Hotkey to Show/Hide Navigation Bar in File Explorer

The File Explorer in Windows 10 includes the keyboard shortcuts to enable or disable the Preview pane and the Details pane. However, there is no such shortcut available to toggle the navigation pane. So let’s see how to overcome this limitation using AutoHotKey.

Hotkey to Show/Hide Navigation Bar in File Explorer

1. Download AutoHotkey from www.autohotkey.com and install it.
2. Open Notepad and copy the following lines into it:

   #If WinActive("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
   F8::Send !vn{Space} ; Toggle the navigation pane
   #If
   

3. Save the file as navpane.ahk
4. Double navpane.ahk to run it.
5. Open File Explorer and press F8 to show/hide the navigation pane. It acts as a toggle.

The script automates the keystroke Alt + vn{space} to toggle the navigation pane in Explorer.

You can place a shortcut to navpane.ahk to your Startup folder (shell:startup) so that it auto-launches at every login.

Note that the above script works on Windows 10. On Windows 11, the script works if you restore the ribbon UI using one of the methods listed in the article Get Back the Ribbon UI in Windows 11 File Explorer.