Add a FTP site to your Windows favorites

In this article I’ll go over how you can add a FTP site to your Windows favorites so that you can quickly access your website files on the server, much like you would with either WebDav or WebDisk being enabled on the server.

Adding a FTP site to Windows favorites

Using the steps below I’ll show you how to make your FTP account very simple to access by using Windows Explorer in Windows 7.

For this example I’m using a dummy domain called example.com with a FTP user of example and a password of qwerty123

  1. click on start type in computer and click on computer

    Click on the Start button, type in computer in the Search programs and files box, then click on Computer.

  2. click map network drive

    Next click on Map network drive at the top.

  3. click on connect to a web site

    Then click on Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures.

  4. On the Welcome to the Add Network Location Wizard page, simply click Next.
  5. click choose a custom network location click next

    Now click on Choose a custom network location, then click on Next.

  6. type in ftp address then click next

    Under the Internet or network address field type in your full FTP path including username and password if you would like to not be prompted each time for this information.

    In this example I’ve used the following network address:

    ftp://example:[email protected]

    The address should be in the format of ftp://username:password@example.com

  7. name ftp location click on next

    Give a name for this FTP connection, then click on Next.

  8. un check open this network click finish

    In this case, go ahead and un-check Open this network location when I click Finish, then click on Finish.

  9. drag ftp link to favorites

    Now you should see your FTP site below the Computer section, go ahead and drag it up to your Favorites to create a shortcut.

  10. click on ftp favorite link

    Now go ahead and click on your FTP site under your Favorites.

  11. drag public html to favorites

    At this point I’d recommend dragging your public_html directory under the first favorite we created. That way you have quick access to your full account, but can also just directly drag files to your public_html directory to have them display on your website.

  12. drag file to public html

    Here you can see I’m dragging an image file sunset-over-mountains.png into my public_html on example.com shortcut.

  13. view uploaded image in browser

    Because I uploaded the image to my public_html image, I can go ahead and pull it up in my web-browser now with success.

You should now understand how you can use the built-in Windows favorites links to quickly access your account via FTP.

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