History of opened folders in File Explorer

I'd like to see history of folders I've opened in File Explorer.

For example yesterday I had 8 folders opened at the time I've turned off my machine, if I could see and open them again today, much like browsers session/history manager plugins, I'd be more productive.

I'm on Windows 10 by the way.

There is a built-in capability within Windows 10 that can help you in this area. You can create a shortcut to your Recent Items that will show you the files and folders you have recently accessed:

1. Create a desktop shortcut to %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\ and name it Recent Items
2. Copy that shortcut to %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
3. Right-click the shortcut on the All Apps list and select Pin to start

When you utilize that shortcut to open your Recent Items window, you can sort it by the Date Modified column or you can even right-click the top row and add the Date Accessed column. This should give you something rather close to what you want to see.

You can display the recent files/folders very easily without creating a shortcut, just invoke the command shell:recent in run box Win+R shell:recent

There are two other CLSIDs defined under HKLM\CLSID that provide filtered views of the items in shell:Recent:

• Recent Folders: {22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}
• Recent Items Instance Folder (files): {4564b25e-30cd-4787-82ba-39e73a750b14}

Entries can be created under HKCU that modify these definitions to add them to the Navigation Pane.

1. Add the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree DWORD with a value of 1 to the definition
2. Add the CLSID to the Desktop namespace
3. Specify a display name and icon under HKCU\...\Explorer\CLSID

The following can be copied into a text editor & saved as a .reg file to add Recent Folders to the Navigation Pane:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}]
@="Recent Folders"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}\DefaultIcon]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,\
  00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,69,00,\
  6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,\
  00,31,00,31,00,37,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{22877a6d-37a1-461a-91b0-dbda5aaebc99}]
@="Recent Folders"
"System.IsPinnedToNamespaceTree"=dword:00000001

And this .reg file will add Recent Files and increase the number of files displayed from the Quick Access default of 25 to 50:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{4564b25e-30cd-4787-82ba-39e73a750b14}]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{4564b25e-30cd-4787-82ba-39e73a750b14}]
@="Recent Files"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{4564b25e-30cd-4787-82ba-39e73a750b14}\DefaultIcon]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,\
  00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,69,00,\
  6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,\
  00,31,00,31,00,37,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{4564b25e-30cd-4787-82ba-39e73a750b14}]
@="Recent Items Instance Folder"
"System.IsPinnedToNamespaceTree"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{4564b25e-30cd-4787-82ba-39e73a750b14}\Instance]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{4564b25e-30cd-4787-82ba-39e73a750b14}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"MaxItems"=dword:00000032

Screenshsots ( after removing Type & Size columns and adding Link Target )