Dealing With Windows Vista Explorer Screwing Up Auto-Detection of Folder Types
One of the few things about Vista that just drives me crazy is the problems with Windows Explorer. I prefer to use Details mode for certain folders, but it seems like Vista constantly "decides" that the folder should show a different set of columns than what I had previously chosen.
The problem is that Vista "Auto-Detects" the folder type for you, but it seems to always detect it incorrectly, and then your folder just stops showing the right columns…
Manually Resetting Folder Types
Normally this happens because Vista has detected the folder as the wrong type… you had a single music file in the folder so Vista thinks that it's a music folder and only displays the columns for music files instead… or worse, stops displaying columns altogether.
To reset this setting manually, you can right-click in the folder and choose "Customize This Folder…"
Then you can change the folder type drop-down to All Items instead of whatever it was set to.
You might have to reset the view to details mode or choose the columns you want after changing this setting, but it should hopefully stick.
Manual Registry Hack to Reset Folder Views
Windows Vista stores all of the display settings for each folder in a special location in the registry. Unfortunately these often seem to get corrupted somehow, which is the main reason everything goes haywire. If you want to reset the folder views you can delete the keys that store the view information.
Open regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then navigate down to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags
You'll see a bunch of keys with numeric names under the Bags key. You can attempt to find the one that matches the folder you are having problems with, and just right-click on the key and delete it. If you want, you can delete all of the settings, which will start you over with a blank slate.
Note: You could backup that section of the registry by right-clicking on the Bags key and choosing to Export. That way if you screw anything up, you can just restore the backup by double-clicking on it.
Using ExplorerView to Turn Off Auto-Detection
There's a small freeware application called ExplorerView that claims to be able to prevent auto-detection of folder types. In my limited testing so far, it seems to work correctly, but I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Download, install, and then launch the ExplorerView application. Check the box for "Disallow Explorer to Auto-Detect Folder Contents", and you are done.
Looks like the folder is back to normal again…
Thanks, auto dection is driving me crazy too!
Hey, thanks for that tip. That is one of the few things that annoys me about Vista. Oh, and the people that have never used it whining about how bad it is.
@Fred
You are so right about that =)
Have you ever tried an Explorer replacement? xplorer2 is great and they have a free, lite version. ExplorerXP is another good, free choice, as is XYplorer but it is $30. I like using these because they have tabs and dual panes. But if they crash, they save all the folders that were open. If Explorer crashes, it kills all the folders you had open, which is really annoying. Learning the keyboard shortcuts to these utilities make file management a breeze.
I noticed a particularly interesting quirk with Vista's folder settings. I have a folder named "Codecs" in my often used software folder. Vista modeled this folder after a contacts folder. I assumed that it had something to do with the name of the folder, since it was close to "contacts". I renamed the folder to "Software Codecs", and the view went back to normal.
Is Vista getting too smart? I feel now that it is watching me. Where can I order one of those home-made foil helmets?
The geek strikes again! Great article, that's been driving me nuts! I deleted the bags key and everything went back to normal.
I'm gonna try setting all my folders the way I want and then backing up the bags key so I can apply it later on if I have problems
My folders keep switching to Pictures folders and it's irritating to change them back. Really hoping this app fixes the problem. will report back
great tip as usual. this was my #1 gripe with vista and now it's fixed.
great tip!
I just made a registry file to delete the bags key, so whenever I have the problem I can just click on the reghack file. just make a reg file that has this:
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]
deleting the bags key also helps out when you have problems selecting files like when the select all doesnt work.
I've tried every tip regarding this problem and none of them cures the problem completely. Folders that display the way I want them will work one day then the next day they are back to displaying something I don't want.
Another good one! ExplorerView seems to do the job. Thanks. Keep 'em coming!
I also agree with Fred and the Geek. If someone asked me to go back to XP I would probably do something unmentionable to them!
"Windows Vista stores all of the display settings for each folder in a special location in the registry. Unfortunately these often seem to get corrupted somehow, which is the main reason everything goes haywire."
I think vista (and Win XP) have a predefined upper limit for the number of folders for which custom settings will be remembered. As soon as this limit is exceeded older entries are removed, this is the reason why the display settings seem to get "corrupted" for certain folders.
Hopefully this will work. Vista is so frustrating…(sigh)