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The "Creative Cloud Files" shortcut was a pain to get rid of in the past, but after a recent update in spring 2021, the damn shortcut is back, and none of the old tricks work anymore.

Has anybody found a method to remove it?

screenshot - creative cloud files in windows explorer

ZygD
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Paul G
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4 Answers4

26

According to Adobe, set the following REGKEY to 1 will unpin Creative Cloud Files:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Adobe\CreativeCloud]
"unPinCCF"=dword:00000001

However it doesn't seem to work. This is what works for me on Windows 10 and Windows 11:

  1. Open Registry Editor
  2. Navigate Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID
  3. Search for "System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree", and locate a key that contain a string Creative Cloud Files. enter image description here
  4. Set the value of System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree to 0
  5. Restart Windows Explorer for the change to take effect
Jim
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10

For me I had to remove this registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\0E270DAA-1BE6-48F2-AC49-5CE0DBECC398

The last part of the number is random, so open Regedit and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace, find a key starting with 0E270DAA-1BE6-48F2-AC49 and remove it.

bortao
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1

I have been trying all the methods that I found. Nothing works for me. I did something different, explained as follows:

  1. Open "File Explorer Options" from Control Panel or the Search bar.
  2. Click on View.
  3. Click on "Reset Folders"
  4. Then click on "Restore Default".
  5. Click on "Apply".
  6. Cheers.
Tawfeeq Zaghlool
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1

The RegEx approach described in the procedure above or described in other posts would not work for me. I expect Adobe has made a change to their implementation.

This answer gives a tested method for anyone who wants to remove the "Creative Cloud Files" shortcut, using procedure similar to that provided by Adobe.

  1. Go to the Adobe help site Adobe Unlink Tool.
  2. Download PinCCF.zip from Adobe and extract its content.
  3. There are 2 files, one for creating the link and the other for removing it.
  4. Double-click on unPinCCF.reg (the unlink file) from the extracted folder to run it.
  5. A message appears advising that you want to add unPinCCF.reg to the registry. Click Yes.
  6. A confirmation message appears once the registry is successfully updated. Click OK.

You may need to restart File Explorer or Windows for the change to take effect. I did not need to do this and the "Creative Cloud Files" shortcut was immediately removed. I am using Windows 11 version 22H2.

If you later want to re-create the shortcut, all you need to do is run the rePinCCF.reg file also provided in the Adobe download zip file.

I hope this helps unclutter File Explorer a little for anyone who is not using "Creative Cloud Files".

Clinton
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