How To Get "Quick access" etc Back on Home in File Explorer?

Yesterday I made an annoying mistake with my new Windows 11 computer.

I wanted to get rid of the annoying "group by" sorting that was happening in my file folders without having to set each folder manually to not group by date and hoping they would stay that way. It's bad enough that "also apply this template to all subfolders" doesn't actually work, without grouping turning on in folders at random!

To try and resolve this I found a solution that uses WinSetView to set the grouping more permanently, but obviously this method is really for Windows 10 rather than for 11. This is the obvious mistake that I made.

"Home" in File Explorer should look like this example from the internet:



Instead my "Home" in File Explorer looks like this, completely without the dividers for 'Quick access', 'Favorites', and 'Recent'.



The recent items are still appearing but there are no divisions between the types.

Is there a way to restore the 'Quick access', 'Favorites', and 'Recent' groupings to this "Home" screen? I assume it is going to take some registry alterations to resolve this.



Windows Version: 11 Home | 22H2 | first booted 31/10/22

You could use these tutorials to enable them.

While those did disable them (hiding the pinned or recent items) and renable them (bringing the items back), the actual groupings and their titles like in the "example from the internet" did not return - my "Home" remains the same as before.

I installed the Windows 11 Pro 22H2 update, and I was treated to the same ugly pile of files and folders on my Home view in the File Explorer.

Here's what resolved it for me:

While in the File Explorer, and viewing the unwanted Home location:

Click on the top menu bar "triple dots" and choose Options-->View tab-->Reset Folders

That brought back the desired, new default view for the Home location, including the Quick access, Favorites, and Recent divided groupings.

Hope that helps!

--John Hagan.

I used the.... "Just get rid of all that junk" method.

Ghot said:

I used the... "Just get rid of all that junk" method.



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I have nowhere near that many drives on my system. I have only 4 drives But! You're a datahoarder so that explains it... Oh... I didn't mention my other 7 drives on my shelf packed full of data. That being said, I have surmised that you and I are the same. Datahoarder.