Windows Explorer Folder View settings

How to Reset Windows Explorer Folder View Settings to Make Vista Remember​

   Information

Vista sets the Explorer window view settings and folder type template according to what folder types are in the window. This will show you how to reset the Windows Explorer folder view settings, turn off Automatic Folder Type Discovery, and increase the folder view cache to have Vista remember the view settings, folder type template, size, or position of a specific window for when it was last closed at the specific path location.

This does not work with the sub Save As, Open With, Open in New Tab (Internet Explorer), etc.... type dialog windows through the File menu bar item though. These do not seem to be able to have their size or position remembered. For these, you can use the free program AutoSizer to resize them.

   Note

• The Windows Explorer window pane Layout settings are universal for all window templates. These are the Search Pane, Details Pane, Preview Pane, and Navigation Pane. They can only be turned on or off for all windows with the same folder template. For example, the Music Details, Music Icons, Pictures and Videos, All Items, Contacts, and Documents.
• This will have no affect on the memory for the Open, Save, and Save As dialog boxes for having them open to the same location.
• External devices (EX: USB drive) will not retain their folder view settings when turned off or disconnected from the computer.

   Tip

It has been reported that installing the Vista SP2 has helped resolved this issue of Vista forgetting folder view settings for no apparent reason.

   Warning

The exact cause of Vista losing it's memory on your folder view settings has not been found yet. This may just reset them for now to help Vista remember them again. It has been noticed that changing a lot of window folder view settings in combination with some unknown applications settings may be triggering this forgetfulness. Make sure that you do not have a setting in a 3rd party program set to clear the folder view setting cache when it is used. (EX: CCleaner - Window Size/Location cache option under Cleaner -> Advanced)

METHOD ONE

Normal Way to Reset a Folder Type View Settings

   Note

This resets the folder view settings for all folders with this same folder template type back to the default view settings. You will need to use METHOD TWO below for Vista not remembering your settings for all the folder views.

1. Open Folder Options from the Control Panel (Classic View), and click on the View tab and Reset Folders button. (See screenshot below)​

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2. Click on Yes to the confirmation pop-up.​

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3. Click on OK to close Folder Options.​

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METHOD TWO

Reset All Folder View Settings to Make Vista Remember

   Note

• This resets all current folder view settings so they will be rebuilt when you restart.
• This will also bring back the Uninstall, Change, Repair, or Uninstall/Change buttons in Programs and Features if missing.

OPTION ONE

Automatically Using a REG File Download

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1. Click on the Download button below to download the Reset_Folder_View.zip file and save it to your desktop.

   Note

This .reg download includes and does all of the Manual section below for you automatically.

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2. Open the ZIP file and extract the Reset_Folder_View.reg file to your desktop.​

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3. Right click on the downloaded Reset_Folder_View.reg file and click on Merge.​

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4. Click on Run button in the Security Warning prompt.​

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5. Click on Continue in the UAC prompt.​

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6. Click on YES in the Confirmation prompt.​

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7. Click on OK in the Success prompt.​

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8. Go to step 29 in OPTION TWO below to finish wrapping this up.​

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OPTION TWO

Manually Through Registry Editor

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Reset Folder View Settings :​

1. Open the Start Menu.​

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2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.​

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3. Click on Continue in the UAC prompt.​

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4. In regedit, go to:​

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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

5. In the left pane, right click on Bags, and click on Delete. (See screenshot below)​

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A) Click on Yes in the confirmation pop-up window.​

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6. In the left pane, right click on BagMRU, and click on Delete. (See screenshot below)​

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A) Click on Yes in the confirmation pop-up window.​

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7. In regedit, go to:​

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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

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A) In the left pane, right click on BagMRU and click Delete. (See screenshot below step 8)​

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B) Click on Yes in the confirmation pop-up window.​

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C) In the left pane, right click on Bags and click on Delete.​

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D) Click on Yes in the confirmation pop-up window.​

8. In regedit, go to:​

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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam

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A) In the left pane, right click on BagMRU if here and click Delete. (See screenshot below step 8)​

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B) Click on Yes in the confirmation pop-up window.​

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C) In the left pane, right click on Bags if here and click on Delete.​

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D) Click on Yes in the confirmation pop-up window.​

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9. The registry will now look like this. (See screenshot below)​

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Disable Automatic Folder Type Discovery for Templates :​

CREDIT TO: Kristan Kenney: Confessions of a Windows Enthusiast

   Note

This will allow you to have what folder type template you set for the window instead of Vista automatically assigning a default template to it based on the contents of the window. This is when you have your folder template changed to Pictures and Videos from All Items when you put one image file in the folder.

