Back in the day, I used Stardock ObjectDock (before later switching to Nexus) on Windows 8 and earlier, and when I launched a File Explorer window from the dock, it would open under Desktop in the Navigation Pane, same as when it’s opened from the actual desktop:



However, since moving to Windows 10, for both ObjectDock and later Nexus, launching a File Explorer window from the dock opens it under a virtual “Desktop” that appears under This PC:



I’m aware this is just a thing that Win10 does, with Nexus and a few other apps. But since Nexus is the app I use most often, I was hoping someone here might have some insight.

So: Does anyone know if there’s any way, some setting or tool or registry hack or anything at all, that restores the pre-Win10 behavior of opening directories under the root Desktop item in the Navigation Pane rather than under a virtual Desktop under This PC when using apps like Nexus?

Windows 10 Pro (x64) v22H2 (w/ “Aero10: Seven” theme by vaporvance)
Winstep Nexus v26.1
OldNewExplorer v1.1.9.0 (“Use libraries; hide folders from This PC”)

When Nexus (or OD, or any other application) opens a Explorer window, the actual contents of that Explorer window are not the responsibility of the launching application but Windows itself.

This would thus be a question better directed at Microsoft than Winstep, and I was going to say it might be a 32 bit vs 64 bit issue when I noticed your OldNewExplorer extension.

So I fired up a Windows 10 VM I have here and the Navigation pane structure looks NOTHING like ANY of your two screenshots. It actually looks like this:


So, if I had to take a guess, I would guess "OldNewExplorer" is the culprit.

Just to clarify, this is not OldNewExplorer’s doing; ONE simply removes the folders that appear under This PC by default (“3D Objects”, “Documents”, “Downloads”, etc.) and replaces them with “Libraries” in the navigation pane.

Also, I apologize for the confusion, but I did forget to mention a few more ways I’ve customized my navigation pane. First, I enable “Show all folders” in the navigation pane settings, which groups everything (except Quick Access) under a root “Desktop” item. Then I use Winaero Tweaker to unpin unwanted items such as Quick Access. Finally, I use Open-Shell’s Classic Explorer to add a few minor visual tweaks, such as disabling the arrow buttons fading.

However, none of these customizations affect the behavior I’m describing here. For example, when I disable all these customizations (reverting my navigation pane to something similar to your screenshot) and then open a folder from my desktop, it looks like this:



And when I open that folder from Nexus, it looks like this:



As I said in my OP, I’m aware this is an issue with how Windows itself works; I’m not saying Nexus is malfunctioning or anything. I was just hoping that, since Nexus is affected by it, perhaps someone else in this forum might also have been bothered by folders opening under this virtual “This PC > Desktop” and might have found a solution to stop it. Though I can also understand if the issue I’m talking about is too niche for most people to notice (or be bothered by).