The following tutorial applies to Desktop version of Internet Explorer 10. Modern UI/Metro version is covered in a separate guide.
Favorites are links to the web sites or web pages you visit most often. For example, if your Internet Explorer home page is set to Google, but you also visit YouTube every day, you can add a link to YouTube to your Favorites for quick access.
All created favorites are actually normal files and subfolders in the Favorites folder of your user profile - Users folder in Windows 7 and 8. In case you need to perform a major cleanup or rearrangement, it might be better to use Windows Explorer for this task.
To add a currently open page to any folder of Favorites, use keyboard shortcut CTRL+D or right-click on the page contents and select Add to favorites... from the menu.
Add a Favorite dialog appears. You can change the new favorite's Name and destination folder (Create in) before clicking Add. By default, the link will be created in Favorites Center.
Favorites Center can be accessed using keyboard shortcut ALT+C or clicking the View favorites, feeds, and history button on the right.
Internet Explorer 10 has Favorites Bar hidden by default. If you have many favorite links and you are accustomed to using Favorites Bar, right-click an empty space in Internet Explorer 10 Title Bar and click Favorites bar to display or hide the good old bar.
Internet Explorer 10 Favorites Bar
To create a link in Favorites Bar, click Add to Favorites bar button.
The link then appears as a button on Favorites Bar. You can now click the button to open the web page in currently active Tab. If you want to open it in a new Tab, right-click on the button and select Open in New Tab or hold down Ctrl key and click the link. To open the favorite in a new Tab and switch to it immediately, hold down Ctrl and Shift keys while clicking the link. Holding down Shift key while clicking the favorite opens it in a new window.
Using folders in Favorites Bar
You can also create folders in Favorites Bar - this is especially useful because its space is limited. For example, you can add music-related web sites into a folder named Music and news-related sites into a folder named News. When you click on a folder name on Favorites Bar, the list of favorites opens and you can click on any of the links there to open it in currently active Tab or new window.
Here is a folder named Search Engines open in Favorites Bar. You can also click Open in tabs to open all links in the folder at once.
To add a folder to Favorites Bar, right-click on any link or folder present there (Suggested Sites and Web Slices work, too) and select New folder.
Create a Folder dialog opens. Type in a name for your folder and click Create button.
Now the folder appears on Favorites Bar.
To add a link in the folder created, press Ctrl+D on your keyboard to add the currently open web page.
Add a Favorite dialog opens. Click on the down arrow button of Create in box and select your folder from the list.
You can also change the name of the link in Name box. Click Add button to put the link in folder you selected.
In case you already have links that you want to move to the new folder on your Favorites Bar, click on the link and hold mouse button down. Then drag the link on the destination folder and release mouse button.
You can also open all links in a folder at once in a colored Tab Group by right-clicking on the folder and selecting Open in tab group.
Sizing items on Favorites Bar
If Favorites Bar get really crowded, you can choose to display shortened titles or just icons by right-clicking on a link and selecting Short titles or Icons only from the from Customize title widths.
Renaming links and folders on Favorites Bar
By default, all links added to Favorites Bar get their names from the web page title they link to unless you rename these in the Add to Favorites dialog. Sometimes the titles are short (for example, just "Google"), sometimes they contain way too much information or strange capitalization. In latter case, it is better to rename them.
To rename a link or folder, right-click on it and select Rename.
Type a new name and click OK button.
Removing links or folders from Favorites Bar
If you want to delete a link or a folder from Favorites Bar, right-click on it and select Delete.
In Windows 7, Internet Explorer will then ask whether you want to delete the item or not. Click Yes to delete it.
In Windows 8, this prompt will not appear unless you have enabled the Show recycle confirmation option in Windows Explorer.
Windows moves deleted items to Recycle Bin - favorites are actually normal files in the Favorites folder of your user profile (Users folder in Windows 7 and 8). If you accidentally removed something, you can always recover it from there. Read about using Recycle Bin in Windows here.
