Let’s discuss Easy Method to Show Drive Letters before Drive Name on Windows 11. This blog post will go through Drive Letters and Methods to Show Drive Letters Before Drive Name. This feature helps to organizing and managing files and folders.
Do you know what a drive letter is? It is an alphabetic character assigned to a storage device or partition in a computer operating system, primarily used in Windows environments. Each drive letter identifies a specific drive or partition.
You may be familiar with drive letters such as C:, D:, or E:. These drive letters allow the operating system to locate and access different storage devices easily. Usually, these letters can be seen after the drive name, like Local Disk (C :). This is the default setting of File Explorer.
If you want to change these settings on your Windows 11 File Explorer, you can choose following methods. The Driver Letter Name is a completely customizable feature, and you can apply below method by referring to this post.
Table of Contents
Are There Any Intune, GPO, or Control Panel Methods Available for Show Drive Letters Before the Drive Name?
The answer is no. We can’t find any Intune, GPO, or Control Panel Methods Available for Show Drive Letters Before Drive Name. If you find anything, please mention it in the comments.
Easy Method to Show Drive Letters before Drive Name on Windows 11
Currently the following method is only available for Show Drive Letters before Drive Name on Windows 11. The system helps users and the operating system to locate and access different storage devices easily. Each method is easy, and you can quickly try each method on your device.
- How to Clear the File Explorer History in Windows 11
- How to Show Details Pane in File Explorer of Windows 11
- Windows 11 Copilot Integrates with File Explorer Context Menu
Advantages of Show Drive Letters Before Drive Name on Windows 11
There are many advantages to this feature on Windows 11. Enabling this feature changes the order to display the drive letter first (e.g., “C: Local Disk“), making it easier for users to identify and access drives based on their letters quickly. The table below shows the advantages.
| Advantages | Details |
|---|---|
| Improved Clarity | It helps to distinguish between different drives |
| Easier Navigation | Quickly identify and access drives |
| Consistency | It gives consistency |
Using Registry Editor
Using Registry Editor you can easily show Drive Letters Before Drive Name on Windows 11. To do this open the Registry Editor on your Windows 11 PC. Click on the Start Menu and Search for Registry Editor. Open the Registry Editor.
The value “ShowDriveLettersFirst” can be easily found in the Registry Editor. To get this key, Navigate to the path Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftware\Microsoft\WindowsCurrentVersion\Explorer. If you don’t get the value on File Explore, you can create a New Key.
Right-click on the Explorer key and click on the Key option near the New option. Click on the DWORG (32-bit)Value. Look at the screenshot below.
After that the New Value is added on the Explorer Key. You can rename this value by right clcik the value and Enter the Value. Here the value name is ShowDriveLettersFirst.
To show the Drive Letters before Drive Name, Double click on the Value ShowDriveLetterFirst. Enter the Value 4 on the value data box and Click on the Next button.
After that, you have to do some steps on Task Manager. To do this open the File Explorer by clickin on the Start Menu and Search for Task Manager. Open the Task Manager.
On the Task Manager, you can see different options like Process, Performance, App history, etc. Select Processes option and Right clcik on the Windows Explorer. Click on the Restart option near the pop window.
End Result
Before changing the default setting of Windows File Explorer, the Drive letters show after the Drive Name. You can check this on your File Explore. To access this, Open the File Explorer and click on the This PC Folder; here, you can Drive letters after the name.
After changing the default setting using Registry Editor you can see the changes on your File Explorer. Open the File Explorer you can the Drive Letter before the File Name.
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Author
Anoop C Nair has been Microsoft MVP from 2015 onwards for 10 consecutive years! He is a Workplace Solution Architect with more than 22+ years of experience in Workplace technologies. He is also a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group Community leader. His primary focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM and Intune. He writes about technologies like Intune, SCCM, Windows, Cloud PC, Windows, Entra, Microsoft Security, Career, etc.