# Easier ways to navigate folders in windows? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832 "2009-10-31T11:39:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832/1 "2009-10-31T11:39:28Z")
The folder structure on my work PC is of a size where I am really starting to notice the time it takes to click through the menus to get to the document I want. Are there add-ons you can get that can speed up this process, or maybe other options in windows that I can use? I know where everything is, so it’s not like I need to search for things, it’s more the linear tree structure takes a while to navigate. For example, there is a ‘recent documents’ option on the start menu. Is there an analagous ‘recent folders’ option that you can set up? So when you opened a new application you can immediately see a selection of folders that you’ve been working with? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832/2 "2009-10-31T11:44:34Z")
> **[Folder Cache Download - lists the recently used folders in your computer's...](https://www.topshareware.com/Folder-Cache-download-1176.htm)** > > Folder Cache download page. lists the recently used folders in your computer's open/save dialog windows It’s listed as free, but [http://www.nesoft.org/foldercache.shtml](http://www.nesoft.org/foldercache.shtml) lists it as being time-limited shareware. ---
**Author:** ![Otanx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Otanx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otanx)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832/3 "2009-10-31T12:00:55Z")
If you right click on the file in the Recent Documents menu there is an option to “Open file location” Not sure if this will help you or not. -Otanx ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832/4 "2009-10-31T12:10:49Z")
You can make a shortcut to any folder want to start in. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832/5 "2009-10-31T14:48:09Z")
Menus? Are you in tree view? ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832/6 "2009-10-31T16:18:53Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > [Folder Cache Download - lists the recently used folders in your computer's open/save dialog wi](http://www.topshareware.com/Folder-Cache-download-1176.htm) > > It’s listed as free, but [http://www.nesoft.org/foldercache.shtml](http://www.nesoft.org/foldercache.shtml) lists it as being time-limited shareware. Thks **BigT** , that looks like exactly the thing I have in mind. I’ll give it a go at work next week. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832/7 "2009-10-31T16:25:50Z")
I’m assuming you don’t have Windows 7, but for future reference, Windows 7 lets you easily [pin folders to the taskbar](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwDVEQ4xNxI) in several ways. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easier-ways-to-navigate-folders-in-windows/515832/8 "2009-11-01T02:50:03Z")
I love Launchy: [http://www.launchy.net](http://www.launchy.net) Free, open source, and amazingly intuitive. See screenshots in the link above. You can directly open an explorer window for the folder you need, without having to traverse the directory structure. e.g. if the folder “Busy Scissors” is 10 nodes down from C:, instead of browsing and clicking through each node, all you need to do is press Alt-Space (or any hotkey you assign), start typing “bu” and it shows you the folder you want, press enter to open an explorer window directly in that folder. For documents and files it opens the file directly.