Vista - Windows Explorer Folder View settings

These tutorials:
Windows Explorer Folder View settings
Folder Options
Windows Explorer - Folder Type Templates
Shortcut Default Open Window Size

..all gone through now but I'm STILL having the same problem I've spent 48 straight painful hours trying to solve. I beg you to solve this for me. I'm losing my mind!

I've googled every forum there is, all with the same result: Lot's of threads with the same question, though no solutions that work for me. I am losing it and I really hope this forum can help me fix this setting in Vista.

I got a Dell XPS M1530, running Vista Ultimate 32bit.

I can see many explain the same problem. You open a window in Vista such as "My pictures" or what ever, and the window that opens open in a non maximized state (800x600 or something I think I could read here somewhere). For me the best example I can give is when I open a folder going through the start menu (for example accessories, Administrative tools, Games etc.), everything I click is opened in a small window (unless I've been there before and maximized it manually and closing it so Vista remembers it so that next time it's maximized. Oh, that’s great right? Well problem is there are thousands of folders and such in a computer and I do NOT want to have to do that every single time. Every time there's a new folder I haven’t opened before and I open it for the first time, I have to maximize it. Every single time…..I am going crazy!

Solutions I found on the web regarding this but which is NOT working for me:

1. Open a new window (which isn't maximized), maximize it by using the maximize button, hold shift while closing window.
2. Same as above but holding ctrl + closing window.
3. Open a new window (which isn't maximized), maximize it by dragging the window to i.e. full size, hold shift while closing window.
4. Same as no. 3 but with Ctrl + closing window.
5. Tried all 4 above with ctrl+shift+closing window.
6. Crate/locate a shortcut, in properties choose Maximized under "run", then close.

All these results in the same, only the folder I am closing is remembered to be maximized. Everyone I haven't visited before is the small size I now so deepy hate.

What I want:

It’s simple. Anything I doubleclick, any folder, any program, what ever, ANYTHING, I click it and it should OPEN AS A MAXIMIZED WINDOW. As you probably remember, this is how it works in XP. How can they change something so elementary and then make it freaking impossible to redo. I mean, a simple “open new windows as maximized” in the “Tools – Folder options”, is that too much to ask if they absolutely had to change something like this? What were Microsoft thinking?

I would just love if someone could tell me to just go somewhere and tell my OS to open new windows maximized. That would just completely make my day.

And I noticed that a bunch of the replies on the net on this issue replies with explanations on how to get IE7 to open windows maximized. Yes I had the same problem with IE too, but that one was solvable (if that's a word) and every window I open in IE now maximizes. Amazing, right? Is that just too much to ask Vista to be able to do? Do I really have to reinstall Windows 95 - Windows XP to be able to do this?

Please help me! Appreciate anyone who will help prevent my soon to become ulcer due to this......

No reply's yet.....Am I the only one bugged with the fact that the windows don't open maximized? Am I the wierd one all alone hating this, and in fact it's not changeable?

Man I hope I don't have to force my self to accept this issue.....

I can provide a fix for this via a registry setting if you give me a weeks time. I don't have the file anymore (as far as I can tell from a check I just did), so I will have to PM a member of a separate forum I am a member of and ask him for it.
The reasons for the weeks time is that I was just banned as of half of an hour ago for trolling, and I have seven days to become a better member

So from this reply I understand/assume that there is no setting for this somewhere in Vista? I'm just so amazed that not more people react to this? I'm wondering, anyone of you, when you used Vista for the first time and opened a couple of windows and every time it was not maximized, but a 800 x something pix, you just thoght: "Oh that's ok, I'll just maximize manually every time. No problem". Did you (and still are) think like that? A penny for your thoughts on this one. I just have a really hard time accepting that everybody else don't think it's a problem, even though the last 8-9 OS before this (let's face it, EVERY OS before this) has opened the folders and windows maximized at default. How can you adapt so quickly to such a huge difference (I think it's huge, and I'm a few seconds from reinstalling XP due to this). Is everybody running 1024x768 or 800x600 resolution or something? Man I'm feeling wierd about this

Ok BladedThesis, thanks for offering your help. Let me know in a week if you were able to get that file.

