Position of "My Documents" in Explorer

In the left of Windows Explorer window, the content "My Documents" usually appears on the top line under "Desktop ". But recently in my Windows Explorer, "My Document" sank to the bottom. Could anyone give any hint to move it back to the top?

 

See if this will help...

"Important This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry



"Open regedit (Start > Run > Type regedit > Click "OK ")

Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder

Right click "MenuOrder" in the LEFT pane

Click "Permissions... "

Click the "Advanced" button

Uncheck the checkbox titled "Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here "

A security dialog box will open, click "Copy" and you'll be taken back to the "Advanced Security Settings" for "MenuOrder "

Click "OK" and you'll return to the Permissions for MenuOrder window

Uncheck "Full Control" in both your account and all security groups where you are a member. Do not change the Read permission

Exit Registry and Reboot "...

{Note all the Signatures in all the posters answers for a lot of great information}
PURPLEMTN

 

no, that doesn't work. Thanks anyway.

 

Interesting problem and one I don't remember reading about.

No idea if it will work or not but this might be worth a try.

In WE, click on tools=>folder options=>view and click the button toward the top Reset all folders. Looks like it could possibly set things back as they should be.

 

Out of curiousity, what icon does this have and what properties? Have you moved or relocated it to someplace or done any thing else beyond what would be considered standard windows default? I'm just fishing for clues here because as Newt said, I've not heard of this quirk either. Are all the other folders ordered as they should be?

 

Many thanks to Newt and Goddez1. The problem still persists but all other folders are ordered as usual. It seems to be a system-wide problem -- I tried to logon as a different user and the "My Document" icon still appears at the bottom. I didn't change the default folder to which "My Document" refers.

 

Maybe it has to do with the command line in the properties of the shortcut you're using to open windows explorer. If you right click on the shortcut what does it say in the "target" box? It should look like the following line.

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe

Where it say "start in" it should be like this:

%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%

If your's isn't like this, try changing it or else make a new shortcut to windows explorer and put those commands in. Give it a try and see if it gets you what you want.

 

Question:
When you say "fallen to the bottom of the list" does this still have it's own main folder/entry or it has become a subfolder of "My Network Places "? (Still fishing for a more concrete clue).

To all reading this.....does anyone else have this issue or has "My Documents" folder listed at the bottom rather than second, under "Desktop "?

 

Hi All, ............. I've been following this thread because, to answer goddez1's question, it applies to me or my computer. In Windows Explorer, if I close all the plus signs in the left panel so that the (A, (C, (D, etc. are not showing, the My Documents folder appears directly below My Computer and above My Network Place with the three plus signs under each other. With the My Computer plus sign changed to a minus sign the My Documents folder appears below and slightly to the left of the drive letter pluses and under Shared Documents folder. The icon for this folder seems to be a yellow folder with a paper page partially showing.

I tried following purplemtn's registry method but got lost near the end and made a hasty retreat. I can't explain how the My Documents folder got relocated so I just lived with it. If I can answer any other questions, please ask.

 

I have one shortcut to windows explorer that I've set to open to the d: drive. It opens kind of the same way as derfsch said. It opens with My Computer expanded and the d: drive is expanded with it's contents showing in the right pane. Of course, with My Computer being expanded all of the other drives are visible in the left pane also. This forces the My Documents folder down below all of the drives which it should. As derfsch said, if I click the minus sign next to My Computer all of the drives in the list disappear and My Documents is then located directly below My Computer, though it's contents won't be visible in the right pane.

This is what made me think maybe it was a shortcut command line problem. I also have a shortcut that uses the command line that I mentioned above and it opens the way I believe instanton wants. The only thing I'm not sure about is it opens with My Documents right below My Computer but My Documents is expanded in the left pane and also the contents are visible in the right pane. Don't know if he/she wanted that or not. Guess we'll have to wait to see.

Edit:
Now that I've re-read the instanton's original post I see I may have misunderstood. I'll leave this post anyway. I have several Windows Explorer shortcuts and they all open with the desktop at the top then My Computer, then My Documents. None of them open with My Documents folder directly beneath the desktop. Its' always, desktop, My Computer, My Documents.

 

To Zander:

My case doesn't have anything to do with shortcuts. I tried to issue the command explorer from cmd and the explorer window appears exactly the same as the one popped by clicking the explorer shortcut on my desktop.

To goddez1:

The explorer seems to be working perfectly except the position of "My Document" is unusual. When explorer starts, the default folder expanded is "My Document ". The list of items under Desktop is in this order:

Desktop
[+] My Computer
[+] Network Neighbourhood
Recycle Bin
[-] My Documents
[+] (some private folders of mine)
[+] (some other private folders)

etc.

I tried to post a captured picture of my explorer window but didn't get any clue how to to that.

Thank to all who have been keeping eyes open on this.

 

Hm... may be this can give some clue to the problem. For some reason I have been disabling desktop icons like "My Computer ", "My Documents ", "Internet Explorer" etc. Actually I don't have any icon on my desktop (just deleted all shortcuts with an arrow and disabled the above system icons by unchecking
all the check boxes in Desktop -> Properties -> Desktop -> Customize desktop. When I talked about clicking explorer icon on desktop, I was actually clicking on the shortcut I put on the quick start bar. Now in order to trace the problem, I rechecked all the check boxes just mentioned. To my supprise, though "My Computer ", "Internet Explorer" and "Network Neighboorhood" icons reappeared on the desktop, "My Documents" did not show up! I hope this will help in tracing the problem.

 

Hi, all,

Just to remind you that my problem has been solved. It is a missing registry key under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\Namespace. The key name is {450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}, under which there should be a DWORD value "My Documents ". I have no idea why this key was missing.

 

instanton--Thanks for posting the solution.
I am guessing that what you were experiencing was that Windows Explorer seems, by Default, to put My Documents under Desktop due to that Registry key, even though My Documents is actually not on the Desktop. You did not see that "My Documents" folder because the Registry key was missing.
The My Documents folder you saw further down the tree was probably the same physical My Documents folder but which actually is in C:\ . And you have Windows Explorer set up to open with C:\ expanded in the left panel. (See--something along the lines Zander was describing in his first post--
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;130510 )
So you really do not need the duplicate listing of "My Documents" directly under Desktop. But it probably makes you comfortable to see it where you always used to.
P.S. On my PC, "My Network Places" also appears under Desktop in Windows Explorer's left panel tree, although no such folder exists on Desktop and I do not have a network. I will see if I can delete it using your finding of the Registry key. EDIT--Did not work. "My Network Places" is not in that key.

 

Interesting... "My Docs" were moved to another partition some time ago, but under "Desktop ", with all pluses closed, the order is:
My Docs
My Comp
My Network Places (MS Terminal Services, MS Windows Network, Web Client)
Recycle Bin

Jim, I don't have a network, either.

Johanna

 

No. Before my problem was solved, I can see only one entry of My Documents in the left pan, which is under Recycle Bin and expanded by default. The content of that My Document entry is exactly the defult one (i.e. it points to C:\Documents and Settings\My usename\My Documents. Of cause there are some other entries in the left pan if My Computer is clicked and expanded. In that case, the My Documents entry is automatically closed and the list of local drives appear under My Computer. At the end of the local drive list, there is a list of various user's Document folders. To be exact, The left pan looks like this:

Desktop
[-]My Documents
[+] Local Disk C
...
[+] Local Disk F
[+] User A's Documents
[+] User B's Documents
...
[+]My Network plc
Recycle Bin
[+]My Documents

After solving the problem, the left pan looks the same except that the last entry is moved to the second place, i.e. right after Desktop.