22 Responses to “How to open File Explorer in Windows (12 ways)”

  • Emin says:

    What a hell explanation that no way to see a proper result for win 7!..

    • Ciprian Adrian Rusen says:

      You have plenty of methods and screenshots for opening Windows Explorer in Windows 7 in our guide. Can you please read our article for real?

  • Assaf says:

    Hi
    I have a question please.
    Can File Explorer be made to search ‘via/within’ a shortcut? ie like we have Search in all Sub-folders, do we have Search in all Shortcuts?

    Eg:
    – I have a folder called Folder_A which contains only one thing; a shortcut to a different folder called Folder_B. In Folder_B there exists a file called test.txt.
    – I open Folder_A and search for test.txt. Result: No files found.

    My question: Is there some setting or option to cause the search to find the file by continuing the search ‘via’ the shortcut to Folder_B?

    Thanks a lot in advance
    Assaf
    Windows 10, 64 bit.

    (I tried searching online for the answer but was swamped by pages suggesting useful File Explorer Shortcuts.)

  • S says:

    This is pretty sweet, thanks. I just came here for Windows key shortcut but all of these were pretty informative and it’s a good thing to know if you’re in a pinch.

  • Joey says:

    IDIOT Microsoft had to change the name from Windows Explorer to File Explorer just to confuse people!!

  • victor the romanian says:

    In my Task manager isn’t any “run new task” as you suggested

    windows 10

  • Susan McPherson says:

    So, in Windows 10, is File Explorer the same as Windows Explorer?

  • Borgdrone says:

    Thank you very much for your time on this, it really helped me out! Cheers.

  • John Veit says:

    Excellent !!!

  • Philip George says:

    In the last method, W+R and typing Explorer does not work. But clicking the Browse key does.

  • Anon says:

    Thanks, Win + E is super useful.

  • andy says:

    None of this helps. I can find file explorer and click on it, Then nothing happens. It used to work, now it doesn’t. Something has screwed it up. I blame Microsoft.

    • Freddy says:

      Everything works here as described, and on every machine I’ve used since.
      I suggest you are being precipitous in your judgement.

      Thanks, author.

  • JT says:

    Or you can just hit Start + E for short

  • Richard Faust says:

    #’s 6 & 7 Gave me the clue I needed for the syntax that I have been using since Win95 Thank you !
    Create the “File Explorer” shortcut on the desktop.
    Right click and open the properties, in the Target you should see something like: %windir%explorer.exe
    Change it to: %windir%explorer.exe /e, : [There is a space after the ‘explorer.exe’ & ‘/e,’]
    [My current setting is: %windir%explorer.exe /e, H: ]
    After this is applied you can pin it to task bar or start.
    You can also make any number of different instances that are necessary, just change the description in the “Comment” box and when you hover the mouse the text will appear.

  • Eddie George says:

    I am convinced that “file explorer” is a figment of somebody`s imagination. Has anybody ever found it?

  • paul cechovic says:

    Worked just fine for me

  • Rachel Wallace says:

    None of this worked. Still will not open so cannot access any of my files from Windows 7….. hate, hate, hate this new system. Nothing works at all…

  • Keith says:

    The sub menu when you right mouse click comes up as a skinny box with nothing in it
    bad bad

  • Ted Taylor says:

    Solves nothing. The file explorer in Windows 10 does not do (a) what you expect or (b) what you request. And how about the literally dozens of times when “The app did not start.”?

    • Susan McPherson says:

      I am still trying to find out if File Explorer is the same thing as Windows Explorer. I can’t see a way to “open” anything, or “start” anything, let alone perfpome the action that should correct the problem I have in WORD, whereby I have to type the title of the doc I am trying to save 2 times as it will disappear the first time, reverting back to the original name New Word Document,.

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