Windows 8 – How to Remove Libraries from Explorer Sidebar

There is no way to change these in Windows 7 directly.

However this LifeHacker article mentions an application called FindeXer that does allow customizing the side bar and is compatible with Vista. I am not sure if it will work on Windows 7 thought.

To Hide Quick Access,

1. Open File Explorer and go to View -> Options.
2. Under the General tab, change 'Open File Explorer to' from 'Quick access' to 'This PC'.

To Remove the Quick Access Feature Entirely

1. You’ll need to edit the registry for this procedure.
2. Hide Quick Access using the steps in the above section.
3. Once that’s done, click windows start button and type regedit, right click and run as administrator.
4. Navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}
5. Expand it, and right-click ShellFolder.
6. Select Permissions, and click the Advanced button.
7. In the 'Advanced Security Settings for ShellFolder' box, click the 'Change' link,
8. Then click 'Advanced',
9. Click the 'Find Now' button,
10. And in the 'Search results' box select 'Administrators'.
11. Click OK twice, then Apply, and hit OK until the boxes closes.
12. Make sure you allow Full Control (click)
13. Inside 'ShellFolder', double-click 'Attributes', and change data value to 'a0600000', then click OK.
14. With that done, reboot your PC.
15. When you open File Explorer next time, Quick Access should be gone.

To Turn the Quick Access Feature Back On

1. If you decide you want the feature back, repeat the process but change the ShellFolder attributes from 'a0600000' to 'a0100000', and click OK.

This solution worked for me, and was found here at betanews.