Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t allow you to remove 3D Objects and other folders from File Explorer using Control Panel or Settings. If you want to remove these folders, you need to use Registry editor and delete the entry.
With the Sun Valley update, Microsoft is looking to reduce the clutter in File Explorer and they plan to hide the 3D Objects folder by default. After the update, this useless folder will no longer be shown under ‘This PC’ unless you right-click and select the “Show all folders” option on the navigation pane.
I know this is a small change, and I know it’s insignificant, but these unremovable garbage folders always feel like such a slap in the face. It’s an annoying reminder that when you use Windows, you don’t really own your computer.
In fairness, is it also a sign that a lot of code is written while wrongly assuming some things never change?
No, this folder is just forced through the registry and can be removed that way too. Not many things even in Windows are strictly enforced, but usually require knowledge to locate the relevant registry settings.
“Windows” is actually built to be fairly modular, especially since the refactoring of the codebase that happened in the Windows 8 era. Very little is actually hard-coded, and a lot can actually be replaced and removed as and when you need it. However, Microsoft still generally just ship everything they can with Windows, and the cut-down and modular versions are primarily aimed at the server market.
Do you know where to find that settings?
Or maybe just read the article. The 3D Objects folder can be removed by manipulating the registry.
Think more of why it’s forced through the registry, not how it can be removed, it may well be there solving a problem for some partner. Linux would offer the solution provided at the end of this sentence and nobody would know otherwise.
Actually not so different from e.g. Gnome this issue. In Gnome’s file browser there are plethora of folders hardcoded on to the sidebar. If I remember correctly, these paths are actually properly hardcoded in the source code. I don’t see Thom ranting how Gnome makes him feel like he doesn’t own his computer anymore.
They are not hardcoded at all. Those are “well-known” directories for storing user documents, pictures, music etc.
The configuration is stored in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs text file. For more information, check the manpages of xdg-user-dir, xdg-user-dirs-update.
Might have been the case in the past but anymore. They are hardcoded and a Gnome dev confirmed this to me on IRC maybe last year. Try for yourself.
Well, sorry, I stand corrected. I managed to remove them from Nautilus by executing xdg-users-dirs-gtk-update after digging around…
imho it’s juniour coders who tend to hardcode but especially coders who are paying no regard to portability. In theory you can run another desktop on Windows. I expect Gnome and KDE et al would pay more attention portability if they produced a Windows version.
OS portability is *one* thing Microsoft got right even if at the application level they only encourage portability among Windows OS versions not portability in general.
A portability layer should be part of everyone’s toolkit. Why it continues to be so esoteric and ad-hoc I don’t know.
HollyB,
How do you mean?
I would call that backwards compatibility rather than “portability”. The only reason win32s are portable is due to 3rd parties who’ve put in the effort (wine/reactos), but even so there are a lot of nuanced portability issues.
Long ago microsoft did add a unix subsystem in order to comply with government contracts that required some POSIX compliance, but the win32s are obviously not compliant on their own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_POSIX_subsystem
Microsoft has often appropriated unix functionality, but sometimes did so in non-portable ways. Look at microsoft’s winsock2 derivation from berkley sockets; it’s almost the same, but they’ve changed enough that windows socket applications aren’t completely portable without adding ifdefs.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4617478/porting-winsock-to-linux-sockets
This isn’t too different from microsoft adapting javascript into jscript as part of their effort to embrace, extend, extinguish. Prior to the antitrust suits their efforts were largely successful and many consumers became vendor locked.
In another area, game programmers must choose between microsoft’s directx API or the more portable opengl API.
So with all this in mind, I agree with you that microsoft has done well with backwards compatibility, but I respectfully disagree on portability.
I never understood the need for home 3D printing. How much plastic crap with rough edges (literally) does a person need? Get what you need 3D-printed done professionally at a dedicated shop. This folder should have been in Documents really.
kurkosdr,
It’s about customization. If you’re going to make millions, 3d printing doesn’t make sense. If you’re gone to make one or even a hundred, 3d printing can much more affordable & accessible than going the “professional” route.
