In this article will show you how to hide external drives listed twice in file explorer navigation pane.
Both fixed as well as removable drivesvvappear under the “This PC” category in File Explorer navigation pane. Unlike in previous versions of Windows, when you connect a USB flash drive or any other external drive/device to a PC running Windows 10 or 11, the File Explorer in Windows 10/11 displays the USB drive twice in the navigation pane. And multiple instances take up unnecessary space on you Navigation pane. But you can stop Windows 10 from showing USB drive twice by completing given below directions.
Modify the Registry and Fix Duplicate Drives
Right-click Start. Click Run and type regedit and click OK to open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\DelegateFolders
Under DelegateFolder key you see the following key
Right-click on {F5FB2C77-0E2F-4A16-A381-3E560C68BC83} key and then click Delete button to delete the key.
Exit the Registry Editor and Now open the Windows Explorer, Once this key is deleted, there won’t be any duplicate drive icons in File Explorer.
Alternatively;
1. Just download the fix-duplicate-driver-.rar file which located at the end of the page. ( Password: ceofix)
2. Extract it to any folder.
3. use the following registry files, depending on what you want to do:
Hide Duplicate Removable Drives: hide-driver.reg
Show Again Duplicate Removable Drives show-driver.reg
Right click on the hide-driver.reg file or show-driver.reg and select Merge. Confirm the User Account Control dialog if prompted.
5- Click Yes to continue.
6- Registration entries are successfully added to Registry.
That’s all.