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Question
Friday, August 14, 2015 4:01 PM | 13 votes
For anyone who, like me, depended heavily on Recent Places, you'll agree that the Quick Access doesn't quite fill the bill. If you want to know how to get it back, see below for the how-to I came across.
First, the caveat (and my reason for this question post): at present, Recent Places will only appear when you are OPENING a file. For some inexplicable reason, it will not be there in your Quick Access list when you go to SAVE a file.
I'm hoping someone can help resolve that conundrum so I can get back to my file management workload instead of Googling and Binging for the answer...
=============
Okay, first, let's get Recent Places back for you:
1. Open Explorer.
2. In the location bar, copy/paste the following location:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
3. Go up ONE folder using your up-arrow, and you should see Recent with a few other folders.
4. Right-click on Recent and add to Quick Access.
5. You're done. You now have Recent Places restored as a pinned Quick Access shortcut.
--Timothy Kline
All replies (14)
Tuesday, September 22, 2015 4:50 PM âś…Answered | 5 votes
This is a very very interesting information. problem fixed:
http://www.dragonblogger.com/windows-10-tutorials-restore-recent-places-function-to-windows-10/
Saturday, August 15, 2015 11:37 AM | 4 votes
As indicated in the body of my post, I'd like help with understanding why, after pinning/restoring "Recent Places" to the Quick Access list, the pinned folder only appears in the Quick Access list when OPENING a file, but not when SAVING a file.
This is across all applications, so the issue is definitely replicable for anyone who wants to test for it.
Thank you, in advance!
Timothy Kline
Monday, August 17, 2015 6:18 AM
Hi ENVISIONocity,
Thanks for your sharing.
Recent Places is removed on Windows 10 by default, for the mostly used files, there would be list available under Quick Access.
There should be suggestions to make the current situation better, and if we still loving Recent Places, please submit feedback using the built-in feedback tool, Microsoft would consider to add it back if this option is suggested by most of the customers.
Regards
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Monday, August 17, 2015 10:53 AM | 4 votes
Thank you for following up, Michael, and I understand that the feature has been removed by default in Windows 10. Quick Access, on the other hand, allows me to pin folders of my choice to its list, which is what I have done here with the Recent Items folder.
However, it still doesn't explain why, after pinning the Recent Items to the new Quick Access list just as I have my other regular folders, it works fine when I'm looking to OPEN a file, and then disappears from the Quick Access list when I am looking to SAVE a file.
Just for clarification: the Recent Items is now pinned to Quick Access and displays fine as well as works as it should for every function EXCEPT SAVE.
If you can explain why the pinned shortcut works for OPEN but not SAVE, such as a permissions setting I need to change, I'd be immensely grateful.
Thank you, in advance!
Timothy Kline
Monday, August 17, 2015 4:51 PM | 2 votes
Timothy, thank you for the tip. I followed your instructions and it worked great. So far I really like Windows 10 but without the "recent places" feature I was going nuts because I use it very much.
You're right, when saving a new file the recent items does not appear in the quick access menu.
Monday, August 17, 2015 7:42 PM | 1 vote
Timothy, thank you for the tip. I followed your instructions and it worked great. So far I really like Windows 10 but without the "recent places" feature I was going nuts because I use it very much.
You're right, when saving a new file the recent items does not appear in the quick access menu.
I am wondering if it's a permissions issue. In Windows 8.1, when trying to SAVE a file, if I accidentally selected Recent Places without selecting a folder inside Recent Places, I would receive an error telling me I cannot SAVE a file "here." I'd realize what I did, and choose the destination folder from Recent Places, and voila!
Reasonably, I expect to see the same here after pinning Recent Places to Quick Access. But Microsoft has changed something so that even though I've pinned it to Quick Access, it's blocking access to the pinned folder during SAVE access.
That would seem to be either a permissions issue regarding the folder's WRITE access, or Microsoft simply blocks that folder, period, because they're happy to force Quick Access on Windows 10 adopters.
