If you have Windows 7, 8, or 10, you can add your own folders to your Favorites. This is a great way to keep track of things that you use often and want to have easy access to. To add your own folders to your Favorites, open the Start screen and type “Favorites.” Then click on the “Add” button. You will be asked for a name for the new folder. You can choose any name you like, but make sure it is unique so other people cannot easily find it. When you have added your new folder to your Favorites, you can access it by clicking on the “Favorites” icon in the top left corner of the Start screen.
In Windows 10 it’s called Quick Access instead of Favorites, but it works exactly the same way
Remove Folders from Favorites or Quick Access
By default Microsoft has included some favorite locations for you that you may not want. The default locations are Desktop, Downloads, Recent Places, and Recorded TV if you’ve set up Live TV in Windows Media Center.
To delete the locations from Favorites, simply right-click on the location and select Remove from the context menu.
Add Folders to Favorites or Quick Access
Adding you favorite locations that you visit often is easy. While you’re in the folder you want to add, right-click on Favorites and select Add current location to Favorites.
If you’re in Windows 10 it’ll be called Quick Access instead of Favorites but it works the same way.
You can also drag a folder over to Favorites to link it there as well.
In this example we removed all of the default locations and added four locations…a FLAC folder from a home server, My Documents, My Videos, and our Dropbox folder.
If you want to get the default locations back just right-click Favorites and select Restore favorite links. It won’t delete the locations you added, but will just restore the originals.
Search Connectors in Windows 7
You can’t add Internet Explorer Favorites or files to your favorites in Windows Explorer. However, you can add Search Connectors which allow you to search a favorite website and view it in Windows Explorer. This is a neat trick we covered in a previous article.
This should help make navigating through your favorite locations a bit easier and allow you to add Search Connectors as well. Make sure to check out our links below that will help better understand Search Connectors and why they might come in handy.
Search Websites from Your Desktop in Windows 7 with Search Connectors
Download the How-To Geek Search Connector
