Get the parent of a folder from search results

So I searched for a folder in my drive. I found the drive and selected "Open in a new Window". And now I want to get to the parent folder of that one.

But now the address bar shows Search Results in D: > New Folder. There are no "upper" buttons in the window, just back and forward. And Alt + Up Arrow goes back to the search results. I don't want the search results, I want the parent folder.

How do I do that?

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djeidot

Posted 2010-01-21T10:35:34.070

Reputation: 1 368

Answers

Use "Open folder location" rather than "Open in a new window".

harrymc

Posted 2010-01-21T10:35:34.070

Reputation: 306 093

5Yeah, I guess that does it, but it's strange that you have to go back to the search results to achieve this. – djeidot – 2010-01-21T11:59:40.930

@djeidot, You don’t have to go back to the search results if you hold Shift when you select Open Folder Location. – Synetech – 2011-05-03T00:24:00.293

1@Synetech I cannot find such hold shift and select Open Folder Location without going back to the search result. This is so silly me. – Nam G VU – 2012-05-04T08:43:21.190

2@Nam, there is plenty silly when it comes to Windows Search. – Synetech – 2012-05-05T00:09:28.623

Open folder location is the ideal, built-in way, but another option is to create your own Open in New Window context menu entry as follows:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Open New Window]
@="Open New &Window"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Open New Window\Command]
@="Explorer.exe \"%L\""

Create a .reg file on your desktop and paste in the above. Close the file and double click to merge it into your registry (or right click and select "Merge"). The new context menu item should be available immediately. It will open the folder in the normal file-system hierarchy as opposed to as a child of search results. You can delete the .reg file.

Yet another option is to create an Open Parent context menu to allow you to open the parent of a folder:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Open Parent]
@="Open &Parent"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Open Parent\Command]
@="Explorer.exe \"%L\\..\""

Synetech

Posted 2010-01-21T10:35:34.070

Reputation: 63 242

thanks but it does not work on windows 10. Any idea about it? – JinSnow – 2017-07-09T20:45:08.393

You can right click an item in that folder, and go to Properties and see the absolute Location path.

Chuck Savage

Posted 2010-01-21T10:35:34.070

Reputation: 179