Windows Explorer in Windows 7 has undergone several major changes, one of which is the new navigation bar. The classic tree view of folders and directories in Windows Vista and XP has been replaced by a list of groups such as Favorites, Libraries, HomeGroup, Computer, and Network. Unused drives, such as floppy drives or CD, DVD, or Blu-ray drives, do not appear in the Computer group until you insert one of these media types.
In Windows Vista and XP, the Windows Explorer tree structure displayed the desktop and provided easy access to your personal folders, public folders, and “My Computer,” which displayed all drives such as floppy and CD-ROM drives, regardless of whether whether there were carriers in it. disks or not.
However, in Windows 7, some items are no longer available in the new Navigation Pane. The control panel, trash can and your personal user folder (% SystemDrive% Users ) are hidden by default. These elements can be discovered with a simple trick that reverts the navigation bar to the classic tree style.
To restore the classic navigation tree, open Windows Explorer, click Organize, and then select Folder and Search Options from the drop-down menu.
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On the General tab of the Folder Options dialog box, select the Show All Folders check box in the Navigation Pane box so that the box is checked. If you want to automatically expand the tree to display the current folder, select the Automatically expand to current folder check box.
The Desktop group is now displayed, showing all libraries, your custom folder, computer with all disks (even currently unused), network, control panel, and trash can.
Note that the Libraries group still appears at the top of the navigation bar, but is less visible. You can completely remove libraries from the navigation bar using a registry hack, but this is a bit tricky and can cause stability issues in Windows, so I don’t recommend you try. Enjoy!
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