Favorites doesn't display anything in Explorer sidebar

Question

On Windows 7 x64, I'm having an issue where the Favorites link in the sidebar fails to show any shortcuts, and the usually-cited fix of right-clicking on it and clicking either Restore favorite links or Add current location to Favorites has no effect.

I've made some changes to my registry, but they were both unrelated to Favorites and long before I noticed this issue.

Doing a registry search for Favorites returns the following relevant keys:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit\Favorites
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Favorites
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\Favorites
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\Favorites

Could someone on a system running 64-bit Windows 7 where this feature works be gracious enough to export their versions of these registry keys that I can take import into my registry?

Answer 1

After a little more in-depth searching, I came across this batch script from Shawn Brink of Seven Forums:

@echo off 

:: Created by: Shawn Brink
:: http://www.sevenforums.com
:: Tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18583-user-folders-restore-default-location.html

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

timeout /t 2 /nobreak >nul

if not exist "%UserProfile%\Links" mkdir "%UserProfile%\Links"

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "{BFB9D5E0-C6A9-404C-B2B2-AE6DB6AF4968}" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Links" /f

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" /v "{BFB9D5E0-C6A9-404C-B2B2-AE6DB6AF4968}" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d %%USERPROFILE%%"\Links" /f

attrib +r -s -h "%USERPROFILE%\Links" /S /D

timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul

start explorer.exe

Putting the above into a .bat file works to restore the %USERPROFILE\Links folder, which is apparently where Favorites pulls its entries from, although this is ridiculously confusing, as:

a) I don't remember ever having a Links folder in my user folder before, and...

b) There are now two folders cluttering up my User folder purely for the purpose of ensuring that the Favorites features works - both %USERPROFILE%\Favorites and %USERPROFILE%\Links

The motivation of Windows developers in tying up the functionality of Favorites with the completely redundant %USERPROFILE%\Links folder is beyond me.