Open Favorites Folder

Run: shell:Favorites in the Run dialog (Win+R)

Opens %USERPROFILE%\Favorites — the Internet Explorer favorites folder. Contains .url shortcut files in INI format with a URL= line pointing to the bookmarked address.

Modern Browser Bookmark Locations

IE Favorites are largely obsolete. Modern browsers store bookmarks in their own profile directories:

IT Relevance

• Browser migration: Export/import bookmarks between users or browsers during machine migrations
• Forensic analysis: Bookmarks reveal user interests, researched topics, and frequented sites
• Security audits: Bookmarks to unauthorized cloud storage, personal email, or competitor sites

PowerShell — List IE Favorites

Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\Favorites" -Recurse -Filter *.url | ForEach-Object {
    $content = Get-Content $_.FullName
    $url = $content | Select-String "^URL="
    [PSCustomObject]@{ Name = $_.BaseName; URL = $url }
}

Parse Chrome/Edge Bookmarks

$bookmarks = Get-Content "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks" | ConvertFrom-Json
# Bookmarks are nested under bookmark_bar, other, synced nodes

For Firefox, use a SQLite reader on places.sqlite — table moz_bookmarks joined with moz_places.