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I just got done upgrading Windows 8 to Windows 10 and I've found that the 'Favorites' panel in Windows Explorer got replaced with a 'Quick Access' panel and I can't seem to find a way to rename the pinned items in Quick Access like I could for favorite items under Windows 8.

Some of my pinned items are program-generated folders and I really don't have the option to rename them.

Am I missing something or did the rename feature get left out?

Loman
  • 1,251

6 Answers6

46

Sort of a hack, but I ended up using mklink to create Directory Junctions with the names I wanted, since they took away my beloved Favorites.

So, if I have a directory "c:\dir1", which I want to be named "Directory 1" in the Quick Access list, I would run:

mklink /J "c:\whatever\Directory 1" "c:\dir1"

Then you'll see "Directory 1" in "c:\whatever", which you can add to Quick Access, and it will be named "Directory 1".

NightShovel
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37

To me it looks like that Quick Access items are not shortcuts anymore. They behave differently and just show the items directly instead of showing traditional shortcuts. This means when going to edit Properties, you are indeed editing the items themselves.

This is disappointing of course. I had a couple folders with the same name (in different locations) that are tied to programs so I can't rename them directly.

Scott DePouw
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7

Sort of a kludge, but it works:

  1. Add the desired directory to a Library

  2. Rename the library as you wish

  3. Pin the Library to Quick Access

dr_
  • 4,746
4

Third party application is Clover, you may want to try that and use the bookmark functionality. Bookmarks can be renamed into the name of your liking.

mathijsuitmegen
  • 293
3

I used the solution described in my previous answer for a while, then I found it cumbersome to maintain and now I have done this:

  1. Created a "Favorites" folder anywhere in my hard disk and pinned it to Quick Access (you can even change its icon to make it look like a star)

  2. Put inside it all the shortcut I want to access rapidly

It kinda restores the Favorites feature but with the hassle of an additional step.

dr_
  • 4,746
1

It's a pain to get network paths renamed. The top answer shows the use of junction links, but those don't work with network paths. Directory links do work to create a link, but those will resolve upon pinning to quick access (to the name of the linked directory, defeating the purpose of creating the link). A solution I found is to create a directory link to the network path, then a junction link to the directory link, then pin that junction link to quick access. Since this is cumbersome, I've created a Powershell script to do it for me:

param([string]$destination, [string]$quickAccessName)

if (-not $destination) {
    $destination = Read-Host "Enter the path of the folder you would like to pin to Quick access"
}


$quickAccessBase = "$env:USERPROFILE\Quick access folder shortcuts"


if (!(Test-Path $quickAccessBase)) {
    New-Item -Path $quickAccessBase -ItemType Directory | Out-Null
}


if (!(Test-Path $destination)) { 
    Write-Warning "$destination isn't accessible"
    continue; 
}


$userAlias = Read-Host "Enter custom name for Quick Access item to '$destination'"
$destination = $destination.Trim('"')  # Remove extra quotes from drag & drop
$sluggedDestination = "proxy_link_$userAlias"
$dirLink = "$quickAccessBase$sluggedDestination"


Create Directory Link


if (!(Test-Path $dirLink)) {
    New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path $dirLink -Target $destination | Out-Null
} else {
    Write-Error "Your supplied alias already exists, please choose a different one"
}


Get user-entered name for Junction Link


$junctionLink = "$quickAccessBase$userAlias"


Create Junction Link


if (!(Test-Path $junctionLink)) {
    New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path $junctionLink -Target $dirLink | Out-Null
} else {
    Write-Error "Your supplied alias already exists, please choose a different one"
}


Pin to Quick Access


$shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
$destinationFolderObject = $shell.Namespace($junctionLink)
if ($destinationFolderObject) {
    $destinationFolderItem = $destinationFolderObject.Self
    $destinationFolderItem.InvokeVerb("pintohome")
}

As a side effect, the link won't really fully resolve, so for example you won't be able to go to the parent folder in the file explorer as this will just go to the parent directory that holds the links themselves.

Mattwmaster58
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