Quickly Access System Folders with Shell Commands in Windows 7 and 8

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In a post of showing where the startup folder is in Windows 8, I revealed a quick way of how to locate and access it easily and quickly with a simply command line Shell. If you somehow missed it, it’s worth your time going back and checking it out.

That was just one of many folders Shell can help to quickly get you access to. How many more can it do? Let’s take look.

For starters, the syntax of Shell command is something like this:

shell:<folder name>

It’s important to note that there is NO SPACE between shell, the colon, and the folder name.

And you can easily execute it through the Run box. For example, to quickly access Startup folder, you can

Press Win+R to bring up the Run box, type in Shell:startup, and press Enter.

Windows 8 Shell startup thumb1 - Quickly Access System Folders with Shell Commands in Windows 7 and 8

Another windows explorer pops up with default folder set at Startup.

Below is a list of Folder Names that this Shell command can help to quickly locate.

Available in previous Windows, including Windows 7:

AddNewProgramsFolder
Administrative Tools
AppData
AppUpdatesFolder
Cache
CD Burning
ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder
Common Administrative Tools
Common AppData
Common Desktop
Common Documents
Common Programs
Common Start Menu
Common Startup
Common Templates
CommonDownloads
CommonMusic
CommonPictures
CommonRingtones
CommonVideo
ConflictFolder
ConnectionsFolder
Contacts
ControlPanelFolder
Cookies
CredentialManager
CryptoKeys
CSCFolder
Desktop
Device Metadata Store
DocumentsLibrary
Downloads
DpapiKeys
Favorites
Fonts
Games
GameTasks
History
ImplicitAppShortcuts
InternetFolder
Libraries
Links
Local AppData
LocalAppDataLow
LocalizedResourcesDir
MAPIFolder
MusicLibrary
My Music
My Pictures
My Video
MyComputerFolder
NetHood
NetworkPlacesFolder
OEM Links
Original Images
Personal
PhotoAlbums
PicturesLibrary
Playlists
PrintersFolder
PrintHood
Profile
ProgramFiles
ProgramFilesCommon
ProgramFilesCommonX86
ProgramFilesX86
Programs
Public
PublicGameTasks
Quick Launch
Recent
RecordedTVLibrary
RecycleBinFolder
ResourceDir
Ringtones
SavedGames
Searches
SearchHomeFolder
SendTo
Start Menu
Startup
SyncCenterFolder
SyncResultsFolder
SyncSetupFolder
System
SystemCertificates
SystemX86
Templates
User Pinned
UserProfiles
UserProgramFiles
UserProgramFilesCommon
UsersFilesFolder
UsersLibrariesFolder
VideosLibrary
Windows

Available new in Windows 8:

AccountPictures
Application Shortcuts
AppsFolder
HomeGroupCurrentUserFolder
HomeGroupFolder
ProgramFilesCommonX64
ProgramFilesX64
PublicAccountPictures
PublicLibraries
Roamed Tile Images
Roaming Tiles
Screenshots

The above list was extracted from the registry below:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurentVersions\Explorer\FolderDescriptions

Regedit FolderDescription thumb - Quickly Access System Folders with Shell Commands in Windows 7 and 8

I found this is very useful to me, and will be saving me a lot of times down the road.

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