How to get the real path of Desktop in Windows Explorer?

This bothers me for ages, and I could not find the solution yet.

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click on Desktop in the left sidebar.
3. Click on "Desktop" in the address bar.

Result: Instead of C:\...\ it displays only Desktop.

Instead I would like to get the real physical path:

C:\Users\MyName\Desktop\

How to achieve this (settings in the Windows registry)?

6 Answers

It's not possible to change this particular aspect of Windows' behaviour from the GUI but there is a nice workaround that doesn't require any third-party software:

1. Open Windows Explorer: Windows+E.
2. While holding Shift, perform a Right click 🖱️ on the Desktop folder, then choose Copy as path from the context menu:

The full path of your Desktop folder is now copied to the clipboard and can be pasted into the address bar or wherever you require it.

Note that the path will include quotation marks that you'll need to remove in order for it to work properly in Windows Explorer.

This should give you something like this:

"C:\Users\Kai\Desktop"

Using %UserProfile%\Desktop reveals the Desktop path.

So I solved it with this Autohotkey script:

; Save Dialog: hitting CTRL D opens desktop
^d:: ControlFocus, DirectUIHWND2, A SendInput, % "!d%userprofile%\Desktop{enter}!n"
return

OR:

; Windows explorer, hitting CTRL D goes to address bar and shows the full desktop path
#IfWinActive ahk_class CabinetWClass ^D:: Send !D String := "%UserProfile%\Desktop" SendRaw %String% Send {ENTER} Send !D return
#IfWinActive

Hitting CTRL D does focus the address bar now and reveals the path:

Finally one Windows problem less 👍

It's hard to battle the Shell namespace. As a workaround, the following .reg file will add a context menu item to open the file system folder corresponding to a shell folder.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\OpenFSFolder]
@="Open file folder (new window)"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\OpenFSFolder\command]
@="explorer.exe \"%V\""
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\OpenFSFolder]
@="Open file folder (new window)"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\OpenFSFolder\command]
@="explorer.exe \"%V\""

You can use right click-property on folder name, copy parent path then add the name of folder you want to access.

You can use this method to get the path to the desktop.

1. right-click on the desktop file
2. properties
3. location

then you can copy the path.

The screenshot explains the steps:

1. Copy the following code and save it in a .reg file.

   shell_folder_full_path.reg

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   ;Desktop
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{754AC886-DF64-4CBA-86B5-F7FBF4FBCEF5}]
   "ParsingName"=-
   ;Local Documents
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{f42ee2d3-909f-4907-8871-4c22fc0bf756}]
   "ParsingName"=-
   ;Local Downloads
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7d83ee9b-2244-4e70-b1f5-5393042af1e4}]
   "ParsingName"=-
   ;Local Music
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{a0c69a99-21c8-4671-8703-7934162fcf1d}]
   "ParsingName"=-
   ;Local Pictures
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{0ddd015d-b06c-45d5-8c4c-f59713854639}]
   "ParsingName"=-
   ;Local Videos
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{35286a68-3c57-41a1-bbb1-0eae73d76c95}]
   "ParsingName"=-

2. Run that .reg with Administrator Right.
3. Restart Explorer.exe

Source: WinHelpOnline