Vista - Open a Folder in the Same or Separate New Window

Thank you Viking, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

I've found out the reason why mine was opening in a new window even though I changed my settings and had the view pane on and off.

I checked the registry and saw that in the following folder:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > Folder > shell

had both folders 'explore' AND 'open'.

On removing the 'open' folder (after backing it up of course) my folders now open in the same window.

I still do not understand why this happened though.

I hope this helps as well as Viking's post.

Hello Felix, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Thank you for sharing your findings.

As a test, if you set it to open folders in separate windows in Folder Options now that you have remove that key, does it still work for you.

Ha!! No it doesn't!! lol.. Good job I backed up that section of the registry :S:S at least I know I don't have to open in a new window everytime

That's what I was thinking would happen. I'm glad that you backed that key up in case you ever wanted it again.

Yes, exactly.. So there it is.. The issue is still a mystery..

I will restore the registry later and see if the issue persists or if it wants to fix itself.

Ok, please keep us informed of your results.

Start RegEdit and go to
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\,
mark and delete the whole subtree “Explorer”.
Then log off from Windows and log in again.
The Explorer subtree will be regenerated with defaults.
This worked for me. And I can also change the setting for opening windows in a new window on and off without any troubles. But keep in mind that opening in a new window only works if the folders tree in the left pane is minimized.


Good luck

Oliver

Hey,

I am now having this problem also after just doing the most recent windows updates

I have tried system restore but the problem has not gone away

I have tried adjusting the Folder Shell in the registry as suggested in the link

I have tried deleting the "open" folder in the registry (after backing up). This partially worked. It would open one subfolder in the same window, but if i went to open up a subfolder of that opened subfolder, than it would then open in a new window, so i just replaced the "open" folder

I have tried deleting the explorer subtree and restarting, and apart from resetting all of my personal preferences, it did not fix the issue, so i just replaced the backup version of the explorer folder

Just so its said, no the navigation pane is not open, and yes i have checked the folder options and tried restarting with various settings with no luck

If anyone has more ideas please post them up, i'm not willing to operate with this interface for long, cant do it!!

Firstly, thanks for the problem solving!

However, this seems like a week point in design. Why make it so that the each-folder-in-its-own-window function cannot work simultaneously with having the Navigation Pane active? There does not seem like any reason why these features could not be used in tandem.