Show Recent Folders In Quick Access Windows 10 | Restore Recent Places to Windows 10

The Recent Places shell folder that showed up under the Favorites area in the navigation pane in earlier Windows OS, is not shown by default in Windows 10. Windows 10’s Quick access (which replaces Favorites in earlier Windows OS) shows the "Frequently" used folders rather than the "Recently" opened folders, even though the Recent Places shell folder still exists in Windows 10.

Recent Places, which is now known as Recent folders, is very useful not just in Explorer but also in Common File Open/Save As dialog boxes in various applications. Today’s post shows you how to:

Step 1: How to get Recent Folders displaying in Windows 10 permanently:

1.Start a Run dialog box by either right-clicking the Start button and choose Run, or by pressing the WinKey+ R keys.

2.Copy and paste the following line into the Run dialog box, then press Enter:

shell:::{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}

3.File Explorer will open and display the "Recent folders". You'll see that it is located below the Recycled Bin on the left hand side of the screen.

4.Right-click "Recent folders" and select "Pin to Quick Access". You can also select "Pin to Start" if you want. When you close File Explorer "Recent folders" will remove itself from below the Recycled Bin, but will remain under Quick Access.

5.You can drag the Recent folders to any position under Quick Access now.

Step 2: The simple way to get Recent Folders working in Save As dialog boxes in Windows 10:

Recent Folders in Windows 10 has now been revived, but just like the "Recent Items" folder, by default it is hidden from Save As dialog boxes in Windows 10. Below is the first of two ways I've now figured out to get the Recent Folders to appear in "Save As" dialog boxes:

1.Within a Save As dialog box, right-click the folder name at the top and to the left of the search box. Now select "Edit Address". The path should turn into text and become highlighted blue.

2.Replace the highlighted text by copying and pasting the following line, and then press Enter:

shell:::{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}

Now you can save inside one of your recent folders!

Step 3: How to enable Recent Folders to work in Save As dialog boxes in Windows 10 permanently:

Important: The following steps are for advanced users only. It changes key permissions and settings in the registry. I've decided to share this because people are asking for it, and I spent the time to figure it out. Proceed at your own risk.

Below are the steps for the second and permanent way to get Recent Folders to work in Save As dialog boxes in Windows 10.

1.Perform a System Restore point backup of C drive prior to starting

2.Complete all the steps in "Part 1: How to get Recent Folders displaying in Windows 10 permanently" above

3.Open the Registry (regedit.exe) with Administrator privileges

4.Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}\ShellFolder

5.Right-click ShellFolder and select Permissions

6.Click Advanced

7.At the top, click Change

8.Type in ADMINISTRATORS and then click Check Names

9.Click Ok and then Ok

10.Within the "Group or user names:" section, select Administrators so that it is highlighted blue

11.Tick the box corresponding to Allow Full Control

12.Click Ok to close the Permissions box

13.On the right side of the Registry Editor, now double-click "Attributes"

14.Replace the existing Hexadecimal number of 20040000 with 70010020 and then press Ok

15.Now navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}\ShellFolder

16.Repeat  5 to 14 once again but this time for this particular ShellFolder registry key

17.Close the Registry Editor

That's it. Now all Windows 10 software applications will allow you to Save As in the "Recent Folders" under the Quick Access menu.

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