Folders

How do I get a folder to open up to the view I want every time. I don't want all the folders the same,some I want to open with large icons,some I want to open with details and I want it to remember that choice.
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Edit: I have Win7 home.

I don't have my Windows 7 booted up, but in Windows 8, I select "View" from the ribbon and choose which one I want. I have some folders set to open up to icons and some open up to details.

I have some stuff to do first, but I will boot into Windows 7 and see what it does there.

I choose the view,but it doesn't remember it.

Geo, I'm in my Windows 7 right now. I have a "slider" to choose my view. It seems that I can set separate folders such as Pictures or Documents to different options such as Small Icons or Details. But when I go to a sub-folder, it will be the same selection as the "parent" folder. Does that make any sense?

I have a little box in the top toolbar that has a drop-down menu. If I am in Windows explorer and for example I open a folder,(lets forget about sub-folders for now),and it is in Large icons,if I change it to details all is fine as long as I don't close WinEx. It is in details every time I go to it,however if I leave WinEx and go back to that folder it is now back to large icons. I am looking for some kind of save command somewhere.

I used to be able to do that with Windows 95 and 98. I'd set my default folder display to be "Details." Then for the few folders where I wanted large icons, I'd set them manually by closing them through the toolbar instead of clicking the X in the corner. And Windows 95/98 would remember how I'd last had them set. I never got this to work with Windows 7 though.

There's something called "Shell Folder Fix" that's described here
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/11687/shell-folder-fix-remembers-window-locations-in-windows-7/

And the actual download for "Shell Folder Fix" is at Sevenforums
http://www.sevenforums.com/free-develope...tions-size.html

As far as I can see, the interface to "Shell Folder Fix" doesn't actually allow you to save whether a certain folder opens with "Details" or "Large Icons" or some other view. However it does have a sort of workaround where you can save how a folder or group of folders is displayed as a "Workspace."

This doesn't mean there is no way to do what you're asking -- just that I gave up before finding the answer I wanted.

I found a discussion at ***sevenforums*** that suggests it should be possible to at least choose "small icons" "list" or "details" on a per folder basis.

Thanks I will check it out. Its not that big a deal anyway.

I believe what you're seeing are settings which tell IE this is what you want to see each time you access that folder. But it isn't something you've told Win 7. If you go into the folder, without opening IE, and set the icons to what you want, they should be the same when you open that folder again.

I think Homer means Windows Explorer, not IE. I'm going to boot into my Windows 7 and see if it works.

That sounds suspiciously like a registry issue. Windows XP had problems when more than (IIRC) 5000 folders were managed, but I thought that problem was resolved in Windows 7.

None the less there is a fix published by MS (which includes Windows 7 in its documentation). See if the fix below resolves you problem.

Changes to the size, view, icon or posi..., or Windows 7.

removed

I do not want to mess with the registry at this time. The problem is not that critical to me right now unless things get worse for some reason. Thanks for the input Collector but lets consider the matter closed for now.It is getting more complicated than I thought and appears to be a harder fix than I thought.I thought there was some kind of simple solution like a button that said "save view" or something like that.
Thanks,Geo

Well, I just came back from Windows 7 and I can set my folders to open in any view I choose and then stay in that view until I change the view manually. It doesn't matter if I use Windows Explorer or not. Strange.

Drac,
Do you mean you can set Folder A to display "Details", set Folder B to display "Large Icons", set Folder C to display "Small Icons" and Windows will remember that you want to view the different folders in different ways? So Folder A will always open as "Details", Folder B will always open displaying "Large Icons" etc.

My computer wants to display all folders the same way.

Yes. I tried changing them to open in different views and they always held. The onc exception is if a folder is a sub-folder. That sub-folder will always revert back to the setting of the "parent" folder.

I even rebooted just to say I did and they still held to all the different views I had set them for.

That's how it works for me Jenny - Folders and sub folders can be viewed in any different combination.

Geo, I don't blame you for not wanting to mess with the registry. It can however be backed up and restored (if a mistake is made).

