Windows 10: Backup and Restore Folder View Settings in Windows 10

Yep, it can't restore folder views of folder locations that don't currently exist.

 

Hi Shawn,

I tried with the "Backup_and_Restore_Folder_View_Settings_Tool" to solve my situation but nothing happened *Sad
I have several photo folders and almost all have to be kept in order of declining (descending) editing (modified) date.
But only some keep this order when I move from one folder to another.So every time I return to the previous folder I have to wait a few seconds for order by name to be ordered according to the date of editing.That is, the order is kept in memory, but not in a stable way: it is applied every time every time I access the folder and since the folders are with many photos (at least 4/5 thousand) I have to wait for the reorder.But this does not happen in all folders!
Some of them always remain in the order set (date of modification) and opening the folder (both ex-novo or/and coming back) I already find the photos in the correct order. (So the items remain in the correct order)Others do not keep it and change the order every time I move from that folder.I applied the back-up tool, I had a response that has successfully backed up, but anything changed: I have still to wait the reorder of the photos.
Do you have any suggestions for resolving the issue?
Thanks in advance

 

Hello Lio, *Smile

Did it not create a Folder View Settings Backup folder on your desktop?

 

Thanks for the reply *Smile

And ... yes I have that folder on my desktop.

 

That folder is what is used to restore your folder view settings from.

When you use the tool to restore your folder views with this folder (backup) on your desktop, is it getting restored to what they were when the backup was created?

 

I did the restore now, but the situation is the same.
The order change only when I open the folder and I have to wait.
The only thing I noted, is that during the bat execution I see for a moment something about an error, but then disappeared, all the folders have closed and the explorer restarted.
But when I open that folder the first view is in name order, after some moment begins to "run" a green strip on the address bar and then change the order.
Thanks again for your time *Smile

 

It sounds like the backup/restore is working properly.

What you are describing is normal though when you have a folder full of that many images. It can take a moment to load and refresh.

 

Thanks for the explanation *Sad
So for you it's normal having to wait every time.
The folder so always open in name order and only after having displayed that order change to my new order (data modified).
But not all the folders act like that.
And all these folders are full of photos and always with the same settings.
This is really a problem *Sad

Thanks anyway *Smile

 

You could see if clearing and resetting the thumbnail cache may help.

Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

 

Brink,

I thought it might be useful to add backing up & restoring the Default folder views [Music, Documents, Videos, General, Pictures].

They are all in [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Defaults]
They can all be backed up together and can be restored together or singly. The individual items are
Music {94D6DDCC-4A68-4175-A374-BD584A510B78}
Documents {7D49D726-3C21-4F05-99AA-FDC2C9474656}
Videos {5FA96407-7E77-483C-AC93-691D05850DE8}
General {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}
Pictures {B3690E58-E961-423B-B687-386EBFD83239}

These items are the same on different computers [I have been testing this on Windows 10 Home & Pro, 32 & 64 bit]. So, once the items have been set up on one computer, a reg file can be used to set all others that require the same settings.
There is no need to restart explorer.exe for any changes to take.

I used NirSoft's RegFromApp to identify the key used.

[added 28th August 2017} I have written a full procedure for this in Backup and restore Default folder views - [MS Answers/Community] Forum article.

Denis

 

Thank you for sharing Denis. *Smile

 

Cool, thanks for this tutorial Shawn!

I'm aware that, over time, Windows folder view settings tend to become corrupt (where Windows has some difficulty remembering how certain view settings for certain folders are), and I would end up running one of your other bat files that deletes the BagMRU & Bags selections from the Registry. The only thing about that process is that I have to manually re-adjust every folder setting the way I want to (good thing is that I have a text document with all the folders and what Details are in each folder, and the size of the Detail pixels, etc...). BUT it's a long and annoying process =P
Also, I have many ".search-ms" (Saved Searches on the computer) which I have customized each one manually (because the "Apply to Folders" button doesn't work for those) [this option DID work in the past, yet now it seems not to be included because maybe some Microsoft programmer forgot about it? If anyone can send them this small message, maybe they can fix that].
Anyways, if I deleted the Bags & BagMRU from the Registry, those settings for the Saved Searches will go bye-bye! And resetting those Search File settings will take SO MUCH TIME ugh, because of manually adjusting each one individually.

But I found this tutorial!!! I saved a backup of the folder view settings from the Registry with this bat file! Yay!

Thanks so much for this!

Love your useful tiny file compilation tools!

 

You're most welcome Aiman. I'm glad it could help. *Smile