How to remove the Folders from This PC in Windows 10

Microsoft renamed My Computer to Computer and then to This PC in Windows 8.1. It followed the same in Windows 10. Along with this name change, Microsoft introduced the display of 6 folders namely Documents, Pictures, Videos, Downloads, Music, and Desktop in This PC in both Windows 10 and Windows 8.1.

Those who did not want to display these folders found a way to hide these folders from This PC in Windows 8.1. This procedure will not work in Windows 10, as things are a bit different.

Remove the Folders from This PC in Windows 10

Even though you know how to show or hide folders from This PC in Windows 8.1, the same way is not possible in Windows 10 as Microsoft has changed Registry Keys a bit in Windows 10. But, do not worry. In this tutorial, I will let you know how to remove the six personal folders from This PC in Windows 10.

TIP: To do this with a click, use our Ultimate Windows Tweaker. You will see the setting in Customization > This PC > Customize inbuilt folders.

In Windows 10 Microsoft is maintaining a string ThisPCPolicy with a value of Show or Hide based on which folder is shown or hidden in This PC. If you set the ThisPCPolicy value to show, then that particular folder is shown in This PC, and if you set that value to Hide, then that folder is hidden from “This PC” in Windows 10.

Follow These Steps to show or hide folders from This PC in Windows 10

Press WIN+R key and open the RUN Dialog box and type “regedit” and hit enter. It opens the Registry Editor.

Next, we need to go to the following keys one after the other and need to change the value of ThisPCPolicy to Hide to hide that particular folder from “This PC” window in Windows 10.

Documents Folder:

Pictures Folder:

Videos Folder:

Downloads Folder:

Music Folder:

Desktop Folder:

As an example, let me show it for Pictures Folders and hide it from “This PC” window.

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the key specified and change the value of ThisPCPolicy to Hide.

Now, close the Registry Editor and open the “This PC” folder. You could see that Pictures folder from “This PC” window has been removed.

To get back the Pictures folder back, go the respective key and change the value of ThisPCPolicy to Show and you could see the Pictures folder again.

In this way, you need to change the value of ThisPCPolicy to Hide for all the six keys to hide them from the This PC window.

Note: All the keys mentioned above have the ThisPCPolicy string except for this key which is related to the Desktop folder-

For this, you need to create the string ThisPCPolicy for the desktop key and change its value to Hide.

PS: You can also remove the 3D Objects folder from This PC in Windows 10.

Date: December 23, 2019 Tags: Customize, Folder

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Sridhar is a Software Engineer who loves to stay updated with developments in the world of technology. He is fond of writing everything related to Internet, Computers and Mobile and Desktop Operating Systems.

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«My Computer» and all folders close immediately after attempting to open.

Replies (6) 

«My Computer» is a junction point and does not contain files you can access (and prohibits it intentionally). In Vista, you need to use Computer. It’s just a different name, but it acts similar to how «My Computer» acted in XP. The «My Computer» in Vista is primarily for backwards compatibility and nothing in it should be modified, moved, deleted, renamed or whatever even if you do somehow manage to get access.

I hope this helps.

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Thank you for your response. The point is though that NONE of the folders on my desktop or any other folder opens, they just open and close immediately. When you open «My Computer», you at least see the drives on your computer, correct?. This doesn’t happen. The window opens for a microsecond, and then immediately closes. I can’t see anything in the window, just the frame before is snaps close. I can’t open my drives to see what files are on there, they immediate close. I can’t open folders on the desktop with files in them, they immediately close. The whole filing system seems messed up and anytime I open them, they immediately close. This is not normal behavior.

Currently, the only way I can access any file on any drive on my computer is to launch another program (Word, PowerPoint, Real Video, whatever) and use their filing system («open file») to see the files. I’m having trouble getting any work done via this process however, as it extremely limits my ability to move files around, delete, what have you.

Also, I recently had some Windows Updates come in and I couldn’t even open the pane that tells you what the updates were. The only way I could initiate the already downloaded updates was by going to the «shut down computer and install updates» button. Note: My menu of installed programs works fine, and well as Control Panel (but if I try to open a folder through Control Panel — such as the Printers folder — the folder doesn’t open).

Repeat: Any time I try to open ANY folder, it comes up for the briefest of a second and snaps shut. It’s like there’s a selection button somewhere selected «do not allow any folder to open» or something.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

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How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you for your response. The point is though that NONE of the folders on my desktop or any other folder opens, they just open and close immediately. When you open «My Computer», you at least see the drives on your computer, correct?. This doesn’t happen. The window opens for a microsecond, and then immediately closes. I can’t see anything in the window, just the frame before is snaps close. I can’t open my drives to see what files are on there, they immediate close. I can’t open folders on the desktop with files in them, they immediately close. The whole filing system seems messed up and anytime I open them, they immediately close. This is not normal behavior.

Currently, the only way I can access any file on any drive on my computer is to launch another program (Word, PowerPoint, Real Video, whatever) and use their filing system («open file») to see the files. I’m having trouble getting any work done via this process however, as it extremely limits my ability to move files around, delete, what have you.

Also, I recently had some Windows Updates come in and I couldn’t even open the pane that tells you what the updates were. The only way I could initiate the already downloaded updates was by going to the «shut down computer and install updates» button. Note: My menu of installed programs works fine, and well as Control Panel (but if I try to open a folder through Control Panel — such as the Printers folder — the folder doesn’t open).

Repeat: Any time I try to open ANY folder, it comes up for the briefest of a second and snaps shut. It’s like there’s a selection button somewhere selected «do not allow any folder to open» or something.

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How to Add or Remove Folders from This PC in Windows 10

The Computer folder or the This PC folder in Windows 101 now displays the Desktop folder as well as personal folders like Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos folders. If you do not want your This PC folder to look cluttered of if you do not access these folders from you, you may simply click on the small arrow sign to hide these folders. But if you wish to Remove Folders from This PC in Windows 10/8.1, you will have to edit the Windows Registry. So before we commence, do create a system restore point first and back up your registry.

Remove Folders from This PC in Windows 10

Close all your open File Explorer windows. From the Win+X menu, Run regedit to open the Windows Registry and navigate to the following registry key:

Here, you will see the following, each one corresponding to the Desktop or some personal folder:

In my image you see the following key too – that is because I have added Recycle Bin to the This PC folder:

Backup the Registry Key

First as a matter of precaution, identify the folder you do not wish to display, right-click on the corresponding registry key and click on Export. Name and save this .reg in a safe place. You will require it should you want to display this folder again in This PC folder.

Delete the Registry key

Now that you have identified the registry key corresponding to the folder you do not wish to have displayed and backed it up, right-click on it again and click on Delete. Click F5 to refresh the registry.

Open This PC folder. The folder/s will not be displayed in your This PC folder!

If you are running Windows 8.1 64-bit, then you will have to do one more thing. In the Registry, you will have to navigate to the following key and delete the same registry key/s from here too:

If you do not do this, then the folders will continue to be displayed in the explorer dialog boxes like the Save, Save as and Open file windows.

Things are a bit different in Windows 10. This post will show you how to remove the Folders from This PC in Windows 10.

Add personal folders back to This PC

If you wish to add back the Desktop folder or the personal folders, simply click on the corresponding .reg files which you had exported earlier and saved, and add its contents to your Windows Registry.

You might want to also check out our freeware System Folders Customizer that lets you add Internet Explorer, important System folders, Control Panel applets to your Computer folder, Libraries and Desktop.

Date: October 30, 2019 Tags: Customize, Folder