Feature: Create a folder shortcut by dragging from the path bar

[loshadki-dev]

What feature or improvement do you think would benefit Files?

This is a feature that is in windows 10/7. It was removed in windows 11 for some evil reason.

You simply click and drag the folder icon (at the base of the address bar) to another folder or the desktop to create a shortcut to that folder. See the image and video below.

This youtube video shows how it worked in earlier versions of windows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQf2p7pbJtE

Requirements

• See feature description above

Files Version

3.4.1.0

Windows Version

10.0.22631.3593

Comments

No response

[Josh65-2201]

Thanks for the feedback, I've added this to the project board.

[hishitetsu]

Personally I am glad this feature is gone, because I frequently accidentally dragged the address bar and unintentionally created shortcuts.

[yaira2]

As evident by this request, there is obviously a use case for this feature. That said, when we ran a poll on Discord (not scientific by any means), it turned out that most users weren't even aware of this feature. We were previously tracking this feature in #13086.

[yaira2]

We'll keep this issue open for some time to measure community interest. However, based on the feedback received to date, it appears that there isn’t a significant demand among the wider user base to justify the introduction of a new option.

[loshadki-dev]

Sad to hear that, but I understand you can't implement niche feature requests for individual users. Hope the community shows some love because there isn't another easy way to create a shortcut to your current location (that I know of). Without it you have to browse up one level, find the folder you were just in, right click and find the embedded "send to desktop" option, then you can move that desktop shortcut to the desired destination folder/quick links.

[yaira2]

The use case is definitely valid and hearing those details gives me an idea.

We already have an "Action" to create shortcuts, and you can assign key bindings to it. Currently, this action is limited to the selected file or folder, but we’re working on adding support for custom arguments. Once implemented, you’ll theoretically be able to set an argument like {CurrentDirectory} to create a shortcut to the current directory.

It's worth noting that multiple key bindings can be assigned to the same action. With the upcoming introduction of arguments (args), you’ll have the flexibility to assign distinct args to each binding, enhancing customization.

[loshadki-dev]

Any workaround would be great for me. Excited to see the new features as they come out.

[yaira2]

We're going to continue tracking in #15141.