65.012 Can't unpin Quick Start links in Windows Explorer

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If you're unpinning a Quick Start entry they will normally go away as soon as you unpin them.

If they don't this procedure is for you.

The pins are referred to as Automatic Destinations and Windows keeps a little list of all the pins it needs to show you.  Sometimes that list can get a little messed up, Windows gets confused and you have persistent Pins.

If you know your folder name:

If you know your own folder name on your computer, press the Windows key and then R and then paste this in, replacing [your username] with your own folder name:

 C:\Users\[your_username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations

Then click Ok

If you don't know your folder name:

If you don't know your own folder name on your computer:

- Open File Explorer and navigate to the C: drive
- Then open the Users folder.  You should see your folder in there, it will likely be your username that you use when you log in; make a note of the name.
- Press the Windows key and then R and then paste this in, replacing [your username] with your own folder name

     C:\Users\[your_username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations

- Then click Ok

As an example, if your login was neil you would enter this:

C:\Users\neil\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations

Clearing out the Pins
Once you've navigated to the right folder, you will see lots of files that look like this:

- Click on the first file in the list to highlight it - in this case the file begins with 1bc392 - then press the control key and then A key together to they look like this:

- Now press the keypad key marked "Delete" (Not the Backspace key above the Enter key) and all the files will disappear.  A couple may come back as they are regenerated automatically by Windows.
- All the errant Quick Start entries should now have disappeared, barring the Desktop, Downloads and Pictures ones as they are automatically maintained by Windows.
- The procedure is complete - close down the File Explorer window

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