What happened to the 'Up one folder' button in the Windows Explorer??

Anonymous

Starting with Windows Vista, the 'up one folder level' button has been removed!! I found this button to be HIGHLY useful and am VERY disappointed it is not there any more... This has drastically slowed down my production speeds!

In the following image from Windows XP Explorer, near the top right between the 'Back/Forward' buttons and the 'Search' button, you see a folder with a green arrow pointing up. Clicking that button makes the Windows Explorer go "up one folder level" bringing you to the parent folder of your current location:

http://www.daleisphere.com/wp-content/uploads/windows-xp-windows-explorer-folders-view.jpg

In the next image from Windows 7 Explorer, you can see that the 'up one folder level' button has been removed:

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_explorer_01.jpg

Is there any way at all to get that button back PLEASE? This will drastically improve my production speeds...

(Whenever I click a 'browse for file' button in Windows 7, the explorer starts at the last folder I was looking at and I often just want to go one or 2 folder levels higher than that, but the only way to get there is to start completely at the beginning from the C: drive and navigate through all the folders to get there which can get VERY time consuming since I find myself browsing for folders 50 times/day simply cuz the 'up one folder' button is missing...)

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Anonymous

Where they returned on Windows 8. I haven't seen it! Would be great!

I have Windows 8.1 and it is definitely there. 8.1 is free if you have 8. Just Google it. :)

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75 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-09-02T16:20:17+00:00

that is a lame answer to a very valid concern about the lack of a helpful UP button. Every one here knows new design of addressbar with "breadcrum design we do not need a lecture from you about that. what we and the OP want is a way to bring back UP button. It was very effective timesaver.

Even Windows agreed - and brought this UP button back in Windows 8 - so go figure

OP - To bring this back in Windows 7 - you can download classic explorer - it works perfect!
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Anonymous

2013-09-02T15:52:53+00:00

I guess this button is not necessary, since the functionality of Windows Explorer address bar was changed.

If you want to go up one folder just press on the appropriate part of the address bar. For example: If you are inside C:\Users\Default the address bar is displaying: Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Users > Default, so if you want to go UP, just press Users in the address bar.

Thanks Grzegorz for this post ... VERY helpful! I too was sorely missing the "up one folder" button.
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Anonymous

2013-08-09T08:33:30+00:00

Excuse me, I don' t agree with Grzegorz Krzymiński

"Up one level" button should be an option for user to disable or enable. Cannot say the button is not necessary.

Consider the folder name is a long and there are many sub folder, clicking the address bar become difficult and inconvenience.

Win 7 design is far less user friendly than XP. And for the Windows designer : they need to consider to offer an option for users to use the traditional classic / previous interface.
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Anonymous

2013-05-14T07:53:29+00:00

After you search you can right click and then click on "open folder (or file) location" then you get the full location in the explorer bar.

Also you can go back to search results and do this.

Not as good as up arrow though!
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