Need Help With Using File Explorer to Arrange Files and Folders

I'm running Windows 10 Home Edition, version 2004, and am having trouble using the File Explorer feature. I'm not sure just how to explain/describe the problem, but will try, hoping that it makes sense.

My favorite place for saving things has always been to my desktop; that way, I can later decide where to arrange them, placing them into the appropriate folders. It used to work great, but I must've accidentally changed something, because I can no longer do it as before.

Before, when I clicked on 'File Explorer,' a long column of my folders would appear at the left of the screen. Then, when I wanted to move something which I had saved to my desktop into a existing folder, I would just click on 'Desktop' and a window containing everything on my desktop would appear at the right of the screen. Finally, I would simply drag the newly-downloaded file from the desktop over to whichever folder I wanted on the left of the screen.

So, for example, if I wanted to move a newly-downloaded picture of a dog, I would open File Explorer, and the list of all my folders would appear at the left of the screen. Then, I would open the desktop, where my newly-downloaded picture of a dog is. Last, I would just drag the new picture of the dog to my 'Animal Pictures' folder. Easy.

However, now, when I click on 'File Explorer,' the long column of my folders appears, as before, but when I then open the desktop, that long column of folders disappears and the Desktop appears. The long column of my existing folders and the desktop don't appear both at the same time, so I now cannot just drag a file or folder from the desktop to a desired for storage.

As stated, it just seems as though I must've changed some setting while monkeying around, but I sure don't know how to fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

When I understand well, it is not possible to have an opened folder and the desktop visible on the monitor at the same time.
I have no idea, but maybe try the following:
- when system restore is available, try a restore from a date when everything went normal
- Control Panel>File Explorer Options:
-- Open File Explorer in THIS PC
-- View>uncheck Launch folder windows in a separate process
Good luck

Rayzen:
This is not a fix for your issue but I have always found it easier to use Move to and Copy to from the context menu. Here is a link that shows how to do it manually or download the registry hack: How to Add “Move to” or “Copy to” to Windows 10’s Context Menu (howtogeek.com)

Rayzen
Can you can confirm that what you have been doing/seeing is reflected in the animation below.

Before
An image is on the Desktop
You click the File Explorer icon on the Taskbar
You open the Desktop either by the Folder in the main pane or by the Desktop entry in the Navigation Pane
Drag the image to your intended folder in the Navigation Pane

Now
An image is on the Desktop
You click the File Explorer icon on the Taskbar
You open the Desktop either by the Folder in the main pane or by the Desktop entry in the Navigation Pane
The Navigation Pane ‘disappears’
You can’t drag an image to an intended location/folder as there isn’t any to see/choose?

Mcd73165 said:

Rayzen:
This is not a fix for your issue but I have always found it easier to use Move to and Copy to from the context menu. Here is a link that shows how to do it manually or download the registry hack: How to Add “Move to” or “Copy to” to Windows 10’s Context Menu (howtogeek.com)

Thanks, really useful and naturally this Forum has one of Brink's Tutorials for this, with the addition of a remove option reg file...

Add 'Copy To folder' and 'Move To folder' Context Menu in Windows 10

I have a hard time figuring out the actual issue from the original description of the problem, so perhaps it will be helpful if I try showing how it should work, while pointing out along the way what can change this (in my opinion) "default" behavior".

For the purposes of this post I put an image file on my desktop, which looks like this:



This is the upper left corner of my screen. Here you can see some shortcuts that I have on my Desktop and the file with an image of a coffee cup.

Now, I open the Explorer. This looks like this:



This is now a slightly larger portion of my screen, still the upper left corner showing the previous Desktop plus a portion of the Explorer window. Of course, I am not opening windows in the full screen mode and it is possible that the OP does, which is why he refers to the "Navigation Pane" as the "left side of the screen". Also, my Explorer is set to open in a specific folder, which I (by analogy with Unix systems) call home\myusername. This is the default folder for me (I do not use the predefined Windows structure of "Documents", etc.).

Now there are many ways to move the image file from the Desktop to whichever destination folder. One way is to choose the folder in Explorer and simply drag and drop the file from the Desktop. I suspect this is not what the OP used to do: it's hard to do if the Explorer is open in the full screen mode (which is why I never use it). In the latter case, one can click on the "Desktop" in the Navigation Pane, such that the main Explorer window (I guess what the OP calls "the right side of the screen") shows all objects on the Desktop. That looks like this:



Now you see the bigger yet portion of the screen, which captures the whole of the Explorer window and a small part of the browser where I'm typing this (the background has changed in the meantime). Now one can drag and drop a file, say the image of the coffee cup, from the main Explorer window showing the contents of the Desktop to any folder in the Navigation Pane (before doing that, one should expand the Navigation Pane to show said folder if it is not there to begin with).

My guess is, that's what the OP used to do. Now I am trying to figure out what the problem is. It seems to me, that when he clicks on the "Desktop" folder in the Navigation Pane, the Navigation Pane disappears and he sees this



If that's the case, then the Navigation Pane can be restored by clicking "View" -> "Navigation Pane" -> check mark next to Navigation Pane, see the arrows



This will restore the Navigation Pane. However, this setting is not folder specific, as far as I know. What I don't understand, is how to make the Navigation Pane disappear for the "Desktop" folder only, which appears to be the issue. Perhaps, someone else can shed light on that mystery.

That's it! You hit the nail on the head, 'Unifex.' As you suggested, all I had to do was to select 'Navigation Pane' in the 'View' option. Thanks a million for all of your help. This forum has a great group of helpful people!