Keyboard shortcut to hide/show Explorer navigation

Question

Does Windows Explorer in Windows 7 have a keyboard shortcut that hides or shows the navigation pane?

It's pretty annoying each time to click Organize|Layout|Navigation pane...

Solution 1

I don't believe there is a keyboard shortcut (I just tried all the ctrl/alt + alphabet keys, and none of them opened the navigation pane)

Solution 2

In Windows 8.1 (maybe Windows 8 & 7 too, one needs to verify this), you can add the Navigation Pane option to the Quick Access Toolbar. You can then use the Alt+{NumberKey} shortcut followed by the Enter key to show/hide the Navigation Pane.

For example: in my case, the Navigation Pane icon is the third item in the Quick Access Toolbar, so I would press Alt+3 and then Enter to turn the pane on/off.

This has improved my workflow tremendously. Hope it helps you too.

HowTo: Configure

1. open Windows File Explorer
2. right-click View tab
3. right-click Navigation Pane toolbar button
4. click Add to Quick Access Toolbar menu item

Screen Shots

Figure1: Right-Click Menu

Figure2: Quick Access Toolbar with Navigation Pane

Related Notes

With respect to the Quick Access Toolbar, it is important to note that:

• Shortcuts are assigned left to right. For example, with reference to Figure2:
  • Alt+1 = show properties
  • Alt+2 = create new folder
  • Alt+3 = show/hide Navigation Pane
• Shortcuts only work with the number keys at the top of a QWERTY keyboard. They do not work with the number pad number keys.

Solution 3

Here is how I do it:

1) Alt+D (puts the focus in the Address bar, so works wherever it was before)

2) Tab, Tab

3) Space

4) L

5) N

This is optimized for speed of typing; you can save a Tab if you use Ctrl+E or Ctrl+F to put the focus in the search box instead.

If you've just opened the window, three presses of Tab will get you to the Organize button in step 3.

Solution 4

here is a autohotkey script

Win+A toggles the navi pane

/*
Author:  
Date:    
Contact: 
*/

#NoTrayIcon
#Persistent
#NoEnv
#SingleInstance, Force

#IfWinActive ahk_class CabinetWClass
#a::
Send !d{tab}{tab}{enter}ln

Solution 5

Here is how I do it:

1) Shift + Tab

2) Shift + Tab

3) ↓

4) L

5) N

Hope this helps!

View more solutions

Comments

[user198003]

It's not about how to hide the pane permanently, rather I'd like to have an option to hide and show it using a key shortcut.

[Joshua K]

I don't have Windows 7 yet, but Vista it did not save my folder settings until I disabled UAC. Do you have UAC enabled or disabled?

[Amelio Vazquez-Reina]

I have used AutoHotKey before. Could you comment on how to record actions runnable by AutoHotKey?

[henry700]

1) and 2) should probably be "shift+tab until you see a bounding box around 'organize'". tab & Shift+tab will cycle through all fields/controls/buttons on any/most windows dialogs...

[Sam Hasler]

Nice! Using Send ^e{tab}{enter}ln (CTRL+E, TAB ENTER instead of ALT+D TAB TAB ENTER) is slightly faster I've also bound it to ALT+N so I can use it with ALT+P !n:: for toggling the preview pane without removing my finger from ALT.

[user198003]

Windows 7 doesn't have a "Quick Access Toolbar".

[Ajith Antony]

I liked this answer, and I hope this illustration make it easier for people to understand what you are suggesting: screenshot

[Alex]

where does the focus need to be when you run it? The 1st time it ran it was ok but not it keeps trying to do a search.

[Alex]

Figured it out looking at the other answers. Alt+D puts the focus in the correct location. My final short cut: {#ALT -chars D}{#TAB}{#sleep 100}{#TAB}{#sleep 100}{#DOWN}{#sleep 100}{#SHIFT -chars l}{#sleep 100}{#SHIFT -chars n} Thanks!

[toster-cx]

Works great in windows 10

[Synetech]

This only works if the keyboard focus happens to be in the Explorer window. stevek_mcc’s answer is better because it starts from an absolute location instead of a relative one.