Change default folder of Windows Explorer

When you open the Windows Explorer from a shortcut in Windows 7, it always starts in the Libraries folder. You may find this very handy if you are a normal user, but as a power user, you may want to open another folder by default.
To set a different default folder for Windows Explorer, you have to modiffy the shortcut. In the shortcut is a text box “target”, where you can define any location you want.

To modify the default location in Windows Explorer, do the following:

1. Right click on the Windows Explorer shortcut and click Properties
2. Go to the tab “Shortcut“.
   
3. In the “Target” field, simply add the location you prefer to open when you click the Windows Explorer shortcut. For example, when you would like to open the C:\itexperience folder, you would set the following target:
   %windir%\explorer.exe C:\itexperience

In addition, there may be locations that you can’t specify by a path, like “My Computer”. In order to open Windows Explorer with these special locations as default folder, set the following string as target:

Note the two prefix colons for these special locations.

For more information about making a special location the default location in Windows Explorer, take a look at the following post: Change default folder of Windows Explorer – advanced