General Enable or Disable Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home in Windows 11

Brink · May 16, 2024

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off showing the Recommended section instead of Quick access in File Explorer Home for your account in Windows 11.

Home in the navigation pane of File Explorer allows you to quickly access and view your pinned locations, frequent folders, and recent files from one location in the sections below:

Quick access = Displays up to 13 folders that you pinned or frequently opened on the system.
Favorites = Pinned files.
Recent (Recent files) = Displays up to 25 files that you most recently opened.

Starting with Windows 11 build 23403.1001 (Dev) and build 25314.1010 (Canary), File Recommendations are coming to File Explorer Home to bring users the most relevant file content right to their fingertips. This feature will be available to users signed into Windows with an Azure Active Directory (AAD) or Microsoft Entra ID account. Files that are recommended will be cloud files associated with that account, either owned by the user, or shared with the user.

Contents

Option One: Turn On or Off Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home in Folder Options
Option Two: Turn On or Off Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home using REG file

EXAMPLE: Show Recommended section in File Explorer Home turned on and off

Option One

Turn On or Off Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home in Folder Options

1 Open Folder Options.

2 Do step 3 (on) or step 4 (off) below for what you want.

3 Turn On Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home

This is the default setting.

A) In the General tab, check Include account-based insights, recent, favorite, and recommended files under "Privacy". (see screenshot below)

B) Check Show recommended section under "Privacy".

C) Click/tap on OK.

4 Turn Off Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home

A) In the General tab, uncheck Show recommended section under "Privacy".

B) Click/tap on OK.

Option Two

Turn On or Off Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home using REG file

1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you want.

2. Turn On Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home

This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_ON_show_Recommanded_section_in_File_Explorer_Home.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"ShowCloudFilesInQuickAccess"=dword:00000001
"ShowRecommendations"=dword:00000001

3. Turn Off Show Recommended Section in File Explorer Home

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_OFF_show_Recommanded_section_in_File_Explorer_Home.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"ShowRecommendations"=dword:00000000

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 If File Explorer is currently open, then either refresh (F5) or close and reopen File Explorer to apply.

8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn Brink