How to Clear File Explorer Address Bar History in Windows 10 & 11

File Explorer tracks all the address bar activity. If you don’t like this, here’s how to clear the File Explorer address bar history.

Besides using your mouse to navigate between folders, you can also directly enter the folder paths in the File Explorer address bar. This is particularly useful for deep buried but known folders.

Though suitable for ease of use, one thing you should know is that the File Explorer keeps track of all that address bar activity history. All the tracked history is available via the address bar drop-down menu. When needed, you can use the dropdown menu to select the folder of your choice with a single click.

You can delete those entries if you don’t like File Explorer tracking and listing your address bar history.

Here’s how to clear file explorer address bar history in Windows 10 and 11 operating systems.

Jump to:

• Clear address bar history from right-click
• Delete address bar history from folder options
• Clear File Explorer address bar history using registry

Clear File Explorer address bar history from right-click

The easiest way to clear the File Explorer’s address bar history is to use the quick and easy right-click option. Windows will clear the File Explorer’s address bar history with just a couple of clicks.

1. First, open File Explorer using the taskbar icon or pressing the Win + I keyboard shortcut.
2. Right-click on the address bar in the File Explorer and choose the “Delete History” option.
   
3. Windows will delete the address bar history as soon as you select the option.
   

Delete the address bar history using Folder Options

Alternatively, you can also use the folder options tool to clear the File Explorer address bar history. One of the advantages of this method is that you can remove the quick access activity history too.

1. Open the file explorer.
2. Click on the “View” tab appearing in the top bar.
3. Click the “Options” button.
   
4. The above action will open the Folder Options window. Here, click on the “Clear” button.
   
5. Windows Explorer will delete the address bar history as soon as you click on the clear button.
6. You can also stop File Explorer from tracking your folder and file activity if you want to. To do that, uncheck both checkboxes under the Privacy section and click on the “Ok” button.

Note: In Windows 11, click the “Menu” (three horizontal dots) and choose “Options” to open the Folder Options tool.

Delete the address bar history using the Registry Editor

If the above two methods did not work for some reason, you could try editing the registry to clear the Windows Explorer address bar. All the history items in the File Explorer are stored as individual values within the registry editor. You can delete the File Explorer address bar history by deleting those values. Pretty easy, right? Let me show you the steps.

Also, since the history items are stored as individual values, you can delete specific keys to clear particular items from the address bar history. For instance, maybe you don’t want a particular folder address to appear in the address bar history. In those situations, deleting that specific registry values will get the job done.

Though editing the registry is relatively easy, I’d recommend you back up the registry to restore it in case of any mishaps.

1. Open the Run dialog box using Win + R.
2. Type regedit and click the “Ok” button to open the Windows Registry Editor.
3. Paste the below path in the address bar and press Enter in the editor. This action will take you to the target folder, where the File Explorer history values are stored. HKEYYouMicrosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TypedPaths
4. On the right panel, you will see multiple values like url1, url2, etc. To delete a single entry from the file explorer history, right-click on the target value and select the “Delete” option.
   
5. You will see a warning message. Click the “Yes” button to continue.
   
6. To clear the entire file explorer history, select all the values except “Default,” right-click and choose the “Delete” option.
   
7. You will see a warning message. Click on the “Yes” button to continue.
   
8. Close registry editor.
9. Close and reopen the file explorer, and the address bar history will be cleared automatically.

That is all. It is that simple to clear address bar history in file explorer.

If you like this article, check out how to clear recent color history and how to install new fonts in Windows 10.