In this case, even, Quick Access does NOT work correctly, since it's supposed to allow me to pin folders of my choosing to its list--yet blocks specific folders from being written into.
One more thought: since I upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, I'm curious if a "clean install" of Windows 10 includes the so-called "deprecated" Recent Places folder. If anyone has performed a clean install of Windows 10, are they able to pin "Recent Items" to their Quick Access (see steps above), or is the folder completely gone in a clean install?
--Tim
Wednesday, August 19, 2015 4:39 AM | 4 votes
Using the method here, I was able to pin "Recent Items". Recent Places is still missing - and it is different.
Friday, August 21, 2015 3:16 PM | 4 votes
After using Windows 10 for nearly a month now and seeing how the new file management methodology in place with Windows 10 was negatively impacting my daily workflow, I decided to downgrade all my systems back to Windows 8.1 until/unless Microsoft decides to provide the Recent Places feature as an alternative to Quick Access for those who depend on file management's simplicity.
I really have no other complaints about Windows 10 other than the deal-breaker involving Recent Places. I gave it a serious go for the last 3 1/2 weeks, but Quick Access is definitely NOT a step up from the practicality and functionality of Recent Places in my line of work.
Downgrading back to Windows 8.1 had only a couple bugs, but were quickly rectified and now my workflow is getting back to normal levels.
Your mileage may vary.
--Timothy B. Kline
Monday, September 14, 2015 5:00 PM | 2 votes
Yes, this VERY VERY annoying. MS DROPPED THE BALL YET AGAIN! First it was Windows 8 and playing hide and seek with the Start icon! WTF? Seriously? Uggh...this is why Windows 10 is FREEEEEE. make up for there huge mistakes. But They also have another plan by giving it away free... so ultimately it won't be free in the long run. Cloud Subscription OS? : /
Ok, done with my rant... I have noticed that by CLICKING the actual "STAR" "Quick access" (not the subfolders below it, that it shows some recent files etc? Maybe this is somewhat the same as "RECENT"? Haven't used it enough yet, but just noticed this..I am sure there will be some sort of shortcoming...but I hope not.
Maybe use OPEN FILE LOCATION after right clicking on recent file?
UPDATE: yeah...this is crap. this doesn't work consistently either. MS FIX THIS AND BRING BACK RECENT PLACES ETC!!!!!!!! >:\
Friday, November 6, 2015 8:10 PM
This is a very very interesting information. problem fixed:
http://www.dragonblogger.com/windows-10-tutorials-restore-recent-places-function-to-windows-10/
Thank you pbetegon! My file management workflow can now go back up to at least the speed it was before upgrading to Windows 10.
A couple of notes some may find helpful when following the procedures specified at the above link:
(1) If you don't see the Recycle Bin in Windows Explorer, below which the Recent Places folder is supposed to appear, see this link:
(2) At step 15, near the bottom of the page, ignore the extra backslash before Wow6432Node in the stated registry key (in other words, the key is indeed listed alphabetically):
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}\ShellFolder
Tuesday, December 22, 2015 1:08 AM | 1 vote
Thank you pbetegon. This seemed to work although I have not yet tried the permanent solution.
Thanks Timothy, for starting this. Your solution also helped, but I prefer to have recent folders than all the recent items. I do use it for save frequently as well as open.
Please, Microsoft, bring back Recent Places. I am sure some people like the ability to pin folders, but don't take away the Recent Places choice.
Sunday, January 24, 2016 12:56 PM | 3 votes
It's there, finally!!
How to Pin Recent folders or Recent Places to the Navigation Pane in Windows 10 File Explorer
Works in the Open/Save As dialogs as well!
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Ramesh Srinivasan | The Winhelponline Blog
Wednesday, April 19, 2017 2:44 PM
This worked for me. Simple and straightforward! Many thanks
Thursday, August 31, 2017 7:07 PM
Simply GREAT!!!