Of course, this is best served by applications rather than part of the windows shell. Oh well.
It had worked well for me, but is also an hassle.
Glass lid broken for a jar: just customize a template and have a tight fitting replacement in hours.
Need a stand / holder / clip etc for gizmos: Many options out there
Need a toy to play with kids: So many options: https://www.thingiverse.com/
But it is not as easy as “printing”. Too much trial and error, and adjustments. For example that tight fitting lid was after 3 attempts. (Plastic changes size with heat after all).
sukru,
I don’t have one myself, but I think it would be really good for making custom cases for circuit board projects. Practically every electronics project I work on I run into the same problem: the need for a special case to house the electronics. I’ve tried to build my own cases with plastic/wood by hand but the result is…quite bad.. I’ve bought pre-existing generic project cases and the quality is fair but it can be very difficult to get it sized right and the mounting options are never in the right spots (because it was not designed with your project in mind).
I think 3d printing could potentially be the ideal solution…how do others handle this problem?
Alfman,
I have not prepared custom circuits myself. However I have printed raspberry pi casings. There are lots of choices that come with the source code (for the 3d design).
Also, it looks like someone uploaded a generic circuit cover which can be customized before download: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1140939
sukru,
Personally I’m not really that interested in pre-existing designs (I’d be inclined to just buy the finished product and not fab it myself). To make a custom box I don’t see a reason not to just use my own design, I’d just want things to line up as perfectly as possible and be decent quality. I’m not sure whether a 3d printed box can have the same quality as an injection molded one, but maybe it can be enough. Either way it’s got to be better than what I can build by hand without a workshop.
Alfman,
The quality depends on your patience, the materials, and of course the machine itself.
If you use ABS (with lots of ventilation) it becomes similar to LEGO bricks. It melts at 230F, so they are very durable (but will start to be soft at lower temperatures). PLA is softer, but is less toxic in general.
For more recent resin based 3d printers, you might get stability at over 200C, which is much more than what most electronics can endure.
Custom designs come with “source code” (it is a language called scad, which is easy to learn). Those can be good starting points for new projects.
This is a great sign of things to come I think. For some history, this folder was added during one of the initial 6 month updates where they tried to trick people into believing that UWP was going to be a thing (it wasn’t). When they “replaced” paint with Paint3d, they tried to integrate into the shell experience as much as possible by added a folder for all these 3d object files that absolutely no one cared about, ever, at all, ever. They also added other garbage like a People taskbar button and other nonsense.
That garbage has been removed piece by piece and hopefully Microsoft has fired everyone who had a hand into doing these features. They effectively wasted 5 years on trying to trick people into using UWP and let win32 purposefully bitrot.
It’s not enough that these mobile first, touch first, flat design people get taken off of projects and their projects removed. They must be publicly blacklisted so they don’t go and needlessly ruin something else with their garbage snake oil. There needs to be a blacklist of everyone who ever supported the Metrofication/UWP of the desktop experience and/or thought 3 or more colors in a GUI was too confusing for users. Even better, hopefully scientists can determine what at a genetic level causes this specific type of retardation and weed it out of the gene pool.
You know what? I’m totally OK with this approach, “you don’t own your PC”. There must be some sane universal defaults and from then on – do what you want.
The average Linux distro user on the other hand may install such a DE, it might become near impossible to help him reconfigure it or fix issues.
Don’t confuse sane universal defaults with owning your PC. Vote with your wallet for your right to sideload apps or you will stop owning your PC or other device.
There is quite a deep interconnect between the functionality of Paint, Paint3D and 3DViewer, I wonder if this is a driver of the welded on folder structures.
I didn’t even realise this relationship existed until recently. When a bunch of colleagues began collaborating on a 3D prototype I was advised to use specific file formats for the models as some were making use of built in Win 10 features to view and comment on the designs. So it would be interesting to remove that contentious folder and see what if anything breaks.