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Windows 7: Open Windows Explorer As My Computer (Drive View)

You might have noticed that whenever you launch the Windows Explorer in Windows 7, it opens the libraries section. Many users want it to open in Drive View (i.e, Computer) by default. Lets see what small changes are required to open the Windows Explorer in the Drive View. 😉

There are two steps involved in this process.

  • Update the Start Menu shortcut
  • Update the Taskbar shortcut

Update The Start Menu Shortcut

Click Start, type Windows Explorer, right click it’s icon and choose the Properties option.

Windows Explorer Properties

Now in the Windows Explorer Properties window, go to the Shortcut tab and change the Target to:

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

, and then hit the Apply button.

Target Windows Explorer

Update The Taskbar Shortcut

Right-click the Windows Explorer icon on the task bar, then right-click on the Windows Explorer option and select Properties.

Properties

Now change the Target to:

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Note that the target above is both same for Start Menu shortcut and Taskbar shortcut.

Target

Click the Apply button and you are done with the configurations, now the Windows Explorer will lead you directly to Computer.

Drive View

Update: If you want to revert back to old changes, simply enter the default values, i.e %windir%\explorer.exe and you are done. The better solution is to use the hotkey Win+E to open My Computers(in Drive View).

21 Comments

  1. Able to see the my computer without the GUID also.

    %SystemRoot%explorer.exe ,::

    Thanks for the tip.

  2. All I had to do was to was open Windows Explorer and then click on Organise and then select Layout and then Navigation Pane.

    • Opens to “My Documents” in Win7, Win8, WinSrv2012. The article (and most of the commenters here, including myself) want the shortcut to open to “My Computer”.

  3. did a little bit of messing around with the command and if you remove /root it doesn't cause it to open in a new window. The settings below seem to work for me.%SystemRoot%explorer.exe ,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

  4. did a little bit of messing around with the command and if you remove /root it doesn't cause it to open in a new window. The settings below seem to work for me.%SystemRoot%explorer.exe ,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

  5. did a little bit of messing around with the command and if you remove /root it doesn't cause it to open in a new window. The settings below seem to work for me.%SystemRoot%explorer.exe ,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

  6. i didnt save the default values, could someone please post them?not only as, Willem pointed out does it start new processes, it also opens new windows when you click on any drive in the newly opened explorer window. quite annoying.

    • I found this to be opposite in Windows 8 on my laptop. When I do Win + E the new window that opens up instantly starts with 75+ mb consumed. However, if I run Windows Explorer with the solution given in this post, it starts with just 12mb. Strange!