If you enable "Navigation Pane" in Windows 7 Explorer, it shows following 5 items in the pane:
- Favorites
- Libraries
- Homegroup
- Computer
- Network
This tutorial will help you in removing "Favorites" item from the Navigation pane as shown in following screenshot:
Simply follow these simple steps:
1. Type regedit in RUN or Start Menu search box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder
3. Now you'll need to change value of "Attributes" DWORD value present in the right-side section. But Windows will not allow you to change its value as you won't have proper permissions.
To get permissions, first right-click on "ShellFolder" key and select "Permissions".
It'll open a new window. Select "Administrators" in user list and check "Allow" box given for "Full Control" permission.
Click on OK button to apply the changes.
4. Now double-click on "Attributes" DWORD value given in right-side section and change its value to a9400100
5. That's it. Log off or restart your system and "Favorites" will no longer present in Explorer window.
NOTE: If you want to restore "Favorites" in Navigation pane, simply change value of "Attributes" DWORD to a0900100 using step 4.
Posted by: Vishal Gupta | Categories: Windows 7
Anton
Tried it on Server 2008 R2 - did not work. The "Favorites" are still in the navigation plane, but the value in registry is a9400100.
P.S.
HKCR does not exist since W2K - it's a fake copy of real HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLASSES - stored in "SOFTWARE" file in %systemroot%\system\32\config
TheAslan
Changing value to a9400100 doesn't work for me either, tried several times already, running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
VG
^^ I again tried after reading your comment and its working fine here. I'm also using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with SP1.
raj
isnt there a way you can give a reg script like the other hacks ? just curious as to why some can be scripted and the others cannot...is it just for that permissions thing ?
what a pain windows makes it for us..they must have some nut cases sitting in the design board.
VG
^^ Yes. Since you need to take permission of the key, registry script will not work.
TheAslan
This key is located in 5 different place: (But changing the value all of these keys won't remove Faorites from my Navigation Pane)
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{31C967B5-2F8A-3957-9C6D-34A0731DB36C}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}
TheAslan
Don't care about those first 2 keys.
TheAslan
No matter what I try Favorites link stays there...please help me guys, please.
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 (with February Windows Updates)
Is it because I have tweaked some Group Policy Editor settings, but what's odd here is that I managed to remove all the other items but not Favorites.
Please help me...
VG
^^ Can't check because I'm on Windows 8 now but it worked when I tested it in Windows 7 at the time of writing this tutorial. May be some new updates changed the behavior of the Registry key? You should try to apply the tweak in another Windows 7 computer.
TheAslan
I don't have another computer...