   Note

OPTION: This is an optional section, but it is recommended. Steps 1-9 must have been done first before you do this section. If you decide to skip it, then go to step 21.​

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10. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)​

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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

11. In the left pane, right click on Shell and click on New and Key.​

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12. Type Bags and press Enter. (See screenshots below)​

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13. In the left pane, right click on Bags and click New and Key.​

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14. Type AllFolders and press Enter. (See screenshots below)​

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15. In the left pane, right click AllFolders and click on New and Key.​

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16. Type Shell and press Enter. (See screenshots below)​

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17. In the right pane of Shell, right click on a empty area and click on New and String Value.​

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18. Type FolderType and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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19. In the right pane, right click on FolderType and click on Modify.​

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20. Type NotSpecified (or one below) and click on OK. (See screenshots below)​

   Tip

You can type any one of these values in bold below instead to apply the template as the default for all folder types. You will still be able to change a individual folder type template to what you want and have Vista remember it afterwards.

   Tip

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Value	Description
NotSpecified	All Items folder type template
Contacts	Contacts folder type template
Music	Music Details folder type template
MusicIcons	Music Icons folder type template
Documents	Documents folder type template
Pictures	Pictures and Videos folder type template with large icons

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Increase Folder View Cache Memory :

   Note

This will increase the amount of folders to be remembered for changes to the folder view settings.

   Note

OPTION: This is a optional step, but the increase will help ensure that Vista does not forget. Steps 1-9 must be done first before you do this section. If you decide to skip it, them go to step 25.​

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21. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)​

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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

22. In the right pane, right click on BagMRU Size.​

NOTE: If you do not have the BagMRU Size value, then right click on a empty space in the right pane and click on New and DWORD (32-bit) Value. Type in BagMRU Size and press enter.​

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23. Click on Modify.​

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24. Dot the Decimal and type 20000 (folders) and click on OK. (See screenshot below)

   Note

5000 is the default number of folders to be remembered.

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Deleting Local Group Policy Setting :​

   Note

This will show you how to check to see if this Group Policy setting has been set to not save the position of open windows or the size and position of the taskbar when users log off, and to delete if it is so that the changed will now be remembered at exit.

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25. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)​

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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer​

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26. In the right pane, look to see if you have NoSaveSettings. If you do, then right click on NoSaveSettings and click on Delete and Yes to confirm deletion. (See screenshot above)​

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27. In regedit, go to:​

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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer​

28. Repeat step 26 if you have NoSaveSettings here as well.​

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Wrapping it Up :​

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29. Close regedit.​

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30. Log off and log on,or restart the computer to apply the reset and to let Vista rebuild the registry keys with a clean slate.​

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31. Open Folder Options.​

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A) Click on the View tab. (See screenshot below)​

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B) Check Remember each folder's view settings.​

   Warning

If left unchecked, Vista will ignore custom view settings for every folder and have every folder open using default settings instead. Only, uncheck this setting to force all folders to stop using display settings you have specified.

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C) Uncheck Restore previous folder windows at logon.​

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D) Click on OK.​

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32. Make the changes you want for the opened Windows Explorer windows.​

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33. To Apply These Changes to All the Same Folder Type Templates ​

   Tip

For more information on folder templates, see: How to Choose and Customize a Folder Type Template and Columns in Vista and How to Change the Windows Explorer Columns and Sort Order in Vista

A) Open Folder Options​

WARNING: Folder Options must be opened from within the same Windows Explorer window that you are changing or the Apply to Folders button will be grayed out.​

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B) Click on the View tab. (See screenshot below step 31D)​

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C) Click on the Apply to Folders button.​

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D) Click on Yes in the confirmation prompt.​

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E) Click on OK.​

34. To Apply Changes to Just this Window Template​

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A) Close the window when you make your changes to the Windows Explorer window to save the folder view settings for just that one window.

   Warning

Vista will only remember the way it is when you last closed the window.

