA that I could try?

Great, many thanks. I have recreated my Documents library, and my QA shortcuts have magically reappeared.

However, as before, when I open the QA shortcut to Documents\Foo, it expands to the folder inside This PC > Documents. When I open Documents\Foo\Bar, it makes Libraries reappear, and expands to Libraries > Documents > Documents > Foo > Bar instead of This PC > Documents > Foo Bar. Is there any way to change this behaviour?

dalchina said:

This is probably not a good thing to do. Example: Many (traditional exe-based desktop) programs use these default library folders for save locations and working space, and create folders in them when they are installed.

It would seem that they're also necessary for Quick Access to work!

dalchina said:

..is that a file? folder? shortcut?

A folder. It's a sub-sub-folder of Documents which I had pinned to QA earlier (so thanks, I don't need the explanation of right click > Pin to QA). As I said, the QA link to Documents\Foo (direct subfolder) expanded to This PC > Documents > Foo, but the link to Documents\Foo\Bar expanded to Libraries > Documents > Documents >Foo > Bar rather than This PC > Documents > Foo > Bar.

However, I just got rebooted thanks to Windows Update, and when I went to do a screenshot for you, it found that it seems to be now working as expected... go figure.

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