As an experienced user, you frequently work in system folders such as ‘System32’, ‘My Network Places’ and ‘Programs’, but find navigating through the Windows Explorer directory structure very annoying. You can open the desired folder directly in Explorer using some shortcuts. In this way you can access the frequently used system folders quickly.

To do this,

• Open the ‘Start > Run…’ dialog under XP, or ‘Start > All Programs > Accessories > Run’ under Vista. The Run dialog box can also be accessed using the keyboard combination [Win]+[R] in both.
• Type ‘shell:<Name>‘ in the input  field and confirm the same with ‘OK’.
• Doing this is much faster than inputting the entire directory path in the address bar. For instance, the command ‘shell:profile’ opens the profile folder in Windows Explorer, where profile is the name for the folder path would be something like ‘C:\Documents and Settings\PC’

The table above shows which name specifies which folder. Even Windows Environment Variables work just like these names. A list of all defined Environment Variables can be obtained by opening the prompt using ‘cmd.exe’ in the ‘Run’ dialog, and typing the command ‘set’.

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