35. To Apply Changes to All Window Templates​

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A) In step 20 above, you can change the default folder template used of (NotSpecified) to what you want instead for all folder templates without having to restart the computer again.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Back Up and Restore Your Folder View Settings in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Change a Windows Explorer Folder Type Template in Vista
• How to Change a Default Open Window Size for a Shortcut in Vista
• How to Change Windows Explorer Default Open Location
• How to Use the Windows Explorer Address Bar in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable the Menu Bar in Vista
• How to Change the Windows Explorer Columns and Sort Order in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable Folder Options in Vista
• How to Turn the Preview Pane On or Off in Vista
• How to Turn the Navigation Pane On or Off in Vista
• How to Change the Sort Order for Numbers in File and Folder Names in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable Auto-Hide for Vista Explorer Full Screen F11
• How to Hide or Show File Names in Vista
• How to Disable Auto Arrange in Vista Windows Explorer to have Free Sorting

 

[chunnel]

Thank you for your quick reply. I actually did the download first and rebooted and had the same lack of a result. However, I just went to How to Choose a Folder Type Template :
and was successful. Thank you. For some reason the inability to have the folders display properly was a source of stress for me.

 

[Brink]

LOL Chunnel,

I know how you feel. I'm not happy until I get it the way I want it to.

Glad to hear you got it set the way you want it. Thank you for the feedback.

Shawn

 

[periboob]

Thanks for a great resource Shawn. This folder layout problem is maddening, but I suppose I am going to run across more than a few of those before I get Vista trained (or revert to XP).

Most folder layouts, I could adjust, just learn to live with it. But I have one, that I have used in XP for years, sort of a subsittute desktop, with a shortcut to it on the Quicklaunch. It is one of my main entry points to everything else. About 40 medium sized icons, arranged in clumps, according to function (in XP, I even had a background image). At first XP would lose the layout there, but I found a patch similar to yours that increased the cache limit, and since then, it has worked for me for years.

I used your REG download to run the changes, then went back and checked the registry change results against your alternate procedure. Looks like it worked fine. And all was well for about 3 days. Then, something happened to trip it back to details view. (Back to regedit)

What we all need is a way to get a folder layout set "correctly" than lock it from future changes. I was hopeful that your tip on setting folder attributes to "read-only" would do it, but apparently, you dont need write-access to the folder to change its layout.

Vista has a lot of nice new features that dont get mentioned much, like the stability and performance monitoring, but they seem largely of interest for serious geeks. If it were not for sites like yours, the migration would be much more frustrating. Thanks again.

 

[Brink]

Hi Periboob,

Welcome to the forum.

I wish I knew exactly what was causing Vista to forget the folder view settings, but I only know how to reset it so Vista will remember again. Strange thing is that I very rarely have Vista forget mine. Perhaps this is why I cannot find the cause.

I would keep the download or link handy so you could easily reset it when needed.

Thank you,
Shawn

 

[niGht kiD]

DDD... Finally found a way to fix this annoying problem!!! Thanks again & again Shawn

 

[Brink]

Your welcome niGht kiD.

 

[periboob]

Just a crumb of info for your investigations Brink. My folder for which I really want to keep a custom layout is still forgetting. But here is the thing--When I access this folder from my quick launch bar icon, it is details view. Same thing from the Explorer "Favorite Links"--click the "favorite link" for it, I get details view. But when in Explorer, I climb down the folder tree in the "Folders" pane, to click the same folder, I get my customized view, medium sized icons, unsorted, not aligned to grid,...

So, the "memory" of a folder's layout, is, as near as I can tell, an invalid concept. At least, there are "a set of memories" of folder layout. So that the layout of a folder is dependent on whether or not a shortcut (or perhaps which shortcut) was clicked to get to that folder. !?!

I have no clue whats going on--dont know how it is being done, nor why anyone would want to do something like this.

 

[Brink]

Hi Periboob,

Thank you for the information.

I was able to reproduce this with the user folder Documents.

From the Start menu and Favorites; I had the Documents older set to Medium icons. It was not so from the C:\Users\(username)\Documents location like yours. It was still set to Details.

When I changed the view settings at C:\Users\(username)\Documents to Medium icons and closed it, all of them opened as Medium as expected.


My guess is that this has something to do with the NTFS symbolic links with the hidden My Documents as the junction point for the Documents folder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link

It causes them to have a separate view memory instead of one like a normal shortcut to a folder.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[periboob]

That sounds like a good explanation. I am just getting my feet wet in the Junction/Sym-Link swamp. Now that you mention it, I think I remember that I changed a folder-icon somewhere (maybe FavoriteLinks?) and it did not change everywhere I expected it to.

I think it was a mistake for MS to release Junctions on the unspecting public without a little training. It is one thing to have the new power-tools hidden in obscure command-line utilities, but Junctions and the effects seem to be sprinkled around the GUI where the average user can slice their fingers off.

I know folks who are just getting comfortable with Shortcuts, this may cause some severe stress problems.

