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I just got done upgrading Windows 8 to Windows 10 and I've found that the 'Favorites' panel in Windows Explorer got replaced with a 'Quick Access' panel and I can't seem to find a way to rename the pinned items in Quick Access like I could for favorite items under Windows 8.

Some of my pinned items are program-generated folders and I really don't have the option to rename them.

Am I missing something or did the rename feature get left out?

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  • 2
    It looks like it was left out.
    – Julien
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 11:17
  • For some reason, my Mail entry got called "Correo" instead of "Mail" and I cannot change it. This is absolutely not a functionality problem, but still makes very mad.
    – Marcelo
    Commented Aug 7, 2015 at 3:27
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    If you check the Users[username]\Links folder, you may still able to find the renamed shortcuts. Not the best solution, but I added the Link folder to the library so that I can access to it. but still not as good as the old favorites feature.
    – dsum
    Commented Sep 25, 2015 at 16:17
  • 4
    It seems this problem is bothering quite some people... answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files/…
    – Antonio
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 15:46
  • 5
    Simply annoying. Mac OS' Finder has a similar behaviour - for a long time I was happy that Windows 7 did not do that - I also often deal with different folders with the same name.
    – jingtao
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 10:08

5 Answers 5

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Sort of a hack, but I ended up using mklink to create Directory Junctions with the names I wanted, since they took away my beloved Favorites.

So, if I have a directory "c:\dir1", which I want to be named "Directory 1" in the Quick Access list, I would run:

mklink /J "c:\whatever\Directory 1" "c:\dir1"

Then you'll see "Directory 1" in "c:\whatever", which you can add to Quick Access, and it will be named "Directory 1".

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    This works great, thanks! Still bothers me, since I used to have folders in my Dropbox in my favorites list, this way those show up with the link symbol in the lower left instead of the sync status ... pretty annoying.
    – MoritzLost
    Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 20:45
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    This doesn't seem to work anymore, or at least not for directory links (mklink /D) e.g. for network shares...
    – Tobias Kienzler
    Commented Feb 22, 2016 at 15:07
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    @TobiasKienzler I wanted links to network shares myself. My workaround was to create the junction at the server in question instead of the computer where I want the quick access link, then pin the junction
    – MrVimes
    Commented Apr 9, 2016 at 10:18
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    Is there any way to make symbolic junction links behave like shortcuts? Currently, if I create symbolic junction link D:\symlinks\Tools pointing to D:\Users\ben.hooper\Dropbox (Personal)\Public\Tools and browse to it then I actually browse to D:\symlinks\Tools and can't move up to folder D:\Users\ben.hooper\Dropbox (Personal)\Public.
    – mythofechelon
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 10:50
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    A great work around! The only caveat is that the path of the newly created link is not having the original path instead it has new one (e.g. if you check the path in cmd)
    – dan
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 10:50
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To me it looks like that Quick Access items are not shortcuts anymore. They behave differently and just show the items directly instead of showing traditional shortcuts. This means when going to edit Properties, you are indeed editing the items themselves.

This is disappointing of course. I had a couple folders with the same name (in different locations) that are tied to programs so I can't rename them directly.

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  • 16
    Ditto - I have six "Plugins" folders for different versions of an application I develop for. Now the favoritebar is pointless...
    – thomthom
    Commented Aug 15, 2015 at 22:08
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    I believe Scott's is the correct answer to this question (i.e. you can't do it), so I suggest that Loman should accept this answer. By the way, I just tried to pin a shortcut and that doesn't solve the problem either because it pins the folder that the shortcut points to rather than the shortcut itself.
    – HansA
    Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 0:27
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    @HansA Technically correct, I am afraid :/ Actually, I cannot even pin the shortcut itself...
    – Tobias Kienzler
    Commented Feb 22, 2016 at 15:07
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    @HansA It seems a better answer emerged.
    – Antonio
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 15:48
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    @thomthom that's Microsoft concept of super intelligent ideas of shiny new features.
    – v.oddou
    Commented Dec 18, 2017 at 8:31
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Sort of a kludge, but it works:

  1. Add the desired directory to a Library

  2. Rename the library as you wish

  3. Pin the Library to Quick Access

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    This may be a kludge, but it doesn't require any external software so, I kind of like it. How do I "add the desired directory to a Library" please?
    – nurdglaw
    Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 13:55
  • I played with this idea, a lot of the available information talks about libraries as a collection of shortcuts but if you create a new library and add folder locations to them they are "shortcuts" to that exact folder, consequently renaming the "shortcut" renames the folder!
    – boardtc
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 14:43
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    Consider splitting into two answers, since it describes two very different methods, and that makes the answer hard to read and interact with.
    – Mathieu K.
    Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 16:50
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    I'm upvoting for the update. IMHO it is superior to your first solution; consider removing your original answer or moving it to the bottom since it obscures the more useful information?
    – Daniel Kaplan
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 21:21
  • @ MathieuK and Daniel_Kaplan: Done.
    – dr_
    Commented Oct 4, 2023 at 6:55
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Third party application is Clover, you may want to try that and use the bookmark functionality. Bookmarks can be renamed into the name of your liking.

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I used the solution described in my previous answer for a while, then I found it cumbersome to maintain and now I have done this:

  1. Created a "Favorites" folder anywhere in my hard disk and pinned it to Quick Access (you can even change its icon to make it look like a star)

  2. Put inside it all the shortcut I want to access rapidly

It kinda restores the Favorites feature but with the hassle of an additional step.

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