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For some time now, I have been having an annoying issue with the Quick Access page on Windows 10. My "Frequent Folders" list keeps disappearing, and my "Recent Files" list keeps changing its view mode to "Details." It looks like this (file names removed for privacy).

Quick Access keeps reverting to this

I have been able to temporarily work around it by opening the "Folder Options" panel from the "File" tab, switching to the "View" tab, and clicking "Reset Folders." This lets me restore the appearance of Quick Access to the way it should be, and the way I want it to be (again, file names removed for privacy). The problem is that after a while, it breaks again and reverts to what I showed in the first image. I have tried other things as well, including completely resetting Explorer and clearing the directories used for jumplists, but nothing works. I had this problem once before a few years ago and managed to fix it by deleting a specific registry key that I saw mentioned somewhere online, but I foolishly did not take note the key and have been unable to find it again.

Normal appearance of Quick Access

Does anyone know how I may fix this?

DaveTheMinion
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1 Answers1

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Copy & paste this code into a PowerShell window. If it returns 5000, you've "maxed out" on saved folder views -- the OS has to delete a saved view every time it wants to save another one. Thus some folders seem to keep forgetting their views.

((gp "HKCU:\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU").Nodeslots).count

If you've hit 5000, you need to delete saved views by deleting the following two registry keys:

'HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU'
'HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags'

Sign out & back in or restart Explorer after deleting these keys.

If you haven't maxed out or after performing the above deletion, you can open Quick Access and use the Apply to Folders option on the same View tab in Folder Options where you found Reset Folders. Quick Access has its own FolderType and thus Apply to Folders will create a "custom" view template that seems to minimize "hiccups" with its unique view.

Keith Miller
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  • It appears that I have indeed hit 5,000! I've deleted the keys and restarted. Since this seems to be the solution, I shall mark as accepted! If I run in to any problems, I will follow up. Thanks for this! – DaveTheMinion Jul 16 '20 at 17:52
  • You're welcome. You should be good. This is the time to turn off grouping in **Downloads** and use **Apply to FOlders** there as well to ensure Common Dialogs opened to **Downloads** don't group by Date. – Keith Miller Jul 16 '20 at 17:57
  • I will definitely do that! I find the "Group By Date" thing in Downloads very annoying, but never bothered to change it. – DaveTheMinion Jul 16 '20 at 18:26
  • About one month shy of a whole year since I asked this question, and the problem still hasn't been fixed properly by MS. I just ran in to it again today and had to redo your instructions. – DaveTheMinion May 26 '21 at 22:29
  • Revisiting this post seems to have become an annual tradition for me, as I once again ran in to this issue again today. Even on Windows 11, this issue still persists. Fortunately, this workaround still seems to be useable. – DaveTheMinion May 13 '22 at 04:59
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    Happy Anniversary!!! :D – Keith Miller May 13 '22 at 06:25
  • Thank you!!! – DaveTheMinion May 13 '22 at 17:21