IE7 Favorites Dropdown Menu won't collapse

I have reinstalled my OS.
Since then, my IE7 Favorites list (the dropdown menu that expands when clicking
Favorites on the Menu Bar) opens in full length.
The "Enable personalized favorites menu" option in Internet Explorer 7 does not hide my less frequently used favorites as expected any more.
Is it a question of time until the list collapses and expands (I mean Vista learns my
habits) or is it an issue that can be resolved?
If you have any ideas please send a quick reply!
Thank you

Hi Raymundka,

Sorry, but that is not a feature in IE7.

Shawn

Shawn,
Thanks for answering.
I would believe you if I just haven't had this feature before.
I made the previos OS installation in August 2007 and this feature started just about
two month ago. It became active not much after I upgraded to IE8 and then
downgraded to IE7 a few days later. I was very surprised because the collapse
feature was quite new to me as well after using IE7 (XP and Vista) for a long time
ever since it's first beta release.
Unfortunately I had an issue of different nature which made me decide to reinstall
Vista and now the feature is gone.
Actually I have an Acronis image of my drive C: so I can restore it and even make
screenshots to proove that the feature did exist just in case anyone doubts it.
Thank you anyway!

Hi raymundka,

As Shawn says, this is not a feature in IE7. However, this could be what you are looking for. Left click on 'Tools' and select 'Internet Options'. Click the 'Advanced' tab. Under 'Browsing', click to put a tick in the checkbox 'Close unused folders in History and Favorites' (see screenshot below). Note that this option is marked with an asterisk (*) which means that the browser needs to be restarted in order for this change to take effect.
Dwarf

Hi Dwarf,

Thank you for your intention to help me.
As you can see, my options are set exactly the way you advised.
Actually, this was one of the first things I tried before I started this thread.
Unfortunately it doesn't work.
The collapse function is a feature of IE7, only it's one of the buggiest ones
even admitted by Microsoft.
I think the reason almost everybody thinks this feature doesn't exist is
that it's not working for 99 per cent of Windows users.
I was also surprised to see it working on my pc.
Please check these links out:

Enable Personalized Favorites Menu Feature Does Not Take Effect Immediately

The "Enable personalized favorites menu" option in Internet Explorer 7 does not hide your less frequently used favorites as expected

Hi raymundka,

Thanks for the reply. Looking again at your earlier post, I see that you briefly upgraded to IE8 and then reverted back to IE7 and the feature became active around this time. It is possible that this is a bug in IE7 which has been fixed in IE8. You can repeat this to see if it solves your problem. I intend to upgrade to IE8, but only when the final version is released.
A question for you. What version of IE are you using? The reason I am asking this is because you have a couple of extra options on the 'Advanced' tab, viz 'Display Activity button on selection' and 'Enable automatic crash recovery'. None of my reference books mention either of these options.
Dwarf

Actually it is 8. I've installed it first - just because my way of thinking is similar to yours - to downgrade and see if the feature starts working.
I reverted back to 7 but the dropdown list opened in full length, not only the frequently visited favorites. So I restored my system to the state when I had IE8 and now I take some time to get used to this build and will let it run for about a week or two to see if the favorites behaviour changes. I didn't want to downgrade again just in order to take a screenshot. IE8 has a nicer interface and lots of new features especially for web developers. It's pretty buggy even though.
I understand if you want to wait for a newer version.
You don't risk much, however , if you install it now. You can use the Vista anytime downgrade feature! It's an update that can be uninstalled, I mean