Hide Specific File or Folder from Quick Access in Windows 10  

    Hide Specific File or Folder from Quick Access in Windows 10

    Hide Specific File or Folder from Quick Access in Windows 10

    How to Hide a Specific File or Folder from Quick access in Windows 10
    Published by Category: Customization
    14 Mar 2021
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Hide a Specific File or Folder from Quick access in Windows 10


    Windows 10 replaced Favorites from previous Windows with Quick access. The Quick access page is the shortest route to files you've been working on and folders you often use. These are your frequent folders and recent files.

    Recent items is a list of the files that you have used or opened recently. These items are displayed as "Recent files" in Quick access, and under "Recent" in jump lists for icons on the taskbar.

    Frequent places is a list of folders, websites, etc... that you have opened recently. These items are displayed as "Frequent folders" in Quick access, "Frequent places" under File in File Explorer, and under "Frequent" in jump lists on the taskbar.

    When you hide a file or folder from Quick access, the file or folder will no longer show in all recent and frequent locations in Windows 10 until you stop hiding them.

    This tutorial will show you how to hide a specific file or folder from the Quick access page to no longer show in all frequent and recent locations for your user account in Windows 10.


    Contents

    • Option One: To Hide a Specific File from Recent in Quick access
    • Option Two: To Hide a Specific Folder from Frequent in Quick access
    • Option Three: To Stop Hiding Files and Folders from Quick access






    OPTION ONE

    To Hide a Specific File from Recent in Quick access


    1 Open File Explorer (Win+E), and click/tap on Quick access in the navigation pane.

    2 In Quick access, select one or more files under Recent files.

    3 Right click or press and hold on the selected file(s), and click/tap on Remove from Quick access.

    Hide Specific File or Folder from Quick Access in Windows 10-remove_from_quick_access-3.png






    OPTION TWO

    To Hide a Specific Folder from Frequent in Quick access


    1 Open File Explorer (Win+E), and click/tap on Quick access in the navigation pane.

    2 In Quick access, select one or more unpinned folders under Frequent folders.

    3 Right click or press and hold on the selected folder(s), and click/tap on Remove from Quick access.

    Hide Specific File or Folder from Quick Access in Windows 10-remove_from_quick_access-1.png Hide Specific File or Folder from Quick Access in Windows 10-remove_from_quick_access-2.png






    OPTION THREE

    To Stop Hiding Files and Folders from Quick access


    Clearing File Explorer history deletes the info Windows saved about the files and folders you use as well as what you've typed in the address bar.

    If you clear your history, the Recent files section will disappear from Quick access until you open a file, and all Frequent folders will disappear from Quick access except those you pinned until you open a folder.



    That's it,
    Shawn






  1. Posts : 5
    Windows 10
       #1

    Thank you Brink.
    Excellent tutorial as usual, :) except I suppose it was from the pre-release version of Windows 10 and my official release Windows 10 now says "Remove from Quick access" instead of "Hide from recent" for files, and "Hide from frequent" for folders. But that's a minuscule critique; I did still clearly understand the method. Thanks again. However, I have a slightly different need. I have dozens of client sales folders, and reports for each, that I don't need to clutter my recent files or Quick access.

    Is there any way to easily exclude a folder, and it's subfolders and files, from Quick access and Recent files entirely, and BEFORE they show up in any Quick access or Recent files list? Right now, I can 'exclude' them using your method AFTER they've shown up in Quick access or recent, but that means I have to vigilantly wait until each of, say, 10 subfolders shows up in Quick access before being able to tell Windows to never show it. This is so inefficient. Furthermore, in the future, if I add a new 11th subfolder, must I watch for it to show in Quick access and exclude it manually too?

    I'm thinking that there must be a way to just exclude folders and contents beforehand. Thank you for any input or idea.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 68,667
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Hello onefreeborn, :)

    I've updated the screenshots and wording in the tutorial for the latest build to help.

    I'm afraid that I'm not currently aware of a way to exclude folders and files from showing up in Quick access in the first place.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 5
    Windows 10
       #3

    Ok, understood. Please let me know here if you do run across a solution in the future.
    And once again, thank you Brink, for your efforts over many years. I've benefited from your knowledge for many years... at least from the Sevenforums on as I can recall. Your oft unrewarded efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 575
    Windows 11 Pro
       #4

    Hi Shawn,

    From looking at you screenshots from above I noticed that the bottom four items in you Quick Access list are not pinned. How did those folders get there without being pinned? Is there way to add a folder to Quick Access without pinning?
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 68,667
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Hey Michael, :)

    They were just added automatically as frequent folders for me.
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 575
    Windows 11 Pro
       #6

    Thanks Shawn. I turned on add Frequent folders in Quick Access options and Downloads was added but it was pinned. I will give it another try.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 68,667
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #7

    It may take a day to have frequent folders added.
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 1
    Win10 x64
       #8

    Brink said:
    Hello onefreeborn, :)

    I've updated the screenshots and wording in the tutorial for the latest build to help.

    I'm afraid that I'm not currently aware of a way to exclude folders and files from showing up in Quick access in the first place.
    Sure there is. And it's been around for ages but it's not built-in.

    Basically you need a script file that scans the "recents" folder and deletes links to "bad" folders. Stick that to task scheduler to be run every 30min and you never again have these conversations about those thumbnails..

    Download the attached script somewhere and point task scheduler at it, the command you need to run vb-script is "wscript", so stick wsript + path-to-script-file into the new task. Yes, cscript would also work but it pops up annoying console window briefly every time it runs.

    Code:
    Dim objShell, objFSO, CleanPath, fileFolder
    Dim userFolder, desktopFolder, custFolder, extension
    Dim fullname, shortcut, shortTarget
     
    Dim WshS
    Set WshS = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
     
    'Expand Environment
    'Create const's to spare time and place
    usrProfile = WshS.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%UserProfile%")
    Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set searchFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(usrProfile & "\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent")
    Set custFolder = searchFolder.Files
    'wscript.echo "Folder " + searchFolder
    
    For Each custFile in custFolder
    	extension = objFSO.GetExtensionName(LCase(custFile.name))
    	If extension = "lnk" then
    		'Find full path of target within shortcut
    		fullname = objFSO.GetAbsolutePathName(custFile)
    		'See http://www.devguru.com/Technologies/wsh/quickref/wshshell_CreateShortcut.html
    		'for more information on how this works.
    		Set shortcut = objShell.CreateShortcut(fullname)
    		shortTarget = shortcut.TargetPath
    		Dim myFileToDelete
    '		wscript.echo "Target: " + shortTarget
    		CleanPath = "D:\Movies\short-people-pr0n"
    		If InStr(shortTarget, CleanPath) then
    			Set myFileToDelete = objFSO.GetFile(fullname)
    			myFileToDelete.Delete
    		End If		
    	End If
    Next
    Last edited by Barleyman; 20 May 2020 at 17:25.
      My Computer


 

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