Change folders displayed in common dialog boxes

Win10Pro64 v2004. Greetings... I've just finished the build of a new PC, and I'm bothered by the large number of useless folders that are displayed in the left pane of open and save dialog boxes. I'm attaching a screenshot of what I see. I'm hoping for advice about how to eliminate the display of the needless ones.

In particular, under my user folder (My username is "Me"), there are eight junctions shown, including, for example, "Local Settings" and "PrintHood." Also showing are all of the predefined Windows folders, such as "Documents" and "Downloads", despite the fact that I have re-located them away from the root of my user folder. Finally, these same predefined folders are displaying under "This PC."

Any help on eliminating all of this useless clutter would be appreciated.

Hi Try3. Thanks for the response, but you're not taking me in the direction I wish to go. First, I want to see all files and folders, including hidden ones. As for deselecting "show all folders", that is too restrictive. I need to see my user folder, because I create numerous folders under it for my own use. (Since this is a new build, I haven't created them yet.)

What I really want to do is just eliminate all of the junctions, and all of the Windows predefined folders. This was the case on my last PC, which was running a version of Win 10 from 2017. I don't know if this is a new behavior in recent versions, or if I'm just not finding a setting somewhere.

Its that top-most desktop icon and sub-folders that seem odd - I don't have that. No idea how you got it.... OK: under View>Nav pane, turn off 'show all'. You should get something like this:

Quite why anyone would want all that extra garbage is a mystery - but the addition of Control Panel and Libraries might be useful - its the mess under Desktop>User that seems utterly pointless.

@mngrhold: You're showing windows explorer.
The OP is asking about the file-open dialog box.

margrave55.... Un-selecting "show all folders" won't work for me. I need to see my user folder "Users\Me", since I populate it with my own set of folders for my all of my content.

Run this PowerShell from an Admin PowerShell window to hide the folders in This PC and others under shell:UsersFilesFolder

Code:

$FDkey = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions'
@(
'{31C0DD25-9439-4F12-BF41-7FF4EDA38722}' # 3D Objects
'{56784854-C6CB-462B-8169-88E350ACB882}' # Contacts
'{1777F761-68AD-4D8A-87BD-30B759FA33DD}' # Favorites
'{bfb9d5e0-c6a9-404c-b2b2-ae6db6af4968}' # Links
'{a0c69a99-21c8-4671-8703-7934162fcf1d}' # Local Music
'{0ddd015d-b06c-45d5-8c4c-f59713854639}' # Local Pictures
'{4C5C32FF-BB9D-43b0-B5B4-2D72E54EAAA4}' # SavedGames
'{7d1d3a04-debb-4115-95cf-2f29da2920da}' # Searches
'{35286a68-3c57-41a1-bbb1-0eae73d76c95}' # Local Videos
'{7d83ee9b-2244-4e70-b1f5-5393042af1e4}' # Local Downloads
'{f42ee2d3-909f-4907-8871-4c22fc0bf756}' # Local Documents
'{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}' # Desktop
) | Foreach {
   $keypath = "$FDkey\$_\PropertyBag"
   new-item -path $keypath -erroraction silentlycontinue

   New-ItemProperty -path $keypath -name ThisPCPolicy -value Hide -force
}
get-process explorer | stop-process

margrave55 said:

@mngrhold: You're showing windows explorer. The OP is asking about the file-open dialog box.

I did check - changing the view in WE does change the F-O box on my PC.

wallen said:

margrave55.... Un-selecting "show all folders" won't work for me. I need to see my user folder "Users\Me", since I populate it with my own set of folders for my all of my content.

I would suggest pinning 'Me' to Quick Access.