Windows 10: Custom "Folder Types"

So I don't know if I should put this here, or in another question. I also don't want to be accused of asking the same question that has already been answered and just making trouble. That is not my intent. I already know that there is no ability to add additional "folder types" to the 5 that are provided, "General, Documents, Video, Music, Pictures." However my question is WHY? I was hoping someone from Microsoft could explain to me WHY? WHY is this is still not a feature with in Windows. The interest from the community is certainly there. I can find questions about this feature goin

:)

 

Custom "Folder Types"

Custom folder types can be created in the registry. That's the easy part. The difficult part is applying a custom folder type to an individual folder or an entire folder tree. There's no way to add a custom folder type to the list of 5 types that are available under "Customize". Currently, it would require a complex custom Explorer extension to achieve the desired result. It's something I may try to program some day (if Microsoft doesn't build in such a feature), but I'm making no promises, as my investigations so far have shown that it's a significant challenge.

Microsoft has not made any announcements in regards to adding any custom folder type capability and I wouldn't hold my breath. The Windows 11 File Explorer has actually regressed, in regards to folder type features, from Windows 10. IMO, Microsoft should focus on those bug fixes first, but their priorities are a mystery to me. Explorer also needs some other basic features like a simple checkbox to turn off automatic folder type discovery, an option to manually "rediscover" the folder type for a single folder or an entire tree, improved sort ordering (e.g. option to ignore extensions when sorting), etc. And, not least of all, proper support for long paths (i.e. >260 Characters).

Some third party file managers, such as Directory Opus, do many things better than Explorer, so that's an option to consider in the meantime.

 

Custom "Folder Types"

Hi Daniel,

I am Dave, I will help you with this.

You are correct, there is no native setting, method or even a known registry hack to create a custom folder type in Windows, they never implemented that in any version of Windows, including Windows 10/11.

The best option may be to open the Feedback Hub (Windows Key + F) and suggest to the developers they add this as an option to File Explorer.

 

Change Folder View Layout in Windows 10


"uhm that method does not work. i want to set folder view as List as default instead Details for all folders"
Did you download and run Brink's .bat file in Step 1 ? Lacking that, look at the screens in post 3. In Step 5 'folders of this type' defaults to each of the Windows templates for Pictures, Music, etc. If you want ALL folders to have the same List view, r-click any folder in each of the 5 folders under This PC (Desktop does not apply) and hit 'Customize this folder'. Set to 'Optimize this folder for General Items". Then follow the screen in post 3 using List instead of Details in Step 1 and you should be good to go.