1. WANT to be able to have all folders of the same type have there icon changed based on latest icon used for that folder. An option could be offered to allow change for this folder only (or better allow multiple selections before entering properties and making changes. Offer choice to override ALL previous modified folders or only those using specific icon.
I’m wondering if you can help me out here. All of a sudden the view in my folders switched from two columns to three and it’s driving me crazy how to get it back to two. I’ve searched google for answers and but am not finding anything on this topic. I had on the left what’s on my pc and on the right the same thing. Now suddenly there’s a third column that says “Select a file to preview”. Any help in getting back to 2 columns would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Constantly resizing windows explorer columns, so I can see long file names, is really just a First World problem. That doesn’t stop it from being a serious annoyance every day, however. So, thanks for posting this.
I was adding the ‘dimensions’ column to folders showing images, but kept having to re-apply it; seems this has (hopefully!) fixed it – thank you 🙂
PS Just for some feedback, I don’t like your Captcha option: ads are ads, I get that – but captchas are enough of a pain in the a*se anyway, without having ads added to them, too 🙁
Well, this method works, but for reasons I can not figure out, the settings are frequently lost, i.e. I’m back to defaults.
Specifically, I killed all the type columns everywhere and set everything to general rather than picture, video etc. It works, but … gets reset ever so often.
How can I drag an email for example to a windows folder and automatically have windows insert the present date into the beginning of the file name without having to type same?
Is there a way to do this programatically? I have project folders that i have created metadata to show project manager and client. Would like to set this for the users so they dont have to.
Whenever I plug in an external drive, Win7 sets the template to something like ‘Music’. I have changed the Music template to Name, modification date, type and size, and on the local disk this works. However external disks still show ‘Artist’, etc. In the external disk, the folders don’t have the tab for the theme, and after resetting, the option to change all like this is greyed out. Is there a way to just completely disable the Themes? (I cannot install any software on this machine to replace explorer)
Perfect – thank you – this will save me so much time – I had to keep scrolling down to re-set seeing dimensions – now it is set for all – I am so grateful.
Yeah, but where are the default choices in the right click pane set from? I would like to change “Author” back to “Owner” as in xp style explorer. I don’t want to have to open another window and scroll down to and check the box for “owner”. It used to be available on the first right-click pane that came up in XP.
I am on a big network & I need to see the “owner” not the “author”.
hi thanks this is good info and it works so far but the further i drill down into the folders it stops working, also the step where you say to click apply to folders that tab is greyed out for me
Thanks for the tips, is it possible to save word documents by adding user name in the save as (automatically), i know that the user name can be obtained from the property window.
25 Responses to “How to configure the default viewing templates in File Explorer”
1. WANT to be able to have all folders of the same type have there icon changed based on latest icon used for that folder. An option could be offered to allow change for this folder only (or better allow multiple selections before entering properties and making changes. Offer choice to override ALL previous modified folders or only those using specific icon.
What If I want it to who only certain details in the details view automatically?
Finally got “Dimensions” as a permanent header in File Explorer.
Grateful thanks.
Ian
Happy to help. Do not hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter, for more useful tutorials.
Thank you, this just saved me a lot of time and stress as a slightly OCD personality who tried to do this manually. Thank you.
I have nothing under Control Panel named “Appearance and Personalization”.
thanks
I’ve been frustrated with having to redo my column choices each time I open my music folder. You’ve cut the Gordian knot for me. Thank you so much.
I’m wondering if you can help me out here. All of a sudden the view in my folders switched from two columns to three and it’s driving me crazy how to get it back to two. I’ve searched google for answers and but am not finding anything on this topic. I had on the left what’s on my pc and on the right the same thing. Now suddenly there’s a third column that says “Select a file to preview”. Any help in getting back to 2 columns would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Constantly resizing windows explorer columns, so I can see long file names, is really just a First World problem. That doesn’t stop it from being a serious annoyance every day, however. So, thanks for posting this.
This was very helpful. I needed to add Tags to my default detail view. Thank you!
You are welcome.
I was adding the ‘dimensions’ column to folders showing images, but kept having to re-apply it; seems this has (hopefully!) fixed it – thank you 🙂
PS Just for some feedback, I don’t like your Captcha option: ads are ads, I get that – but captchas are enough of a pain in the a*se anyway, without having ads added to them, too 🙁
Well, this method works, but for reasons I can not figure out, the settings are frequently lost, i.e. I’m back to defaults.
Specifically, I killed all the type columns everywhere and set everything to general rather than picture, video etc. It works, but … gets reset ever so often.
How can I drag an email for example to a windows folder and automatically have windows insert the present date into the beginning of the file name without having to type same?
Is there a way to do this programatically? I have project folders that i have created metadata to show project manager and client. Would like to set this for the users so they dont have to.
Whenever I plug in an external drive, Win7 sets the template to something like ‘Music’. I have changed the Music template to Name, modification date, type and size, and on the local disk this works. However external disks still show ‘Artist’, etc. In the external disk, the folders don’t have the tab for the theme, and after resetting, the option to change all like this is greyed out. Is there a way to just completely disable the Themes? (I cannot install any software on this machine to replace explorer)
thank you, this was very helpful!
It worked for me. But how do I put a folder (and its sub folders) back to default templates?
Perfect – thank you – this will save me so much time – I had to keep scrolling down to re-set seeing dimensions – now it is set for all – I am so grateful.
This does NOT work for ftp folder / drives. It always switches back to “tiles”. Noone needs tiles.
Windows doesn’t know how to customize this for FTP locations. You are stuck with “tiles”.
Yeah, but where are the default choices in the right click pane set from? I would like to change “Author” back to “Owner” as in xp style explorer. I don’t want to have to open another window and scroll down to and check the box for “owner”. It used to be available on the first right-click pane that came up in XP.
I am on a big network & I need to see the “owner” not the “author”.
hi thanks this is good info and it works so far but the further i drill down into the folders it stops working, also the step where you say to click apply to folders that tab is greyed out for me
Thanks for the tips, is it possible to save word documents by adding user name in the save as (automatically), i know that the user name can be obtained from the property window.