Favorites in Internet Explorer

[John Gray]

Please could someone explain why I have the same favorites (.url) in
\\pcname\c$\Users\accountname\Favorites\Favorites Bar\Links
as in
\\pcname\c$\Users\accountname\Favorites\Links

Are both necessary? I really only want them to appear in the Favorites Bar, but they seem to populate the other folder as well...

I ask because I have to maintain these Favorites for a large number of accounts in a large number of PCs in a workgroup!

[HansV]

As far as I know, they ARE the same folder. Windows uses smoke and mirrors to display it under several names.

[John Gray]

Ah...

[JoeP]

I hate to disagree with Hans but I think that "Favorites Bar" is a separate folder in the Favorites hierarchy. My "Favorites Bar' only has two links in it neither of which appears elsewhere in Favorites. You can move links to the Favorites Bar folder using "Organize Favorites or "add to Favorites Bar" both of which are accessible by clicking the drop down arrow next to "add to favorites" when you click the Favorites start.

Joe

[HansV]

You're correct, Joe.

It is confusing, though: C: > Users > <username> > Favorites> Favorites Bar resolves to C:\Users\<username>\Favorites\Links.

[John Gray]

Further to this topic:

Working in C:\Users\MyUser\Favorites, so all further statements are relative to that:
a) I renamed \Links to be \Favorites Bar and deleted its contents
b) Using Copy-and-Paste in Windows Explorer, I copied a small number of .URL files into \Favorites Bar

Coming back to this a couple of days later, I now find that:
c) when I do a DIR in a Command Prompt window, I see the URLs in the \Links folder, and there is no \Favorites Bar folder
but
d) when I look in Windows Explorer, I see the URLs in the \Favorites Bar folder, and there is no \Links folder

In some instances, the date and times of the URLs are those when I did the copy-and-pasting, and not their original ones.

Nothing like confusing the poor administrator, eh?!

[Rudi]

It might have something to do with the desktop.ini file; which needs to be refreshed or deleted and recreated to show updated file names.

See this web page that quotes the following (in the reply post):

Explorer displays it according to what's specified in the desktop.ini file in that directory.

[John Gray]

I make a habit of deleting desktop.ini files wherever I find them!
And also thumbs.db files...

Both types seem utterly unnecessary.

[DaveA]

On my systems, "Links" is a group of short cuts not URLs, which is used for the "Resents".
Also the Favorites Bar is and always been a subfolder of Favorites.

Links and Favorites are two different Worlds.

[HansV]

I make a habit of deleting desktop.ini files wherever I find them!
And also thumbs.db files...

Both types seem utterly unnecessary.

The desktop.ini files contain info about custom tooltip info and custom icons for "special" folders.
The thumbs.db files contain the preview icons shown in a folder if that folder is set to an icon or content view. If you delete them, they will be recreated automatically when you next view the folder, causing a delay. Unless the preview icons misbehave, it's better to leave the thumbs.db files alone.

[HansV]

This is the situation on my Windows 10 PC:

Level	File Explorer Folder Tree	File Explorer Address Bar	Command Prompt	Contains
Top	Quick Access (formerly: Favorites)	Quick Access (formerly: Favorites)	C:\Users\<username>\Links	Quick Access shortcuts
Under user	Favorites	C:\Users\<username>\Favorites	C:\Users\<username>\Favorites	IE Favorites dropdown items
Under user > Favorites	Favorites Bar	C:\Users\<username>\Favorites\Links	C:\Users\<username>\Favorites\Links	IE Favorites Bar items