[Tip] Add “This PC” or File Explorer Shortcut to Windows 10 Start Menu

When we install Windows 10 in a computer or when we purchase a new device containing Windows 10 operating system, we find “This PC” or File Explorer (previously known as My Computer or Windows Explorer) shortcut on Desktop as well as on Taskbar. We frequently need to open This PC window to navigate through drives and folders to open/move/copy/delete files, etc.

If we have no program window opened on screen or all running programs windows are minimized, we can double-click on This PC shortcut present on Desktop to open This PC window. Otherwise we can click on This PC icon pinned on Taskbar to launch This PC window.

Many times users remove the pinned shortcut of This PC from Taskbar as it automatically groups all running This PC instances on its icon which might become very irritating sometimes. I also prefer to unpin all pinned shortcuts from Taskbar. So after unpinning This PC shortcut from Taskbar, Windows 10 users have only one place to access This PC which is the Desktop. The Start Menu doesn’t contain This PC shortcut by default.

Although you can quickly launch This PC window by pressing WIN+E keys together which I always prefer but many users don’t know about this keyboard shortcut or have problems in using hotkeys. So whenever they need to open This PC window, they have to minimize all running programs and then double-click on This PC icon present on Desktop to open This PC window.

One way to fix this issue is to pin This PC shortcut to Start Menu but many users like me don’t pin any shortcut to Start Menu. I personally remove all default pinned shortcuts from Start Menu to make it compact and to to make it look-like classic Start Menu as shown in following screenshot:

Did you know Windows 10 allows users to add This PC shortcut to left sidebar present in Start Menu where other icons such as power options, settings and user account are shown?

Today in this tutorial, we’ll tell you how to add This PC shortcut to Windows 10 Start Menu’s left-side pane for easy and quick access so that you don’t need to minimize all running programs windows. You can launch This PC from Start Menu anytime.

1. Open Start Menu and click on Settings option. It’ll open Settings app. Alternatively, you can direct open Settings app using WIN+I hotkey.

2. Now click on “Personalization” icon and in left-side pane, click on “Start” section.

PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch the “Start” page using “ms-settings:personalization-start” command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.

3. Now click on “Choose which folders appear on Start” link present in right-side pane.

4. It’ll open a new page where several toggle buttons are present to show/hide various items in Start Menu.

You need to set the toggle button for “File Explorer” to ON.

That’s it. It’ll immediately add This PC shortcut to left-side pane of Start Menu.

Now you can launch This PC window anytime from Start Menu. If you want to always open drives list page in This PC window and want to disable the new Quick Access page, following tutorial will help you:

How to Disable Default “Quick Access” aka “Home View” in Windows 10 File Explorer