How to reorder items in Quick access (File explorer, Windows 11)

Anonymous
2022-12-14T15:33:05+00:00

I think my File Explorer (Windows 11) is possessed by an evil creature that enjoys rattling me. Every once in a while it decides to substitute my pinned folders with some random and mostly useless ones.

Today I decided to retry and re-organize that section of File explorer.

I am not able to sort the items I put in Quick Access. Folders are in a completely random order, not alphabetical, not based on usage. It is random.

When I try and move a folder, File Explorer put it back where it was.

This is an incredibly bad application. I fail in understanding how Microsoft is not able to provide a simple and functional File Explorer. I use also a Mac OS system and cannot belive how much better their simple Finder is. At least it enables users to organize their pinned locations as they like.

Is there anyone with a suggestion?

By the way. Besides the name, what do you think the difference between "Quick access" and "Favorites" is?

For the experts: reinstalling Windows is not an option.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-07-03T17:26:34+00:00

    Hmmm!!!

    Unfortunately this did not work for me. I reset defaults as you suggested, but I still cannot change the order of the items. I tried but only ever got the 'Copy' option.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-03T17:06:40+00:00

    On the File Explorer >> ... > Options >> View screen, I had to use the 'Restore Defaults' button before I could rearrange the Quick Access folders. After doing that, I was able to drag the folders to the right order (the Copy option remained, but if I hovered in the right location, I eventually received the horizontal line that let me drop the folder there). After I got everything reordered, I went back in and customized my View settings again (I despise some of the default settings), and the Quick Access folders stayed the way I'd reordered them.

    As a guess, there was a bug in how the upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 handled customized View settings. That's why some people are seeing this a little differently than others. The 'Restore Defaults' option is likely to work in all cases, but I don't have anywhere else to try this to be sure. :-) Good luck!

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-07-02T07:58:57+00:00

    You used to be able to drag the items into the order you wanted.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-01T22:23:02+00:00

    How do you "arrange/rearrange/order your Quick Access? There is no Name or Title or Header field for QA (to right click and sort for example) so how do you sort for example? Pardon my inability to understand.

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