JL Navigation (JL_Nav)
Branching History Tree for File Explorer — a Windows tray app
Go back a few folders, click somewhere new, and File Explorer throws away everything ahead of you. JL_Nav quietly keeps every path you've taken through a window — as a tree you can jump back into, branch and all.
A real session: you unzip a project, dig into src\components, then back out to Downloads for something else entirely. Explorer would erase the src\components path the moment you did that. JL_Nav keeps it as its own branch, one click away.
Explorer's history is a single, forgetful line
Back and Forward only ever remember one direction. The instant you go back and click into a different folder, everything that was ahead of you is gone — permanently, with no undo.
Without JL_Nav
The moment you branch into Screenshots, src\components is unreachable. Forward is grayed out. It's just gone.
With JL_Nav
Both branches sit side by side in the tree. Right-click Back or Forward any time to see them and jump to either.
No new habits to learn
JL_Nav sits in your tray and watches the Explorer windows you already have open. You reach the tree from exactly where you'd already be looking for your history.
Right-click Back or Forward
On any open Explorer window, or click JL_Nav's tray icon to see every window at once. No toolbar, no extra window to manage.
The tree opens at your cursor
Every folder you've visited in that window, branches and all — the one you're in now highlighted in orange.
Click any node to jump there
Explorer navigates straight to it — including a branch you left ten folders ago, or a window you already closed.
Built to stay out of your way
One tree per window
Each Explorer window gets its own branching history, so tabs and windows never tangle into one another's paths.
Survives a restart
Close JL_Nav, reopen it — a still-open Explorer window is matched back to its saved tree by the folder it's sitting in.
Closed windows, archived
Close an Explorer window and its tree is kept for later — click a node to reopen right where you left off.
Everything stays local
No account, no network requests, nothing sent anywhere. Your folder history lives in a JSON file on your own machine. Read the privacy policy →
Delete anything, any time
Right-click a closed window's tree to remove it for good. Delete the state file and JL_Nav starts fresh.
Optional startup, no admin
Turn on "Start with Windows" from the tray menu whenever you want it — off by default, no elevated permissions needed.