How-To Geek

Making Explorer use one template for all your folders with the columns you want.

Note to start with: this tutorial relies heavily on the two tutorials mentioned below, so the credit needs to go to Shawn:)
The two tutorials are
how to make Vista remember the settings in Explorer
and
on the use of foldertemplates.

A remark in one of the comments on the botom enabled me to use these two things to make explorer behave just like I want it to.

I had used part of it before, but found it difficult to find back what I had found the last time, so I thought I'd write up my own tutorial:)

Goal of this tutorial:
Give (almost) all folders the same template with the setting you like.

I like to be able to organize my icons by date, size or date modified, so an 'all items template' would be in order. But bummer, that comes with icons set as 'details' like this:

And I want large icons like this and some more options to sort:

Ok, one way to do this is to manually change the setting on any folder you want to change the template for, but that costs ages and any new subfolder you create you have to start the proces anew.
Really bugged me.

So following this tutorial I changed all my folders (well, except Pictures, Videos, Music etc. - you know , the ones the templates are based on) to a 'Pictures' template, so I had large icons all over.

That really improved my life <LOL LOL LOL>.

But yesterday I came across this tutorial and particularly the remark in one of the comments at the bottom:

1) Reset folderview settings by deleting some registry entries:
In
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
delete BagsMRU and Bags.
Same in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam

2)Disable Automatic Folder Type Discovery for Templates:
Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
And add the key Bags\AllFolders\Shell

Add in the righthandpane a value with the name "Foldertype"
and add the data you want - in my case 'Pictures'

Other options are (thanks to point 20 here):

3) restart or logoff and logon again.

4) Now comes the fun part. So you have all your folders using the same template. But that template is a standard template. And that is not what we want - we want our own preferences to prevail!

Create a new folder on your desktop, set the size you like and choose the template you like (picures in my case) and choose the columns you want.

Then I open FolderOptions in this folder! (Needs to be done in this folder or 'apply' will be greyed out).

Click on 'apply to folders' (in Dutch 'op mappen toepassen') and make sure 'Remember each folder's view settings' in checked (in Dutch 'de weergave-instellingen voor elke map opslaan'). Close the folder.

Glad you like it:)
It's been there in those tutorials all the time and it's been staring me in the face and I only realized yesterday what it was they exactly said <LOL>. All in all, Explorer isn't so bad after all <grin>.

Edit: now there's just one more thing I need to figure out: how to force a window to open on my default size and not Vista's default size <LOL>.
My existing links open my size (easy to do - just open a window by clicking on a link and resize to the size you want, then close the window and next time it will open in the size you want), but when a program adds shortcuts to new folders these will open the default size Vista decides, which is about half of the size I like them.
(So I don't mean I want to open them maximized or minimized, but a certain size so it won't cover all of my screen, but large enough to be able to actually see things in there <LOL>).

Oh Sarah, you are on overtime!!

LOL Mike - we posted together. And sure, most will have switched to 7 by now or have resigned to the way things work in Vista, but I like perfection ;)

(and I like reviving old posts LOL LOL LOL)