How to Add a Custom Folder in Explorer Navigation Pane under “This PC”?

You can add custom folders to the the Explorer navigation pane, in pretty much all versions of Windows. This post has the instructions to add a custom folder under This PC in the navigation pane in Windows 10.

The easiest way to manually add a custom folder to the navigation pane is to mimic the settings of an existing or built-in shell folder like Music or Videos, and use them with a custom GUID. For example, here is the Videos shell folder’s registry setting that we’ll use with a different GUID and point to a custom folder.

;Videos Shell Folder (Default)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}]
"DescriptionID"=dword:00000003
"Infotip"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,\
6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\
00,73,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,\
2d,00,31,00,32,00,36,00,39,00,30,00,00,00
"System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}\DefaultIcon]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,69,00,6d,00,\
61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,31,\
00,38,00,39,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}\InProcServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\
65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}\Instance]
"CLSID"="{0E5AAE11-A475-4c5b-AB00-C66DE400274E}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"Attributes"=dword:00000011
"TargetKnownFolder"="{35286a68-3c57-41a1-bbb1-0eae73d76c95}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:f080004d
"FolderValueFlags"=dword:00000029
"SortOrderIndex"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}]

Note: If the REG file formatting breaks when copying to Notepad, view the above contents as a text file.

Adding a Custom Folder to the Navigation Pane

1. Copy the contents above to Notepad, and save with .reg extension (e.g. mytools.reg).

2. Go to GuidGen.com website that generates random GUID strings for you, using Microsoft’s GUIDGen.exe utility at the backend. Copy the GUID to Clipboard. In this example, the GUID is {d464e152-bde0-4a84-9160-bd183268ad35}

3. In Notepad, replace every occurrence of string {f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a} with {d464e152-bde0-4a84-9160-bd183268ad35}

4. Save the REG file, and close Notepad.

5. Double-click the REG file to apply the settings to the registry.

6. Open Regedit.exe and navigate to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\{d464e152-bde0-4a84-9160-bd183268ad35}

7. In the right-pane, change the value data for (Default) and InfoTip accordingly.

(InfoTip text will be shown when you hover the mouse over the custom folder in File Explorer.)

8. Then navigate to the DefaultIcon sub key, that is:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\{d464e152-bde0-4a84-9160-bd183268ad35}\DefaultIcon

9. Set the icon value accordingly. I chose the shell32.dll,35 icon for the My Tools folder we’re adding.

10. Navigate to the Instance\InitPropertyBag subkey, that is:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{d464e152-bde0-4a84-9160-bd183268ad35}\Instance\InitPropertyBag

11. Delete the TargetKnownFolder value. In this case, as we’re adding a custom folder location, we need to delete TargetKnownFolder.

12. Create a string value (REG_SZ) named TargetFolderPath, and set its value data, containing the full folder path.

You’re now done! The My Tools folder should show up in the navigation pane, as well as in the Folders section in This PC view.

Bonus Tip #1

If you’re adding a mapped drive or folder pointing to network location, you can make the item appear under the Network locations section in This PC view. To do so, modify the DescriptionID value (see screenshot #2 above) in this registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{d464e152-bde0-4a84-9160-bd183268ad35}

Set the DescriptionID to 9 (0x00000009)

• Setting DescriptionID to 3 shows it under Folders category.
• Setting DescriptionID to 9 shows it under Network locations category.

Bonus Tip #2

To move My Tools to the top of the This PC hierarchy, create a DWORD (32 bit) value named SortOrderIndex, here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{d464e152-bde0-4a84-9160-bd183268ad35}

Set the SortOrderIndex to a low value.

For example, setting it to 0x00000030 moves the item up, like this:

That’s it! You can add as many custom folders you want, generating different GUIDs from the GuidGen.com website, for each folder you want to add to the navigation pane.

Note: The REG file I made several years ago for Windows XP (Ref my post My Pictures, My Music and My Videos namespace extensions for the Windows Explorer folder pane) still works in Windows 10. That uses a slightly different method, where Shdocvw.dll is referenced instead of Shell32.dll. And if you’re using the old method for Windows 10, you need to add the System.IsPinnedtoNameSpaceTree DWORD value, and change the Attributes data to f080004d, in those sample REG files. Both method work fine.