Solved Windows Explorer Address Bar not displaying recently visited folders

Hello All,

I have a strange problem that I am having difficulty finding any information about. The address bar in windows explorer is no longer showing recently/frequently visited folders. It sounds like a minor thing but I didn't realize how much I utilized it until it was gone! Here's a screenshot to show what I'm talking about:



In my search I kept finding recommendations for software to provide additional things to windows explorer but nothing about restoring this specific functionality. I also didn't find anything like this in the forums here though this was the first place I found anything relevant regarding windows explorer and the address bar so I thought you might be able to help!

I had been testing some drivers out in relation to my drawing tablet, uninstalled the tablet driver, then reinstalled it to resolve a lag issue for the tablet. The rest of the drivers were left alone and nothing else has been amiss since. I also recently updated with the Vista Service Pack 2. I've restarted numerous times and have used windows explorer, navigated through it, and used the save/open dialog multiple times since this issue started. The rest of the functionality for the address bar and windows explorer in general seems fine. This has all occurred in the past 24 hours or so.

My computer knowledge is pretty basic. I would be ever so grateful if anyone could shed any light on this! I hope it's something easy to fix! Thank you in advance!

Hello Seashan, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You may have auto suggest turned off in Windows Explorer. Using a option in the tutorial below to turn it back on should be able to fix this for you.

Windows Explorer Auto Suggest - Turn On or Off - Windows 7 Forums

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Shawn,

Thank you for the response! Sadly, I don't think autosuggest is the issue. I followed that tutorial but I already have autosuggest on.

I'm referring to the address bar history and being able to click on the arrow to the right of the address bar for that drop down list of folder paths I've frequently or recently visited. I've never had to to manually type them in.

This is an example from online of what it's supposed to look like:


That said, I fiddled around some more with windows explorer after looking at that tutorial. I found that if I did manually type a path in, it will show up in the address bar history. I'm not sure why it's not saving the history for when I navigate through windows explorer and click on the folders, only if I type the folder path manually into the address bar? In any case, I'm at least satisfied that the history is showing something again! I can work with this.

That's good news so far. Double check to make sure that you also have "Browsing history" and "Favorites" checked in step4 of OPTION ONE in the tutorial above to see if that may help more. It may take a bit to build up a history though.

Also check in the Internet Options\General\Browsing History and make sure that you don't have the option to delete your history after exiting checkmarked.

Thank you again for the responses!

Brink said:

That's good news so far. Double check to make sure that you also have "Browsing history" and "Favorites" checked in step4 of OPTION ONE in the tutorial above to see if that may help more. It may take a bit to build up a history though.

Click to expand...

I'm definitely relieved that I can get some functionality for it back. As I said before though, all the autocomplete settings are already on. They're not exactly like the ones in the tutorial but everything is on. I checked again to take a screenshot:

wither 3 said:

Also check in the Internet Options\General\Browsing History and make sure that you don't have the option to delete your history after exiting checkmarked.

Click to expand...

I checked this too and the browsing history isn't set to delete upon exiting. I don't use IE anyway and the handful of times in the past when I had, I don't recall it affecting windows explorer.

You'll also notice that the history doesn't always show up in the drop down menu unless you start to type a path or item to search for in the address bar instead.

Brink said:

You'll also notice that the history doesn't always show up in the drop down menu unless you start to type a path or item to search for in the address bar instead.

Click to expand...

I never had that problem! It always showed up when I clicked on the arrow for the drop down menu. I never manually typed the path in or searched using the address bar. I always either clicked on the drop down menu for the address bar history or navigated to the folder by clicking through explorer. Was my windows explorer just working better than everyone else's to begin with and now it's just like everyone else's? haha

My apologies. I didn't read carefully enough. I was automatically thinking the problem was in IE..

Is your problem resolved?

Seashan,

If you navigate to locations using the bread crumb arrows (black triangles) drop down menu inside the address bar itself inbetween each folder in the path, then those locations will also appear in the drop down menu.

Brink said:

Seashan,

If you navigate to locations using the bread crumb arrows (black triangles) drop down menu inside the address bar itself inbetween each folder in the path, then those locations will also appear in the drop down menu.

Click to expand...

Hrm, I tried this out navigating to several different folders this way and it worked once, sort of, but not for all of them.

wither 3 said:

My apologies. I didn't read carefully enough. I was automatically thinking the problem was in IE..

Is your problem resolved?

Click to expand...

Well, windows explorer still isn't working exactly the way I remember it working but I can at least build up an address bar history which was the most important thing to me so I guess you can consider this resolved. If I run into any more issues or it becomes a problem again, I can always come back.

Thank you both again for the help!

You're most welcome Seashan. I'm glad that we could help.

Yes, please do come back if it acts up again. We'll be happy to help.