Fortunately, there's an easy way to tweak it so that it opens to whatever folder I want. Here's how:

1. Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar, then right-click Windows Explorer and choose Properties.

2. In the Target field, simply tack on the path to the folder you want. In my example (below), I've pointed to c:\Data. Just make sure you leave a space between %windir%/explorer.exe and your folder path.

3. Click OK and you're done!

Now, when you click that taskbar Explorer icon, Windows Explorer will open right to your folder of choice. Nice!