Favorites Center
While Favorites Bar can include links to many web pages by using folders, its space is still limited. In case you need to have myriads of links it is better to use Favorites Center for the less used ones and keep only the everyday links on Favorites Bar.
You can click any link in Favorites Center to open it in currently active Tab. To open a link in a new Tab, right-click it and select Open in New Tab or hold down Ctrl key and click the link. To open the favorite in a new Tab and switch to it immediately, hold down Ctrl and Shift keys while clicking the link. Holding down Shift key opens the link in a new window.
You can display Favorites Center in two modes:
- Normal - Favorites Center hides a right part of currently open web page. After you click on a link there, Favorites Center disappears and you can see the whole webpage again.
- Pinned - Favorites Center opens in a separate frame on the left and web page contents move to the right. In this mode, Favorites Center remains always open.
View favorites, feeds, and history button is the middle button on the right side and it opens Favorites Center in normal mode, just like using keyboard shortcut Ctrl+I or Alt+C.
In normal mode, Favorites Center hides the right part of open web page. You can change the mode to pinned by clicking the Pin the Favorites Center button or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I on your keyboard.
When Favorites Center is pinned, it is always visible in a separate frame and therefore it does not hide webpage contents. To open Favorites Center in pinned mode, use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I. You can close Favorites Center by clicking the X button on the top right of the Favorites Center frame or by clicking the Favorites button on Favorites Bar or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I again.
You can resize Favorites Center by moving mouse pointer onto the right side of its frame so that the mouse pointer turns into an arrow pointing to the right and the left. Then click and hold left mouse button, drag the frame to the position you like and release mouse button.
Adding new favorites to Favorites Center
On the top of the Favorites Center frame is Add to favorites button. When you click it, it acts just like using Ctrl+D keyboard shortcut and opens a usual Add a Favorite dialog. Click Add to put the link in Favorites.
You can still select a different folder for the link from Create in: box before clicking Add button.
There is also a down arrow mark on the right of the Add to favorites button. When you click on it, you can add the current web page to Favorites Bar by selecting Add to Favorites bar command.
If you have more than one Tab open, you can use Add current tabs to favorites... command to create a new folder in Favorites Center and add links to currently open web pages there.
Renaming links and folders in Favorites Center
To rename a link or a folder in Favorites Center, right-click it and select Rename.
Type in a new name for the item and press Enter key on your keyboard to confirm name change.
Using folders in Favorites Center
To create a new folder in Favorites Center, right-click on any item already present there and select Create new folder.
Type in a name for the folder and press Enter on your keyboard to confirm.
To add a link to the newly created folder, press Ctrl+D on your keyboard, select the new folder from Create in: box and click Add button.
If you want to move an existing link to the new folder, click and hold on the link and drag it on the destination folder. Then release mouse button.
To open all links in a folder in a new colored Tab Group, right-click on the folder and select Open in tab group.
You can also copy a folder to Favorites Bar. This does not mean that the two folders will be kept synchronized, so it is best to delete the folder from Favorites Center after copying it to Favorites Bar.
To copy a folder to Favorites Bar, right-click on the folder and choose Add to Favorites bar.
Add to Favorites Bar command applies to links, too. Because there is no reason for keeping the same link in two places, delete the link from Favorites Center after copying it to Favorites Bar.
Deleting links or folders from Favorites Center
To remove a link or a folder, right-click on it and select Delete.
In Windows 7, Internet Explorer will then ask whether you want to delete the item or not. Click Yes to delete it.
In Windows 8, this prompt will not appear unless you have enabled the Show recycle confirmation option in Windows Explorer.
Windows moves deleted items to Recycle Bin - favorites are actually normal files in the Favorites folder of your user profile (Users folder in Windows 7 and 8). If you accidentally removed something, you can always recover it from there. Read about using Recycle Bin in Windows here.
