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Where are the Windows 10 Quick Access settings stored?

I have a large number of Win 10 computers and I want to deploy a "Pinned Folder" into user's Quick Access section of Windows Explorer using group policy.

Dom
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  • Related question: [Unable to add files/folders to Quick Access on Windows 10: “Unspecified Error”](http://superuser.com/questions/969012/unable-to-add-files-folders-to-quick-access-on-windows-10-unspecified-error) – Josiah Yoder Nov 28 '16 at 02:40

2 Answers2

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The Quick Access items are stored in this file:

%appdata%\microsoft\windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms
w32sh
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  • And the Microsoft Team blog covers how to deploy the setting. http://blogs.technet.com/b/supportingwindows/archive/2015/12/21/users-can-39-t-access-the-desktop-and-other-resources-through-quick-access-in-windows-10.aspx – w32sh Mar 11 '16 at 07:05
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    Perfect answer, good research. Only problem is they dump all the links into one file, so I can't manipulate it via group policy except for putting in a default one for new users. – Dom Mar 16 '16 at 01:07
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    Thanks Dom. And it's prone to corruption from what I see in various forums. When a pinned item gets stuck, the file needs to be cleared and that resets the entire listing. http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/fix-quick-access-reset-pinned-shortcuts-stuck-not-working-windows-10/ – w32sh Mar 16 '16 at 04:26
  • related: [How to know “.automaticDestinations-ms” files to which app relates?](http://superuser.com/q/217646/120159) and maybe [Decrypt/Read/Modify “.automaticDestinations-ms” and/or “.customDestinations-ms”](http://stackoverflow.com/q/4429944/1266650) – laggingreflex Aug 31 '16 at 17:18
  • Looks like the file depends on OS's language... – zhekaus Jan 30 '17 at 10:23
  • It looks like these have been moved somewhere in version `1809` – Gabriel Fair Jan 23 '19 at 18:49
  • @MasterofCelebration, that's not a comment on this answer. It's discussed elsewhere: https://superuser.com/q/947292 – Mathieu K. Apr 12 '19 at 16:52
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    For others having trouble finding it, it's in the roaming folder, the `Recent Items` folder is the same as `Recent`, the AutomaticDestinations folder won't show up in Explorer even if hidden files/folders are displayed, and the file itself is not simple text so manually editing it isn't easy. – Chris Sep 25 '19 at 13:46
  • Is there a way to edit this quick access config file? I have a problematic link that connects to a remote location through FTP and it doesn't let me right click it to unpin it from Quick Access. – Jorge Luque Mar 14 '20 at 10:55
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    @w32sh Microsoft Team blog link is dead: "404 - Page not found" – evandrix Jul 04 '20 at 03:40
  • as for the dead Microsoft link, wayback machine ftw! https://web.archive.org/web/20160117015258/http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2015/12/21/users-can-39-t-access-the-desktop-and-other-resources-through-quick-access-in-windows-10.aspx – hclegg Mar 10 '21 at 21:15
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You can do this with group policy - here is how I do it: Create shortcuts to the shares in %USERPROFILE%\Links: GP preferences - shortcuts

Set the shortcut details: GPPref details

Then again use GP Prefs files to delete the jumplist file %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms: enter image description here

The jumplist file will recreate a moment later with the contents of the links folder

Jim ReesPotter
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