Help with stupid Win XP problem?

October 23, 2005 3:46 AM

There a stupid bug in Win XP, which means that it forgets how you have a folder formatted to look. Apparently it can only remember 50 or so folders, so if you change 51 folders, the first folder you changed gets reset. And so on. Anyone know a way around this, as it's driving me mad..
posted by ascullion to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

are you talking about icons or remembering the organization structure?
posted by k8t at 4:07 AM on October 23, 2005

I think he means the display configuration: sorting, icon size, etc, that you can have Windows Explorer remember on a per-folder basis. I never use it, so I never realized there was a limit.

Ascullion, you could always get a Windows Explorer replacement. I've never tried any, so I can't really suggest one in particular.
posted by Plutor at 4:40 AM on October 23, 2005

Best answer: TweakUI. Explorer > Customisations > Folders to remember
posted by blag at 4:53 AM on October 23, 2005

You can configure the number of customized folders Explorer should remember with the TweakXP powertoy. Set it to as high as you like. However, the default value was probably chosen for performance reasons so don't go wild.

I tend to come up with a default setting that I like and use the "Set all folders to this" button. That way most folders show up the way I want, and I only have to change that in a few cases. If you find that you're constantly changing the layout then you should consider modifying the default instead.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:54 AM on October 23, 2005

Best answer: I've done quite a bit of research on this. The fixes I've applied have only been marginally successful on my most recent work machine, but they've worked on others.

Here's the fix from Microsoft.

Here's a reg fix from Kelly's Corner. Save the file, double-click, and choose to import the reg settings. Here's another reg change for saving settings on exit, which my research said might help.

Good luck with this one--if it sticks, it can be a bear.
posted by frykitty at 8:44 AM on October 23, 2005

as a slight aside from this, would anyone know how you change the default appearanc efor new folders in XP - I would like to default to details if possible.
posted by richtea at 7:27 PM on October 23, 2005

sorry for my premature posting of the previous question, I have found the answer, for anyone interested you can find it here:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips807.html
posted by richtea at 7:37 PM on October 23, 2005

The registry value in that Microsoft KB article is the same thing that TweakUI modifies under the "Number of customizations to remember" setting.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:11 PM on October 24, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks for everyone's help with this, I think I've got it sorted..
posted by ascullion at 2:04 AM on October 31, 2005