Explorer not showing Desktop icons?

Brink said:

Ah, ok. That makes sense now then.

In Quick access, it'll show the same name it shows as your "C:\Users\(user-name)" profile folder.

I take it I can't change that name then. So it's normal that it shows this shortened version of your full User Folder name? I recall Windows 8.1 showing the same full name in that directory.

Brink said:

Sorry for the late reply.

I'm not aware of any safe way to change it other than to create a new account with the name you wanted instead.

It's normal for it to use the same name as your "C:\Users\(user-name)" folder.

The separate one in the navigation pane as a separate group uses your full account name instead. This is only when you have "Show all folders" set for the navigation pane though.

In that case creating a new account with another name would still not fix this since Windows 10 changes the way the name is displayed in C:\Users\(user-name) folder in its own way (billg instead of BIll Gates). The User folder on my Desktop however does show my full name.

Brink said:

I've found that creating a local account with the name you want will have the "C:\Users\(user-name)" folder created with that name. Afterwards, switch the account to a Microsoft account.

Good to hear that! I'll try this. Thank you very much for your effort. Hopefully, Microsoft will fix this in the future and let it always use the full name.

@Brink: Thanks! This is the first time (in 22 years of using Windows) that I've been able to show all my Windows Desktop Files (not just the Public or Private ones) in Windows Explorer! Not that I've really searched for a way before or had much need to (since I like to use the keyboard as much as possible and make sure all my frequently-used Shortcuts are accessible via as few keystrokes as possible). However, for those who don't (which are most users), there really is no substitute for this. Users usually have their Windows Desktop covered up by Windows of open apps, and even though you can access the Windows Desktop quickly via the Windows+D key, AFAIK, there's no reverse of that, since if you do anything (like open another app), pressing that key again won't restore your open apps' Window positions. You'd have to manually select each open app again (via Windows Taskbar or Alt+Tab).

Brink said:

Not that I know of yet.

does anyone know any updates to this? any way to make shell:desktop the native directory for the 'desktop' folder in explorer's quick access?