How does the Windows File Explorer Quick Access recent items feature work?

Question

I'm not talking about pinned items here, but the "recently opened" items that show up below those. I say "recently opened" because I assume that's supposed to be the case, but it's not for me. Let me explain further with a screenschot:

As you can see, I have four "recent" folders listed here. But the last time that I actually opened any of those folders is well over a month ago; 6 months or more for some!

Ideally I'd like to have a maximised File Explorer window's entire height filled with Quick Access items, with the really important ones being pinned as they already are, and the rest of the space filled with dynamically ever-changing folders, based upon what I've been opening most frequently in the past month or so. Is this possible to achieve?

As an aside, I'd also like a detailed explanation of how Windows chooses what folders to display here. Anyone knowledgeable enough to give me that would be my hero! MTIA :-)

Answer 1

Quick Access is a virtual folder that presents two JumpLists in a folder view --- Frequentfolders and Recentfiles.

Jumplists are most commonly seen when you right-click on a Taskbar icon.

The best overview of their behavior I found is this MS article.

By default, a standard Jump List contains two categories: recent items and pinned items, although because only categories with content are shown in the UI, neither of these categories are shown on first launch. Always present are an application launch icon (to launch more instances of the application), an option to pin or unpin the application from the taskbar, and a Close command for any open windows.

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The results used in the destination list are calculated through calls to SHAddToRecentDocs. Note that when the user opens a file from Windows Explorer or uses the common file dialog to open, save, or create a file, SHAddToRecentDocs is called for you automatically, which results in many applications getting their recent items shown in the destination list without any action on their part.

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An application can define its own categories and add them in addition to or in place of the standard Recent and Frequent categories in a Jump List. The application can control its own destinations in those custom categories based on the application's architecture and intended use.

Jumlists are implemented via the .NET JumpList class.

You cannot access the shell's Jump List directly or read its contents into the JumpList class. Instead, the JumpList class provides a representation of a Jump List that you can work with, and then apply to the Windows shell. You typically create a JumpList and set it one time when the application is first run. However, you can modify or replace the JumpList at run time.

So it's the code that implements the JumpList class that creates and maintains the data files found in:

• shell:Recent\AutomaticDestinations
• shell:Recent\CustomDestinations

( Either of the above can be pasted into the Explorer Address bar to navigate to these normally hidden folders. )

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So, with all this in mind, the behavior you're seeing is most likely due to one of two causes:

• The f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms file has become corrupted
• The folders you see are somehow being accessed in a way that adds them to the jumplist, but the folders you access freqently aren't. ( For example, .txt files created via PowerShell don't appear in the Recent files list until they opened in Notepad or another registered app )

If your Frequent folders list has been static for months, the first is the most likely cause. To fix this, you simply need to delete the file, re-start, and patiently wait for the jumplist to rebuild itself.

If you're curious, you can examine the data stored in the file using NirSoft's JumpListView utility. With that, you could see the raw set of folder paths the jumplist is using.

(Default view modifed to position ApplicationID column immediately following FileName column and sorted by ApplicationID. )

Creating a new folder in Explorer creates a corresponding entry in Explorer's jumplist ( ID: f01b4d95cf55d32a ).

Saving a text file from Notepad to the new folder updates the folder's entry in Explorer's jumplist and also adds the file to Notepad's jumplist (ID: 9b9cdc69c1c24e2b) and the Recent files jumplist (ID: 5f7b5f1e01b83767).

SysInternals Process Monitor can be used to track file operations in the AutomaticDestinations folder.

Answer 2

First, this only applies on a personally-owned computer. If you are working on a business-owned computer, policies may be applied that may or may not modify the system's Quick Access settings and behaviors.

Next, the primary controls for whether Quick Access is automatically populated or not are found in the File Explorer > View tab > Options > Folder Options dialog > General tab > Privacy section. There you can choose whether Files or Folders are automatically added to Quick Access or not, along with a button to clear the recent files and folder lists. Note that this control does NOT control whether recent files and folders are recorded, only whether those recorded files and folders are viewable in Quick Access.

Then, you can find the Quick Access virtual folder in the file system at the path %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Items, but you cannot modify this folder directly. It appears to be a conglomeration of two real folders .\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations and .\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations which are likely the actual Pinned vs Automatically selected item folders. I do not know how to modify these as they do not contain .lnk files. I'd guess there may be utilities to handle this, but I haven't done this research, as, I suspect, you haven't either.

You will note that this folder contains items even if you've told your system not to show recent items in the Quick Access view.

Finally, to manually add a file or folder to Quick Access you right-click on that file or folder and select Pin to Quick Access, and to remove an item so pinned, you right-click and select Remove from Quick Access.