Here's a how to - How To Backup the Registry in Windows 7

Nearly every folder on my computer is a subfolder though.

It seems if they are direct subfolders of say... Program Files(x86), they will stay as I set them.

I checked in Windows 8 and it doesn't seem to matter where a folder is located - directly under C:\ or Program Files or a subfolder or wherever... they all stay the way I set them.

If you right click the parent folder and select customize - is the "Apply this template to all sub folders" box checked?

Hmmm... I don't know. I'll have to check later. I downloading something to my Windows 8 right now and these two drives are in the same case.

My experience matches Jenny's. I started to respond earlier, but saw Island's link to an MS knowledge base page with a Registry fix for Win7. I deleted my post until I had a chance to explore this. It did not work as it should. Vista had similar issues, but a Registry fix works for it. The same Registry fix did not for Win7. I have been using "Shell Folder Fix" since Win7 was released, which works well and the only thing you need do is to drop a shortcut to it in your Start Menu's Start up folder. It is this inconsistent behavior on Win7 that lead to the development of "Shell Folder Fix".

That's interesting Collector, all of my Windows 7 rigs behave exactly the same (the ability to view folders and sub folders differently). Did you remove the Shell Folder Fix prior to running the MS fix?

Edit -

I believe I've been able to recreate your "view" behavior - reading one of the TechNet threads, it was mentioned that Windows 7 had issues retaining views for "Libraries". So, if I open Windows Explorer and select an entry under the library tree, I can modify the view, but Windows will not remember it. However, if I peruse to my user folders (from Computer), and select something like My Documents, the view can be modified and remembered.

It seems to only be an issue when navigating from Windows Explorer under the Library tree - which is something I rarely do.

Well, looks like I need to be edge-e-cated. Would someone mind explaining the difference between Windows Explorer and IE? My mind was thinking they were the same.

Windows Explorer lets you view the content of your PC, Internet Explorer browses the Web. If you enter a drive specification in IE it will open Windows Explorer and vise versa.

Thanks, Island, that gives me a clue. I don't use the "Libraries", but given how Windows keeps wanting to start browsing from the libraries, this might be the cause. It is probably the source of all the others that have the problem. The folders I care about are opened from shortcuts on the desktop. I'll have to play around setting paths in the shortcuts to see if that fixes it.

For those that do not want to mess around with the registry, I made a couple of REG files to automate it. One for x86 systems and one for x64 systems. I can post them later tonight after I get back home.

Thank you Inland for the explanation. I did a search for Windows Explorer and click on the folder that popped up in the search window. Strange, but I can't remember ever hearing the search function I use to find different folders on my PC called Windows Explorer. But going to Start then Computer I get that window.

While it makes perfect sense that the function to search your computer is Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer is used to wander the internet, I have had MANY people not aware of the difference. You are far from the first, Homer!

If you have the little Windows Explorer folder icon in your taskbar in Windows 7 (looks like a manila folder in a blue holder), when you hover over it, it says Windows Explorer. In Windows 8, they have changed it to File Explorer.

Sort of makes sense since Explorer is also the shell that creates the taskbar, start menu, etc., which they tried to hide on Win8 to force users to use Metro instead of Explorer's traditional desktop and start menu.

@Homer6, note that they are also two completely different programs. Windows Explorer is "explorer.exe" and is found in the base of the Windows directory. Internet Explorer is in the "%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer" folder. Also, on x64 systems you have two versions of IE. A 64-bit version in "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer" and a 32-bit version in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer".

Windows will not run without Explorer unless you set it to use a different shell. If you kill explorer.exe with the Task Manager, all of the desktop icons and the task bar will disappear as well as any open folders and any programs running out of Explorer will close.

When Windows 98 introduced the "Active Desktop" there was an attempt to merge the two, but there were some serious objections to this from a large number of users and it opened up security holes in the OS, so the Active Desktop was abandoned.

Anyone who has done tech support has encountered this many times.