If you’re like most people, you use the breadcrumbs feature in Windows Explorer to help you navigate your files and folders. But if you’re using Windows Vista, disabling the breadcrumbs feature can save you a lot of time. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open Windows Explorer and click on the Tools menu.
  2. Click on Options.
  3. Under the General tab, click on the Navigation tab.
  4. Under the Breadcrumbs heading, uncheck the box next to Enable breadcrumbs. that’s all there is to it! ..

Standing next to Andreas Verhoeven is probably dangerous, because he’s simply on fire. He read Mysticgeek’s rant on the subject, and within hours had emailed us the first version of an application that will disable the breadcrumbs in explorer.

Here is the default explorer breadcrumb:

And here’s the address bar after running AveNoBreadcrumb. It will completely disable the breadcrumbs.

Installing AveNoBreadCrumb

Download and unzip the file Double-click on AveNoBreadCrumb. exe Close the current explorer window, and open a new one. Magic!

Adding to Startup

Open an explorer window and type in shell:Startup into the address bar to get to your startup folder. Create a shortcut in this folder to AveNoBreadCrumb. exe

Uninstalling

Remove the startup shortcut, if any. Double-click on AveNoBreadCrumb. exe to disable it. Close the current explorer window and re-open.

If you have a great idea for a new application or would like to see something changed, post your idea on the bounty program forum.

Download AveNoBreadCrumb [mirror] from Ave’s Vista Stuff

Note: Andreas has a donate button on his site, worth considering giving him a donation for his hard work.