Displaying user profile in Explorer

by Mitch Tulloch [Published on 16 Sept. 2015 / Last Updated on 16 Sept. 2015]

A tip on how you can get Windows Explorer to open by default to the root folder of your user profile.

By default clicking the Windows Explorer shortcut on the taskbar in Windows 7 displays your libraries. How can you configure this taskbar shortcut so that it opens Explorer at the root of your user profile instead?

  1. Right-click on the Explorer shortcut on your taskbar to display the jump list.
  2. Then right-click on the Windows Explorer item in your jump list and select Properties.
  3. In the Windows Explorer Properties dialog, on the Shortcuts tab, in the Target field, change %windir%\explorer.exe to %windir%\explorer.exe %userprofile% and click OK.

Now click on the Explorer shortcut on your taskbar and Windows Explorer should open to display the root folder of your user profile.

The above tip was previously published in an issue of WServerNews, a weekly newsletter from TechGenix that focuses on the administration, management and security of the Windows Server platform in particular and cloud solutions in general. Subscribe to WServerNews today by going to http://www.wservernews.com/subscribe.htm and join almost 100,000 other IT professionals around the world who read our newsletter!

Mitch Tulloch is an eleven-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award and a widely recognized expert on Windows Server and cloud computing technologies.  Mitch is also Senior Editor of WServerNews. For more information about him see http://www.mtit.com.

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The Author — Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch is a well-known expert on Windows Server administration and cloud computing technologies. He has published over a thousand articles on information technology topics and has written, contributed to or been series editor for over 50 books.

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