In fact, if you open File Explorer and click on that little down arrow icon in the address bar, it will show you all the frequent folders that you’ve visited. Using that drop-down menu, you can easily navigate to your favorite folders. If you don’t like this or want to delete the File Explorer address bar history, here are a couple of ways to do it. Note: even though I’m showing this in Windows 10, the below discussed methods will also work in Windows 7 and 8.
Delete Directly from the File Explorer
The easiest way to delete the Windows Explorer history is directly from the File Explorer itself. To do that, open the File Explorer using the keyboard shortcut “Win + E.” Once the File Explorer has been opened, right-click on the address bar and select the “Delete History” option.
You won’t receive any prompts, but the File Explorer history has been cleared in the background. You can confirm that by clicking on that little drop-down icon in the address bar.
Delete from Folder Options
The second easiest way is to use the folder options. To start, open File Explorer using the “Win + E” shortcut, and then select “Options” from the “View” tab.
Once the Folder Options window has been opened, click on the “Clear” button to clear all the File Explorer history. This action clears the File Explorer address bar and the files and folders in quick access.
If you don’t want File Explorer to store your recent file and folder history, then uncheck both checkboxes under the Privacy section and click on the “Ok” button to save the changes.
Delete Using Windows Registry Editor
This is not the most elegant or easiest way, but you can also delete the File Explorer address bar history using the Windows Registry editor. To do that, press “Win + R,” type regedit and press the Enter button.
After opening the Windows Registry editor, navigate to the following key:
The Registry editor will display the File Explorer address bar history as a list of URLs. Since each URL is displayed separately, you can actually delete them individually. To do that, right-click on the URL string value, and then select the “Delete” option.
The above action will show you a warning message. Simply click on the “Yes” button to delete the string value.
If you want to delete the complete File Explorer address bar history, then select all the URLs except “(Default)” using the Ctrl key on you keyboard; right-click on them, and then select the “Delete” option.
Do comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences about using the above methods to delete the File Explorer address bar history in Windows.
