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2006-11-27

Vista - Change Explorer Start up Directory

In Vista, Windows Explorer is located under All Programs > Accessories. It's actually a shortcut to%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe

When you open it, by default it will open your "Username"\"Documents" Folder:

I do not want that! Instead, I want it to show me the root of my D: drive. Well, it's not difficult to change. Here is how:
  • Create a shortcut to Windows Explorer:
  1. Go to All programs > Accessories.
  2. Right click "Windows Explorer"
  3. From menu choose "Send to" > Desktop (Create Shortcut)
  • Then right click on the new shortcut and from the menu choose properties
  • Modify "target" by adding /root,D:
  • It should now appear like this: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,D:
That's it. From now on, when you open Windows Explorer using that shortcut, it will go to the root of D: drive. This is actually and old trick and works well with Windows XP too.

[Update - 12/03/2006]

I made a mistake above. If you want do NOT want to see other drives when you start up and just D drive, then instructions stand. Otherwise, just modify target like this:
  • %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe D:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent - great job

Anonymous said...

Thanks, just the thing I was looking for :)

Anonymous said...

Great job,I was looking for this.More specific,I would like to start in Computer,so I can see all of my drives...