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Change folder views and options in Windows

Last modified: 2011-12-29 13:55:01 EET

Windows allows you to view folders differently - icons of different sizes are most suitable for photos and videos; details, tiles and list views are best for regular files (documents, spreadsheets, etc) and audio files. Windows tries to automatically guess the best suitable view for a folder according to its contents.

Common Tasks pane in Windows XP

Common Tasks in Windows XP display most used tasks for a file or folder type. Task list changes in accordance to what you are selecting or viewing. Tasks include copying, moving, renaming, deleting, publishing to web, sharing, printing, burning to CD, etc.
In newer versions of Windows, the pane has been replaced with context-sensitive toolbars. 

On the left is a folder in classic view and on the right is the same folder with Common Tasks enabled:
 

Common Tasks is enabled by default in Windows XP, but to turn it on later, open Tools menu and click Folder Options...:

Folder Options window opens with General tab active. The very first section is named Tasks, click Show common tasks in folders to enable the Common Tasks pane. Essentially, Use Windows classic folders disables the pane.
Click OK to activate changes.
 

Changing folder views and selecting, arranging and sizing columns in Details view

In all versions of Windows, you can just right-click an empty area of folder window and select an option from the View menu, or you can click the Views (Windows XP and Vista) or More options (Windows 7) button on toolbar and click any view type you like.
In Windows Vista and 7, you can also hold down Ctrl key on your keyboard and scroll mouse wheel up or down to change views. 
 

In Windows Vista and 7, there is also Preview Pane available that displays previews of  documents, photos and videos on the right side of Windows Explorer window.
In Windows Vista, click the Organize button on Toolbar, select Layout and click Preview Pane to show or hide it; in Windows 7 use keyboard shortcut ALT+P.

Showing or hiding columns in Details view

To select columns shown, right-click any column title and click an item to show or hide it. If an check mark is displayed to the left of an item, this column is available in the view.
In case the list of columns is too long to fit and you do not see the needed one, click More...:

Activate or deactivate any column using its check box. Note that you can also change the order and size of columns here by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons and the Width of selected column (in pixels) field, but it is easier to do this using your mouse (described later in this article).
After making changes, click OK.

Rearranging columns in Details view

You can always rearrange columns in Details view by clicking and holding on a column title. Then move the column to the right or to the left by moving your mouse. Accept changes by releasing mouse button.

Resizing columns in Details view

If using Details View, you can quickly resize all columns to fit contents using keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Plus Sign on Keypad. Using normal "+" key won't work here.
In Windows Vista and 7, you can right-click any column title and select Size Column to Fit or Size All Columns to Fit.

To change the width of any column, stop mouse pointer on the right side of a column so that the pointer changes to a cross with arrowheads pointing to the right and to the left. Now click and hold mouse button and move mouse to the direction you like. Release mouse button to confirm changes.

Grouping, sorting, stacking and filtering folder contents

In Windows XP, only grouping and sorting are available. Windows Vista and 7 add filtering capabilities and only Windows Vista allows stacking.

Most options are available by right-clicking an empty space of a folder window and selecting appropriate items from the Arrange Icons By (Windows XP) or View, Sort by, Group by and Stack by menus.
 

In Details view, you can quickly sort by any column just by clicking on its title. Clicking the column title again changes sort order. An arrowhead pointing up or down appears on the column title to show that the column is sorted in ascending or descending order.

Details view in Windows Vista and 7 also allows filtering of folder contents. Just click the down arrow mark on the right of a column name and select the item groups you want to see.
A check mark will be displayed to the right of a filtered column.
 

Changing viewing preferences of one folder with or without subfolders

Windows usually guesses the best view for a folder - it displays photos and videos as thumbnails, documents with details, etc. In mixed folders, this might not work correctly.
If you want to quickly change a folder type, you can right-click the folder and choose Properties.
Open Customize tab and choose a template from Use this folder type as a template (Windows XP and Vista) or Optimize this folder for (Windows 7).