No offense, but it also depends on how you open the window.

I use the Windows key shortcut to open explorer rather than clicking on shortcuts or right clicking on a folder and select explore, so I get a full screen window all the time. All it took for me was to use the Win + E shortcut, the Explorer window opened, and then I maximized it and closed it . Now that Explorer windows opens full screen on my main monitor.

To be honest, with as many people as are registered here, I would say it is a safe bet that not everyone wants the explorer window to open full screen / maximized all the time - there are plenty of times that I want to be able to move it to the side and use it to find a path to an object, for example, so that I can paste it into a forum post. Other examples like this can ensue as well.

Here is another test - I clicked Start, then typed and it opened a smaller window. I maximized it and closed it, Then I did the same - and it opened in a full screen / maximized window. Now, this got me curious.

So, I minimized everything on my desktop, and then proceeded to click on My Computer, My User Folder, Control Panel, Network and Recycle Bin (all of which I have set to show on my desktop). The last three didn't open full screen - so I maximized each of them and closed all three of them.

Guess what? All three next opened as full screen.

Now, I have not rebooted (yet) and don't know if they are going to stick - but after I get done answering other posts I'll be happy to reboot and check to see if the settings stuck.

Non taken johngalt....

But my windows also open as maximized after I have maximized them, closed them, and then opened them again. That wasn't the issue. Also when I open explorer the window is maximized. Again, not the issue here.

I never said everybody wants to have windows maximized. I too use smaller sized windows all the time in many of my daily computer tasks/operations. I just felt alone on this issue. That's the total opposite as "everybody"! I was on the contrary hinting/asking if nobody else but me was pulling out their hair over this?

I guess I just have to deal with the fact that new windows (never opened before and remembered by Vista as maximized) will open as small size if you click directly in to them i.e. using shortcuts in the start menu and not clicking in to the folder from a maximized window such as i.e. explorer.

What ever! I see I don't have a choice. Too bad I also hate a substantially higher number of things in the Apple OS, or this would be a perfect time to swap. Say, when is the next version after Vista coming?

Ahhh - OK, the blindness has left my eyes.

You want windows maximized *the first time* you run them. Now that I know that I can answer why it is not happening:

• The default size of windows is sometimes set as a maximum - think popups in Internet explorer - if you close all IE windows and then the popup last, chances are that IE will next open in a size that conforms to that last closed window. But since there is no default size if you've never opened a particular window, I think programmatically it starts out using a default size, which looking at things seems to be between 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 (I have an onscreen ruler but am too lazy to check that).
• Some applications force a size until the user has said otherwise in their code - hence some really weird shapes for apps that open first time - and because some apps also look goo funky in full screen mode, I'd say that opening all windows in full screen mode can actually be a bad thing - especially a stay on top window that doesn't contain / has had removed the minimize and resize controls so it is either open or closed - imagine that - an application that is set to run on top of all other windows that opens maximized and that you can only get out of your way by closing - but that you in actuality need open and *not* maximized so as to refer to it with another window - without those minimize and resize controls, you're SOL....

(as another one of those annoyances along the same lines as yours - just a WTF kinda thing: I just spell checked my post, and the friggin word "resize" was not found in the dictionary and so Fx asked me to correct it....)

Hehe....aah the good old dictionary confusion game. Been there, done that. As a non English speaker (by “mother tongue”) I often scratch my head over such spelling "errors"

Anyway, I guess "SOL" means "so out of luck"? If so, then yes indeed I am waist deep in bad luck. Damn it! I can't stop hating this no maximized window situation. It really sucks.

But let me ask you another thing then, is there a check spelling software which can check spelling in text boxes (such as the one I'm typing in now) on forums and such? You mentioned Fx. I always copy/paste in to MS word to check the spelling before I post. Sounds like maybe there is an easier way?

Use Firefox.

Funny you say that becuase I actually downloaded Firefox today (for the first time). Building two websites and needed to check the compability. Anyway, didn't immediately fall in love with it. Personally I preffer to use Opera, but too many websites functions poorly with both Firefox and Opera so I tend to fall back to IE where you don't experience these bugs here and there (usually amature websites, but still.....).

Anyway, thanks for the tip