What are some fast methods for navigating to frequently used folders in Windows 7?

I use Autohotkey for a magnitude of things, navigation to my frequently visited folders being one of them.

The language can get quite complicated, but when doing basic things like this, it's fairly straightforward on how to add new hotkeys.

Example, open your Windows directory:

^!w::Run C:\WINDOWS

this would allow me to open explorer to C:\Windows by pressing Ctrl + Alt + w. You can make a multitude of these, just make a duplicate line in your AHK script and modify the hotkey sequence and directory:

^!w::Run C:\WINDOWS
^!s::Run C:\WINDOWS\System32
^0::Run C:\

A great overview of how to make hotkeys is here in the Hotkey Documentation. Feel free to email me for any extended discussion on AHK, if you don't feel like posting a bunch of questions!

I have used the Windows key + R to 'Run' the folder I want. The advantage is it is then in the history so the last folder I ran is at the top of the list of commands, and folders I ran longer ago are suggested as I begin typing the path to the folder I want. Not as complete a suggestion as John T's or Molly's, but simple and good for maybe a dozen favorite folders.

An alternative to Direct Folders is Folder Guide which is very good - it's simple to use and I haven't had any trouble with it. It uses about 7MB on my system. Simply right-click in Explorer or a fileselector and up it pops.

I also find Launchy useful too (which I've got indexing a directory of shortcuts to various things including other directories).