Vista - The column bar containing Name, Date Modified, Size does not appear in many folders

The column bar which shows Name, Date Modified, Size etc. and allows to increase or remove columns for other items like duration etc. does not appear in many folders. I tried to reset to default, apply to all folders when it does appear but nothing seems to help. How do I get the same back. I cannot change the width of the column to display the full name by double clicking on the edge of the name or sort on size or date modified etc. due to this.
Any help will be appreciated.

Hello Evfu,

Applying METHOD TWO in the tutorial below will reset the folder view settings and should fix this for you.

Windows Explorer Folder View settings

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Shawn,

I appreciate your help but unfortunately it has not worked. I have attached a screen image to show what is happening.

When I click on My Computer, I see C and D drive and also the columns Name, Type, Total Size and Free Space (see attachment VistaFolderViewCorrect.jpg). When I click on D drive, it shows me the contents without the above (see attachment VistaFolderViewWrong.jpg).

This is very frustrating as I cannot see full name and I have no way of double clicking the edge of Name column to display full name (as the column headers do not display at all).

What else could be wrong.

Thanks in advance

Evfu

Evfu,

Are you able to change the folder template to details for that drive?

Windows Explorer - Folder Type Templates

Hi Brink,

I can apply the folder type templates to All Items but the problem is I cannot see the column headers in either My Computer or even in Users. Even after applying the folder template to Details for that drive it does not help at all.

Any other pointers on what could be wrong ?

Regards,

Evfu

Evfu,

As a test, do both steps 2 and 4 in OPTION TWO of the tutorial below. When you first open the D: drive see if there is a "desktop.ini" file there. If there is, then delete that file to see if it helps. If there was one to delete, then you may need to restart to apply.

Hidden Files and Folders

Hi Brink,

I did try the steps 2 and 4 of OPTION TWO. In fact, that is how I always have my folder view settings. The changes that I normally do to folder options are as follows and that was ON from the time I got Vista two years ago.

- Always show operating system files
- Always show hidden files
- Always show extensions for all files
- Launch folder process in a different window

I also do not see desktop.ini in C:\, D:\. But I do see it C:\Users. Should I delete the one in the C:\Users

Regards,

Evfu

No, you wouldn't want to delete that one. The steps were just to be able to see the desktop.ini file though.

I must admit that I'm stumped as to why you can see the columns in C: but not in D: .

I apologize if my statement was confusing.

I cannot see column headers in C
I cannot see column headers in D
I cannot see column headers in C:\Users
I also cannot see the column headers in many other folders. Cannot figure any trend.

I can see the column headers in My Computer
I can see column headers for many folders. Cannot figure any trend yet.

Thinking of a file manager now.

The only other way to fix this is most likely by doing a clean reinstall of Vista though.