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Force Explorer to Start With the Folder You Want

Intended For
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 2003
Windows 2000
Windows Me
Windows 98
Windows 95
Few things in Windows are more irritating than the way that Explorer always opens in the same folder (C:\ for Windows 95/98, My Documents for Windows Me/2000/XP). If you have an entry in your Start Menu to run Explorer, you can change it to "Explore" at the folder of your choice:

  • Open Explorer, and go to your Start Menu folder.
  • Find the shortcut for Explorer, right click on it, and select Properties.
  • Click on the Shortcut tab, and change the Target so it reads: c:\windows\EXPLORER.EXE /n, /e, d:\myfolder (where c:\windows is your Windows directory, and d:\myfolder is the directory in which you want Explorer to start.)

  • Tip: To have Explorer start with My Computer, so no branches are initially expanded, use the following command line options: /n, /e, /select, c:\

    Note: this won't work if you try to start Explorer by right-clicking on the Start Menu (here's why). Just put a shortcut to EXPLORER.EXE in the top level of your Start Menu folder for easy access.


Written by: Annoyances.org
Last updated: Wednesday, February 7, 2007

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