Vista Tutorial - Windows Explorer Default Opening

I want to have Windows Explorer open a Network drive but I can't seem to get the syntax right. The path for the drive is

Hello James, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I'm not sure if this would be different on network drives, if the network drive is connected, then you should be able to use:

To open the network drive itself: (substitute C for the drive letter of your network drive instead)
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, C:\


To open Computer with the network drive selected: (substitute C for the drive letter of your network drive instead)
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, c:\, /select

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Shawn-
I tried the path you suggested but it does not work. I even went back to check to see if the path change had "taken" and it had. Any other suggestions? The way I login to this machien I dod not have local adminrights, but the fact that the path change was successfuyl implies that I don['t need local admin rights to make the change.

Pat

Pat,

You might just make a shortcut of the network drive instead, and place it where you like for easy use. You should be able to right click on the drive and click on Create Shortcut.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Yes this works IF I navigate to Accessories/explorer.exe or use WindowsKey-E shortcut however, by habit I typically right click the start button and select Explorer. In this case it defaults to the Start Menu directory...would be nice to change startup location using this method of initiating explorer as well.

Hello IPrior, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You cannot change the Explore context menu item for the Start Menu since it encoded for the Start Menu All Programs folder only. However, you can add a item (ex: Window Explorer) to the Start Menu context menu of your choice. In step 10 of this tutorial, use the path C:\Windows\System32\explorer.exe (or one you like) for Windows Explorer.

Start Menu - Customize Context Menu

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I think I have a much easier solution:

1. open Start\All Programs\Accessories and click on Windows Explorer
2. select file\new\short cut from the menu bar
3. a create new short cut wizard will take you through the steps, it is straight forward
4. move newly created short cut to your desktop or Quick Launch toolbar
5. edit short cut properties icon to whatever you want and folder views

Hello Bonzai, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yes, you are correct that simply creating a shortcut would be easier. This is just another method in case the shortcut option is not applicable in the given situation.

I have added a TIP box in case others can do a shortcut instead though.

Thank you,
Shawn

Hi Shawn,

Excellent tutorial! Could you tell me how I get Windows Explorer to default to the administrators documents folder? I think it's in the Desktop folder in Windows Explorer.... I have a folder there called Nicky and that has my documents folder in it and I want it to default to that documents folder. It used to default to that until I installed a program which then created another documents folder and ignored the one that had my files in it! Sorry if it's a complicated request!

Hello Nicky, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might check the program that you have installed to see if it has a option to change the path of where it saves it files to where you have changed the location of your Documents folder at. If the program does not have that option, then you will need to restore the default location of your Documents folder to prevent issues with it using OPTION THREE in this tutorial.


You can use example 3 in the tutorial here for this. You will just need to substitute the path for the path of your Documents folder instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn