# Windows 7 Favorites Folder not working



## Tyrell456 (May 22, 2010)

A few weeks ago, when I was moving a document to my desktop, I accidentally grabbed the "Favorites" folder in the User folder and moved it to the Desktop. I noticed that I grabbed the wrong folder, and moved it right back to my User folder, but since then, there are no links at all in the Favorites folder in the navigation pane, and I can't add any either.

When I open the folder, then click to go to the target address, it leads me to the Desktop, but since the Favorites folder isn't there, it just opens the Desktop folder.

So basically my problem is that Explorer believes that my Favorites folder is on the Desktop, and it isn't, so it renders it completely unusable. How do I get it to point back to the real Favorites folder so I can keep links on my Navigation pane again? It's really a huge pain to not have any links at all in Explorer, and having to link through my C drive to get to my User folder or My Documents.


EDIT: I may have found more to the problem. I searched around and found that to remove the Favorites link in the pane, you need to open Regedit and delete the value "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder". I went there, and found that that value is actually not even there on my system, so how do I go about adding that back in?


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

Welcome to TSG!
Give this a try:
Click *Start | Computer*, right click *Favorites*, click *Restore favorite links*.

Is the entire "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}" key missing, or just the *ShellFolder* sub key?


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## Tyrell456 (May 22, 2010)

That didn't work.

And how do I tell whether the key or the ShellFolder is missing? I know very, very little about the Registry.

Thank you so much for helping


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## Recreation (May 24, 2010)

Tried any SysRestore point?


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## Tyrell456 (May 22, 2010)

Recreation said:


> Tried any SysRestore point?


I haven't, it's been going on for weeks and if I did one now (if I even have one that far back) I would lose a LOT of data.


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## Recreation (May 24, 2010)

I usually dont mess around with the Reg thing.
I am sure that TheOutCaste will help you out.


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

If you are not sure which is missing, let's do this the easy way, and get a list of just what is there or not.
Copy the text in the following code block into Notepad.
Save it on the desktop as *Query.cmd*. Be sure to change the *Save as Type:* box to *All Files* when saving.

```
[plain]Set _file=%userprofile%\Desktop\Query.txt
 >"%_file%" Echo.[CODE]
>>"%_file%" 2>&1 Reg Query "HKLM\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}" /S
>>"%_file%" Echo.
```
Start Notepad "%_file%"
Exit[/plain][/code]Double click the file to run it. It will create a file named *Query.txt* on the Desktop and open it in Notepad. Copy and paste the text into your next reply.
To paste the text, click in the Notepad window, press *CTRL+A*, then *CTRL+C*
Switch back to this thread, click in the Quick Reply window, press *CTRL+V*


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## Tyrell456 (May 22, 2010)

```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}
    (Default)    REG_SZ    Favorites
    LocalizedString    REG_EXPAND_SZ    @%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21796

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\DefaultIcon
    (Default)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-1024

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\Implemented Categories

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\Implemented Categories\{00021490-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
    (Default)    REG_SZ    Browsable Shell Extension

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\InProcServer32
    (Default)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\System32\shell32.dll
    ThreadingModel    REG_SZ    Apartment

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\shell

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\shell\restorefavoritelinks
    MUIVerb    REG_SZ    @shell32.dll,-34647
    Description    REG_SZ    @shell32.dll,-34648

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\shell\restorefavoritelinks\command
    DelegateExecute    REG_SZ    {4522c772-9a2b-4920-ad7f-62d3d15eac52}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder
    Attributes    REG_DWORD    0xa0900100
    PinToNameSpaceTree    REG_SZ
```


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

Well, that all looks OK. Though I should have checked the Current User branch as well, as it can over ride these settings and change what shows in the Current Root branch.

We need to clarify some things as well, as I think we are looking at two different issues.
The Favorites folder located at *C:\User\<Username>\Favorites* is where the Internet Explorer Favorites are stored.
That folder has nothing to do with the Favorites group that is shown in the navigation pane in Windows Explorer.
The Favorites shown in the Navigation pane are located at *C:\User\<Username>\Links
*
Earlier you posted:


Tyrell456 said:


> When I open the folder, then click to go to the target address, it leads me to the Desktop, but since the Favorites folder isn't there, it just opens the Desktop folder.


I'm assuming you mean you right click the Favorites Folder, then click *Properties*
Then click the *Location* tab, then click the *Find Target* button?
What path is shown on the *Location* tab
Have you tried clicking the *Restore Default* button?

For Favorites in the Windows Explorer Navigation pane, when you right click it, do you get the Menu shown in the attached screen shot?
What happens when you click Add current location to Favorites?

OK, let's check the other registry tree.
Copy the text in the following code block into Notepad.
Save it on the desktop as *Query.cmd*. Be sure to change the *Save as Type:* box to *All Files* when saving.

```
[plain]Set _file=%userprofile%\Desktop\Query.txt
 >"%_file%" Echo.[CODE]
>>"%_file%" 2>&1 Reg Query "HKCR\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}" /S
>>"%_file%" Echo.
```
Start Notepad "%_file%"
Exit[/plain][/code]Double click the file to run it. It will create a file named *Query.txt* on the Desktop and open it in Notepad. Copy and paste the text into your next reply.


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## Tyrell456 (May 22, 2010)

TheOutcaste said:


> I'm assuming you mean you right click the Favorites Folder, then click *Properties*
> Then click the *Location* tab, then click the *Find Target* button?
> What path is shown on the *Location* tab
> Have you tried clicking the *Restore Default* button?
> ...


1. Thank you so so so so much for helping
2. I didn't know the "Favorites" folder in my user folder was different than the Navigation Pane. I'm worried about the Navigation pane one, which apparently is the "Links" folder.
3. When I right click on "Favorites" I get the attached picture.
4.

```
ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.
```
Looks like we might have found the problem.


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

Opps, my bad, when I changed the key name I went one level too far. I've corrected the previous post, and here's the correct version here as well:

```
[plain]Set _file=%userprofile%\Desktop\Query.txt
 >"%_file%" Echo.[CODE]
>>"%_file%" 2>&1 Reg Query "HKCR\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}" /S
>>"%_file%" Echo.
```
Start Notepad "%_file%"
Exit
[/plain][/code]Not sure how JDisk report got on there, hopefully this will show us.


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## Tyrell456 (May 22, 2010)

TheOutcaste said:


> Opps, my bad, when I changed the key name I went one level too far. I've corrected the previous post, and here's the correct version here as well:
> 
> ```
> [plain]Set _file=%userprofile%\Desktop\Query.txt
> ...


JDisk report got on there because it's a program I have installed, and it embedded that option whenever I right click a folder. It's a program that charts out where my hard drive space is going and puts it in a visual graph.

Anyway,


```
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}
    (Default)    REG_SZ    Favorites
    LocalizedString    REG_EXPAND_SZ    @%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21796

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\DefaultIcon
    (Default)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-1024

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\Implemented Categories

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\Implemented Categories\{00021490-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
    (Default)    REG_SZ    Browsable Shell Extension

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\InProcServer32
    (Default)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\System32\shell32.dll
    ThreadingModel    REG_SZ    Apartment

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\shell

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\shell\restorefavoritelinks
    MUIVerb    REG_SZ    @shell32.dll,-34647
    Description    REG_SZ    @shell32.dll,-34648

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\shell\restorefavoritelinks\command
    DelegateExecute    REG_SZ    {4522c772-9a2b-4920-ad7f-62d3d15eac52}

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder
    Attributes    REG_DWORD    0xa0900100
    PinToNameSpaceTree    REG_SZ
```


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