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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-02-29T21:26:59+00:00

    I finally discovered that if I scroll down to my PINNED items, I CAN reorder the folders IN THE NAVIGATION PANE ONLY. Once reordered in the Nav pane, they will rewrite in correct order in the QA view (on the right when "Home" (Quick Access) is selected. I figured that I misinterpreted where to attempt the moving. Trying to move them in the actual QA panel (on the right) simply does not work.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-30T10:50:51+00:00

    I found the answer to this, please see video below (see 45 seconds in; there is an option you would never instinctively think would solve the issue):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfWEJjCU5vc

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-13T17:40:12+00:00

    I know this post is almost a year old, but I thought I'd reply with my solution.

    1. Open File Explorer
    2. Click the "•••" (See more) menu button
    3. Click "Options"
    4. On the "General" tab, in the "Privacy" section, uncheck "Show frequently used folders"

    Quick access will no longer be auto-populated with folders that you use most often, but you should be able to sort items in it by dragging and dropping.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-12T05:51:16+00:00

    Evidently that works for some. Doesn't work on mine. It's at least mildly exasperating when the best a moderator can come up with is "it was designed that way". To alleviate the problem, I created a folder called 'Quick Access', put that in 'Documents', filled it with shortcuts to the folders I need quick access to, then pinned it to Home. Being a big fan of Win 11, I'm surprised to see this unresolved for so long.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-04-16T11:49:07+00:00

    For me I think it was the 'Expand to open folder' button I had to untick.

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