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

Anonymous
2010-02-17T17:23:04+00:00

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...)

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2014-09-03T18:55:24+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2011-03-21T16:26:41+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.

    This is NOT an answer because it only works sometimes.  After you search and you want the DIRECTORY that the item is in, it's rediculous that you have to: Right-Click->Properties-> cut-and-paste location, when simply having an "Up One Level" button made it quick and painless!!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-03-21T16:00:18+00:00

    This is NOT a solution for some important cases where we want the "UP" button.  It is INFURIATING when you want to go "Up One Level" after searching.  I think people will DIE from strokes due to the uness. stress caused by this unwanted change by Microsoft.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-03-12T23:07:19+00:00

    Easier than installing additional software, for me, is using windows explorer; for example, consider:

    c:\topdir\2nddir\3rddir\4thdir

    If I'm rummaging around in the '4thdir' directory and click on '3rddir' in the address bar at the top of the window, then I'm "up one folder" . Similarly I can jump directly up to '2nddir' by clicking on that instead.  I'm far from convinced that win7 is superior to XP - this, at least, is a small improvement to ameliorate some of the big gaffs  (my intel i7 processor chip took many minutes looking for a file under c:\windows 'cause it insists in checking inside the files ( I think) in addition to file name).  I don't think this version of 'up one leve' is intuitive but it works once you've figured it out.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-02-17T23:17:00+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.

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