VFilemanageQuick access in Windows — pinning your folders, and where it runs out
If you open fewer than ten folders a day, Quick access is enough. Beyond that you need something else.
What Quick access is
It is the pinned list at the top left of File Explorer. Pin a folder buried deep in your drive there and it opens in one click. In Windows 11, File Explorer's Home page also has Favorites for individual files.
Pinning a folder
- Right-click the folder.
- Choose Pin to Quick access.
- It appears in the left pane. Drag to reorder.
To remove one, right-click it in the list and choose Unpin from Quick access. The folder itself is untouched.
For a file in Windows 11, right-click it and choose Add to Favorites; it shows on File Explorer's Home page.
When it works well
If the folders you open every day are a fixed handful, this is the simplest option. Nothing to install, and the same list appears in Save As dialogs, so you can save straight into those folders.
Where it runs out
- It is one flat list. Pin twenty folders and you are scrolling the left pane looking for things again. You cannot group them into "Work" and "Photos".
- It is folder-based. Favorites in Windows 11 takes files, but it is another flat list with no grouping.
- Recent items mix in. Depending on settings, folders and files you never pinned appear automatically — including file names you might not want on screen while sharing it. You can turn off Show recently used files in Folder Options.
Grouping files, not folders
VFilemanage was built for that gap. It gathers files scattered across drives and folders into virtual folders, and opens the original on double-click.
- Nest folders like "Work › Contracts" and "Photos › Trip".
- Put the same file in several virtual folders; there is still only one original, and no extra disk space is used.
- Nothing is moved. Files stay where they are; the app just remembers where.
It works alongside Quick access: frequent folders in Quick access, scattered files in VFilemanage. For a comparison with shortcuts, libraries and symbolic links, see how to organize files without moving them.