[Did You Know] Hidden Secret Way to Organize Favorites in Internet Explorer
Today we are going to share another “Did You Know (DYK)” trick. In our exclusive DYK series we share interesting tips which exist since long time in popular software but many people are not aware of these tricks. We have shared these tips in comment section or other AskVG articles but now we have started sharing them in separate topics so that more people can learn about them.
In past we have told you about secret Network Monitor menu in older Nokia mobile phones, hidden DeskBar Options tab present in Windows 98 Taskbar properties, etc. Today in this topic we are going to tell you a secret way to organize favorites in Internet Explorer web browser.
We all know about “Favorites” or Bookmarks items in web browsers. Almost all web browsers allow you to save any webpage as a favorite or bookmark item so that you don’t need to remember its URL and you can visit the webpage quickly and easily anytime in future.
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In Internet Explorer, you can organize favorites by clicking on “Favorites -> Organize Favorites” option present in Menubar.
When you click on organize favorites option, it opens a small window which allows you to rename, delete or move existing favorite items. You can also create new folders to organize favorites.
But did you know these favorites are actually stored as .URL (Internet Shortcut) files in “Favorites” folder present in your Windows user profile folder and you can directly open this “Favorites” folder using a hidden secret way?
You just need to press and hold “SHIFT” key while clicking on “Favorites -> Organize Favorites” option.
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Now it’ll open “Favorites” folder in Windows Explorer instead of opening Internet Explorer’s built-in favorite organizer interface.
Now you can rename, delete or move all your favorite links in bulk just like you organize other files in Windows Explorer.
This trick exists since Internet Explorer 5 version or may be older versions and can be used in all newer versions of Internet Explorer such as IE9, IE10 or IE11.
Its a nice small and secret feature of Internet Explorer. Although you can access “Favorites” folder using other ways as well such as by typing favorites in RUN dialog box or by directly opening the folder from C:\Users\your_user_name\ in Windows Explorer but the above mentioned secret way might become very useful when you want to organize your favorites directly from IE.
PS: Pressing SHIFT key to access secret items in Windows is not a new thing. It can be also used to access secret shortcuts in context menus as mentioned in following tutorial:
[Tip] Customize Hidden “Extended Send To” Menu in Windows
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The most annoying thing about Favorites in IE , is not being able to scroll down the list of favorites in folders. I have folders which has over 50-60 bookmarks/favorites, which make it extremely painful to find the one i need.
Hey thanks VG. Not much of a secret though…all one has to do turn on hidden folders and naviagte the user folder until you find the Favorite folder.
^^ The trick was hidden secret. As mentioned you can access the folder using favorites command in RUN as well. 😉
This really nice sharing! most people know but don’t understand
Thanks again VG.
Thank you for the tip was able to sort the favorites so quickly.
God bless!!
I have never been able to find my Favorites since I down loaded Windows 10 . My icon is gone and I can’t even find my tool bar or get into my files list????
how do I move stuff in my favorites list to a folder? I tried several times, but each time it won’t work.
I tried dragging and dropping; if I try to put a second item in the folder, the first item I put in it pops out, assuming it even went into it in the first place. if you can only put one item in each folder, then what good are the folders?
then I tried the “move to folder” thing, only to find I don’t have that option.
so how do you move things in to folders in the favorites list, or was my computer programmed all wrong so that I can’t do that?
I have IE 11 in win 7 home premium edition and when I try to organize favorites, its in black screen when it open. How do I change it to white so I can see what I am organizing cuz right now I can’t see it unless I click on it and the text is in blue to black screen background.