Always show absolute path in File Explorer address bar

Solution 1:

The most reliable method to do what you want is to pin your preferred folders to the Quick Access area after you have navigated to them via a UNC path.

For example, the workgroup laptop on my home network is called DELL-INSPIRON15, so I can enter the following path in the address bar:

\\DELL-INSPIRON15\Users\Run5k\Documents  

However, if your machine is on an Active Directory domain you will need to add c$ to the syntax in order to map your local Documents folder via a UNC path:

\\DELL-XPS-9100\c$\Users\Run5k\Documents  

After that, right-click Quick Access on the top-left and choose Pin current folder to Quick access.

Do the same for each folder within the Quick Access area, and you should see exactly the behavior that you want when you click on the up-arrow.

Solution 2:

Not sure if this will have unintended side-effects, but experimenting with the Pictures folder, I deleted the current Quick Access pin, then in the registry, deleted the 'ParsingName' value under:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{0ddd015d-b06c-45d5-8c4c-f59713854639} 

and

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{33E28130-4E1E-4676-835A-98395C3BC3BB}

Restarted, navigated to C:\Users\Keith and pinned Pictures to Quick Access. the result was the Address Bar now showed Pictures path as a subfolder of the USerProfile folder rooted in the Desktop:

Explorer Screenshot 1

So then I delected the ParsingName under {f3ce0f7c-4901-4acc-8648-d5d44b04ef8f} (UsersFilesFolder) and that produced the desired result (after restarting Explorer):

Explorer Screenshot 2

Back up HKLM...\FolderDescriptions before testing.

Keith