Vista - Folder Window Icon Text - Hide or Show File Names

Thank you so much! It worked! I wasn't temporarily changing the folder template to be Pictures and Video instead of Music Details and then changing it back to Music Details once I had unchecked the Hide File Names. When I did this, IT WORKED! Boy, I spent hours and hours trying to figure this out before finally finding this forum.

Thanks so much!

Carolyn

You're welcome Carolyn. I'm happy to hear that you have got it sorted.

Shawn, for some reason all my desktop icon labels are hidden. Unlike you, I want them back!

I can't follow the instructions here to restore them. Step 2 says to change the Folder Type Template, and to do that I have to go into the Properties of the Desktop folder and click the Customize tab. Unfortunately, there is no Customize tab for the Desktop folder.

I read your other tutorial, "Desktop Icon Text - Hide or Show". I know that's only to hide or restore labels one at a time, but I tried it anyway. It didn't work.

Can you help? Thanks.

-- ShawnVW

Hello Shawn, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yeah, the Desktop folder is a bit harder to do this with, but this should get it for you:

Change the folder template from within the C:\Users\(user-name) folder to Pictures and Videos with the ...apply to all subfolders... option checked.

Now check to see if Hide File Names is unchecked in the C:\Users\(user-name)\Desktop folder.

Afterwards, change the folder template back to All Items for the C:\Users\(user-name) folder and subfolders.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I tried it, Shawn, but it turns out the Hide File Names was already unchecked. I tried checking it, then unchecking it, but nothing changed.

-- Shawn

Did you ever use this method to hide them prior?

Desktop Icon Text - Hide or Show

If not, then you might see if doing a system restore using a restore point dated before this happened may be able to fix it for you.

Hey, Shawn

I didn't do anything to hide the icon names. They were visible when I was using Vista, but disappeared when I upgraded to Windows 7. I tried the method you mention here (Option 2, Method 1), to see if I could restore them one by one, but it didn't work.

I don't have any System Restore points. Remember, this happened as soon as I upgraded to Windows 7, so any Restore points from Vista must have been wiped out.

-- Shawn

Oh, Windows 7 should be discussed at our sister site Seven Forums instead to keep this one on topic.

It sounds like it got corrupted during the upgrade. You can try a repair install to see if that may help. If not, you may need to do a clean install of Windows 7.