 

[drummer]

Shawn,

Thank you so much for discovering how to reset the folder views, so that what I specify, Vista actually remembers. Also, thank you for doing such a thorough job on showing us how to do it.

Just a few hours ago, I followed your directions, and so far, Explorer/Documents has been holding steady! Very nice.

There is one correction I would like to add to your directions under "Increase Folder View Cache Memory". At least for my Vista registry, I needed to follow a slightly different path than you show. My path was: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell.

I was able to locate the BagMRU Size by doing a Find search.

Cheers, Andy

 

[Brink]

Andy,

Very nice catch. Indeed it is located there by default.

Thank you for providing the correction. That should help Vista remember even better. The tutorial has been updated to reflect this.

Shawn

 

[niGht kiD]

Shawn,

I found two BagMRU Size at
1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU Size
(which stevencn70 mentioned)
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
(which drummer mentioned)

So I have to change both the values to 20000?

 

[Brink]

niGht kiD,

I would just change the one in the tutorial since it was tested and worked fine. I did a reinstall to locate the default location. It's the one in the tutorial now.

Shawn

 

[niGht kiD]

Ok. Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Your welcome.

 

[mvirtue]

Hey Brink,

First of all, congratuations on an excellent tutorial. Very thorough. I applaud your generosity in creating it and sharing it with the rest of us. I've been chasing solutions to this problem off and on for several months now, and your tutorial is the most comprehensive one out there!

Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

I should mention that I'm a VERY experienced user/tinkerer with Windows - all versions, including Vista. I have no problem messing with the registry. I followed ALL of your instructions in the tutorial (just to be sure). I remembered to log off and log on again afterwards.

Then I set about customising my hundreds of folders. It took about an hour. By the time I was finished, the first ones I'd customised had already forgotten their settings. I randomly visited folders to see what the extent of the forgetfulness was, and it appeared to be random. Most folders were fine, but about 10% were forgotten. There didn't appear to be a pattern to it.

I just thought I should let you know.

Thanks again,

Mark.

 

[periboob]

Hi Mark, It just might be that users who are more experienced, who delve into things, would hit this flaw more often than folks who just use the "desktop" and dont even know there is a "C:" drive.

I thought mine was still breaking also, but I am finding that it seems to just depends on the "path of approach".

I have a folder, for example, Computer\C:\users\[user]\Extra
that I have customized. And it will stay customized as long as I go there to open it. But, if I look at the top of the Explorer folder-tree, "Desktop" and from there open Desktop\[user]\Extra, it opens the "same" folder, but the format customizing that folder is not displayed. For myself, I have just put a a shortcut to Computer\C:\users\[user]\Extra on my Quick-launch bar, and as long as I approach it from there, it is fine...

As Brink mentioned earlier, it seems to be this Junction/Symbolic-Link type of object causing it. I keep planning to run some tests to see if I can find a way get the customizations running in parallel, but for now this "always approach from the west" technique is satisfying me, and there are many other bugs to hunt down.

I would be interested if your lost customizations are shown if you open the folders from above AND below the drive-letter.

 

[mvirtue]

Thanks Periboob. I was aware of the nuance of the differing paths to approach a folder. Vista appears to store TWO sets of settings for a folder if there are two "paths" that you can take to get to it.

Unfortunately, my problem is not caused by that. I actually only ever use one "approach" to get to each of my folders.

Sigh.....

 

[Brink]

Mark (Mvirtue),

Welcome to the forum.

If you set the setings back to what you wanted, does Vista remember them again? If you can remember, do you know at what point or what folder you changed when it forgot your other one? When it forgot your other folder settings, did it replace them with the last one you changed, or was it a random template?

Shawn

 

[mvirtue]

Hi Shawn,

If you set the setings back to what you wanted, does Vista remember them again?

Ultimately no. It seems to remember them straight away, but after a while (and I can't define a while - after many visits to other folders), a folder will have changed that I'm certain I set the way I wanted it.

If you can remember, do you know at what point or what folder you changed when it forgot your other one?

I can't say. I went through the process of changing all my folders, and when I got to the end I went back to the beginning. A few (not all) of the first folders had forgotten their settings. I have no way of knowing at what point those folders forgot their settings.

When it forgot your other folder settings, did it replace them with the last one you changed, or was it a random template?

I didn't notice any pattern. Sometimes it was simple, like "List" being replaced with "Details" (which could have been a very recent change I'd made to another folder), but I also noticed a "Details" view change so that the only column shown was the filename (no date, no size, no type). I NEVER set a view like that manually.

I hope this helps...

(and thanks again)

Mark.