In case you want to apply the preferences to all subfolders of the current folder, check the Also apply this template to all subfolders check box:

You can also choose an existing photo or video for folder picture by clicking Choose File... button. Please remember that the file has to in the same folder, not elsewhere!

To set a folder icon, click on Change Icon... button. You cannot use both folder picture and folder icon, only one of these is used at a time.

Choose an icon from Windows default icons and click OK. You can always restore a folder's default icon later by clicking the Restore Defaults button in this window.

Click OK to finish folder customization. Your folder should now appear as selected.

Applying viewing preferences to all folders at once

If you have a favorite view (say Tiles or Details) and you don't want to change view manually for every folder you are visiting, then there is a faster way.

NB! In Windows XP this affects absolutely ALL folders, in Windows Vista and 7 ALL folders of the same type, including any previously customized folder(s). You can still change their view individually later.

Open a folder in Windows Explorer (keyboard shortcut Windows Key+E) and customize the view to your likings. Open Tools menu (press Alt key in Vista and 7 to see the Menu Bar), click Folder Options..., go to View tab in Folder Options window and click Apply to All Folders (Windows XP) or Apply to Folders (Windows Vista and 7).
 

A Folder Views dialog window opens, click Yes:

If you've messed up badly, use the Reset All Folders or Reset Folders button in the View tab of Folder Options window to restore defaults.

Changing advanced folder options

Folder options are actually quite important in Windows. Microsoft has stubbornly hidden all file extensions by default since Windows 2000, although this allows spreading of malware. You see, people tend to use visual memory and remember file icons ("W" for Word documents, "e" for web shortcuts, etc), but this is very often misused by malicious programs that try to hide executable content behind common file icons. For plain security reasons, it is always recommended to turn the displaying of file extensions back on.
To open Folder options, press Alt key on your keyboard once. Then open Tools menu and click Folder options...:

In Windows 7, General tab of Folder Options window has Navigation pane options. Those who are accustomed to the list of all folders available can select both Show all folders and Automatically expand to current folder check boxes. Please note that activating these options will make Windows Explorer slower, especially when opening new windows!

Open the View tab and move to the Advanced settings list.
Windows XP users should always clear the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box, because this option often causes slowdowns in different programs and Windows Explorer.
In Windows Vista and 7, if your hard disk or computer is already slow, you can stop generating and displaying of thumbnails in folders that contain photos and videos by checking the Always show icons, never thumbnails box. This speeds up folder browsing.
Also in Vista and 7 only - in case you do not want to remember that pressing the Alt key reveals all menus, click to check the Always show menus box.
In Windows 7, you can hide all removable drives (such as readers for SD, MMC and CF cards) that have no disk inserted. The Hide empty drives in the Computer folder option controls this.
And the most important option here is the Hide extensions for known file types. Always clear this check box to stop opening malicious items by accident.
You should also check the Do not show hidden files and folders (Windows XP and Vista) or Do not show hidden files, folders, or drives and Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) boxes - this prevents accidental deletions of important settings, system files and folders.
  

Scroll downwards.
Click to select the Launch folder windows in a separate process box. This means that each Windows Explorer window is an independent process and if one window hangs (stops responding), you can safely continue working with other Windows Explorer windows.
In Windows XP and Vista, there is a separate option that controls storing view settings for folders. Always enable the Remember each folder's view settings option to keep folder customizations.
If you like to continue from where you left off after restarting your computer or logging off, check the Restore previous folder windows at logon box. This restores all open Windows Explorer windows after you log in the next time.
In Windows Vista and 7, leave the Show drive letters box checked, this helps identifying hard drives and removable drives.
If you want to, Windows Explorer can display compressed and encrypted items with an alternate color. To enable this, check the Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color box. This is not usually necessary unless you are a power user.
In case you don't like the pop-up descriptions while you hover mouse pointer over items such as Computer, Documents, etc, you can turn it off by clearing the Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items box.
In Windows Vista and 7, you can have check boxes for selecting files and folders instead of using mouse with Shift and Ctrl keys on keyboard. Those people can check the Use check boxes to select items box - this will display a check box in front of each item in Windows Explorer.
  

Click OK to save changes and close the Folder Options window.

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