How to prevent Windows file explorer from automatically linking a .html (or .htm) file to a similarly named folder? (Connected Files in File Explorer)

Solution 1:

At the bottom of the Connected Files paragraph in the documentation, just below the table of permissible name suffixes and the purple information block directly underneath that; it mentions a simple registry tweak to permanently disable the Connected Files feature and prevent the
📁 File Explorer from automatically mirroring any changes you make between a linked HTML file and folder.

How to disable the Connected Files (or file connection) feature in Windows

Whether file connection is enabled or disabled is controlled by a DWORD (32-bit) value (originally called REG_DWORD in the article), NoFileFolderConnection, of the following registry key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Software
      Microsoft
         Windows
            CurrentVersion
               Explorer

This value normally is not defined, and file connection is enabled. If necessary, you can disable file connection by adding this value to the key and setting it to 1. To enable file connection again, set NoFileFolderConnection to 0.

⚠️ Note
File connection should normally be enabled because other applications might depend on it. Disable file connection only if absolutely necessary.

^{(literally copy and pasted from the Microsoft documentation page for the Connected Files feature)}

How to edit the registry and disable Connected Files in easy, comprehensive steps

1. To easily apply this change and disable the Connected Files feature you can open the Windows register editor (also known as regedit.exe) by simultaneously pressing the [WIN]+[R] keys on your keyboard, then typing regedit into the textbox inside the Run window that popped up followed by an [ENTER].

2. A new window titled Registry Editor will now open. If you're using Windows 7 (or an older version), then I'm afraid you'll have to manually navigate to the appropriate registry hive. If you're on Windows 10 (or 11) however, you're in luck because you'll find a slender, elongated white box near the uppermost part of the window, just below the menu strip. This address textbox should be just about the same width as the Registry Editor window itself, and as you move through the registry hives it will automatically update as you browse, and display the location of the registry key you're currently inspecting. In fact, this textbox functions practically identical to the navigation textbox visible at the top of every 📁 File Explorer window. Similarly, this textbox can also be used to quickly navigate to a specific registry key, provided you know the absolute path of course.

   (Hint: If you've never used the Registry Editor before, then this textbox will simply contain the text Computer when the window first opens. When copying and pasting registry paths you should know that there is no need to ever manually remove the 'Computer' part at the beginning, because the path input parsing algorithm is sufficiently smart to ignore it when encountered.)

3. Copy and paste the text Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer into the textbox and press [ENTER] to select the appropriate registry key. After pressing enter you will see a list of properties in the right half of the window.

4. Right click in the white part of the right half of the window and click on New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. A new key will now appear in the right half of the window with the name field editable, type NoFileFolderConnection into the text field and press [ENTER] when done. (Hint: If you lose the editing field you can right click on the new key, click Delete and then try adding the key again) There should now be a new registry key visible on the bottom of the list on the right side of the window with a blue and white icon and NoFileFolderConnection as the name.

5. Double click on our newly created key or right click on it and then click on Modify... in the menu popup to open the key modification window. A small window with only a single editable field will now open. Please be sure to read the entire next step including the two accompanying boxes of information before continuing with this guide.

6. Check before continuing with step 7: the text field named Value data: should be set to a value of 0 and the read-only text field Value name: should read NoFileFolderConnection.

   ⚠️ Important
   STOP and check if the fields match BEFORE attempting to change their value! If either one of these fields doesn't match the expected value you must first double and then triple check whether you're indeed modifying the correct registry key!

   ℹ️ Additional information (optional read)

   If you were to accidentally modify the value of another registry key it may have seriously detrimental effects on your Windows installation. The severity of which will depend on exactly which key you modified, but if you are unlucky, and you happen to change a vital value somewhere, it is very much possible (albeit unlikely) to accidentally render your Windows installation unbootable or at the very least damage it to such an extent that you'll have no choice but to perform a complete re-installation of Windows to have any hope at all of restoring your PC to a working state.

7. Once you've checked that you're actually modifying the correct registry key replace the 0 with a 1 and then press [ENTER] on your keyboard. In case you're wondering, you can safely ignore any other options or settings present in this Modify/Edit window as they are not applicable to this specific registry key.

And done! Restart your system (or manually restart just the File Explorer if you know how to do that) and the Connected Files feature should henceforth be disabled!