i like shortcuts to folders to speed things up. i’ve always created shorcuts by right clicking on the folder -> create shortcut. a shortcut created that way will bring up the folder content but it will not give you a windows explorer view with the folder tree on the left i.e.

Windows explorer with folder tree

to create a shortcut with the folder tree do following:

1. Right click an empty area of the desktop and choose New ->Then choose Shortcut from the list of options. A Create Shortcut dialogue box will appear.
2. In the Command line box insert this line: %SystemRoot%\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,d:\
3. Change the d:\ in the line above to the directory you wish to open. As an example if you had a folder named data in c:\ you would change the line to %SystemRoot%\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,c:\data
4. Follow through the dialogue and give your shortcut a name. Once finished, if you double click on the shortcut created, it will bring up the appropriate folder with the windows explorer view.