Unable to Unpin and Access a WSL Share Pinned to Quick Access in Windows 11

Jay 0 Reputation points
2025-07-03T15:48:43.3+00:00

I accidentally pinned a WSL share to File Explorer → Quick Access. The entry shows up as:

jay \wsl$\Ubuntu\home\jay

Ubuntu \wsl$\Ubuntu

However, I’m now running into two problems:

Cannot Unpin the Entry

Right-click → “Unpin from Quick access” is never shown.

PowerShell + Shell.Application:

powershellCopyEdit$shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
$qa    = $shell.Namespace('shell:::{679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}')
$item  = $qa.Items() | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq 'jay' }
# Found: jay → \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\jay
$item.Verbs()     # → no verbs listed
$item.InvokeVerb('取消固定到快速访问')  # → no error, but item remains

Cannot Access the Pinned Link

  • Clicking or double-clicking jay immediately shows a “Could not find this item” (element not found) error.
  • Manually entering \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\jay in the address bar does work, but the Quick Access shortcut itself is broken.
    Screenshot 2025-07-02 234018
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage
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  1. Gigi Esguerra 75 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-07-03T20:13:52.9466667+00:00

    Hi there,

    There are a couple of things we can try to resolve this issue, and I’ll break them down step by step.

    1. Unpin the Broken WSL Link from Quick Access:

    Clear Quick Access history:

    Open File Explorer.

      Click on **View** → **Show** → **Options**.
      
         Under **General**, click **Clear** next to **Clear File Explorer history**.
         
            **Restart** your PC and check if the WSL link is gone.
            
            **Remove via PowerShell**:
            
               Open **PowerShell** as Admin.
               
                  Run this command to remove the WSL pin:
                  
                  ```powershell
                  powershell
                  Copy
                  Remove-Item "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\<filename>"
                  ```
                  
                        Replace `<filename>` with the name of the WSL-related file you see when running `Get-ChildItem "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*"`
                        
                        **Reboot your PC** after performing these steps.
                        
    
    1. Fix Access to the Broken Link:

    Re-pin the WSL Share:

    Open File Explorer.

      Go to `\\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\jay`.
      
         Right-click on the folder and select **Pin to Quick Access**.
         
            Now the link should work.
            
    
    1. Remove the Old Broken Link:
      • Right-click on the old, broken pinned item in Quick Access and select Unpin from Quick Access.

    If none of these methods work, it might be worth checking for updates to Windows 11, as certain updates have resolved Quick Access bugs in the past.

    Let me know how it goes or if you run into any other issues!

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