Windows 10: File Chooser details always seem to get reset

You know how it is, you want to stop, but you can't get this out of your mind.*cry

I think I have a clue to the problem, and I believe it has to do with Libraries. But I can't get a reproducible step.

Here is the clue.

Go to some library view, like the view of all Libraries.
Change that view of column settings. Apply to all similar views.
Now go into one of those library folders.
Chances are this folder view will be different from any other view. So change it.
Now TRY to change the folder view to apply to all similar folders.
You can't - that option is grayed out.
Apparently the handling of Library folder view is a special case that fell into a crack somewhere.
When a library is in the folder path you can't change a view of a subfolder.
Or something like that.
I think this is the source of my problems, when I do manage to change one of these library views somehow, it screws up some other view type.

At any rate, I am going to conclude that this is some sort of minor error in File Explorer that is rarely encountered and not likely to get fixed, unless it gets fixed when something else gets fixed in a later update.

 

Yep, libraries are isolated and separate from actual "folders". Usually a view applied to a library is only applied in that library.

 

As part of my investigations into this problem, I've become aware that explorer shell keeps track of folder path views in some special ways:

When all parts of the folder path are simple files and folders you get one folder view type.

When one of the 'folders' in the path is a link or shortcut you will get a different folder view type for the same destination.

When a Library is in the folder path you get another view type that isn't handled very well.

There may be more as the various types of links, junctions, etc., may all have minor variations on the type of path.

In short - one has to always think of a 'folder' view as a 'path' view.

That's one reason I like to have 'Link Target' in one column.

 

I'm going to mark this solved, just so I don't come back again.

 

Oh yes. Each and every separate path to a folder will have it's own separate view for that same folder.

It does make it fun when trying to change the view of a folder.

 

I still have not found a solution and this changes daily, but I did find some good references to the general nature of ShellBags:

https://www.sans.org/reading-room/wh...in-depth-34545

http://www.dfrws.org/sites/default/f...activities.pdf

New Win7 reg entries related to folder views - Windows 7 - MSFN

Unfortunately, these are all for Win 8 and earlier.

 

It's pretty much the same in Windows 10 other than disabling auto arrange no longer works properly.

 

The 'ColInfo' parameter seems to be the Folder View column list.
I've been unable to find anything about it.
Most of my 'bags' have the same value for this, but not all.
The Generic folder type clsid is {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}
The 'New Win7 reg' reference above has some intriguing settings for:
Code: ;Disable sniff folder feature in Windows 7 and sets folder type to not specific ;______________________________________________________________________________ [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell] "KnownFolderDerivedFolderType"="{57807898-8C4F-4462-BB63-71042380B109}" "SniffedFolderType"="Generic" "FolderType"="NotSpecified"[/quote] and
Code: ;Generic - Folder Template Global set because folder type is set to not specified above. ;First template is what is used for all types of files in windows ;Rev key when set to 0 shows Auto Arrange and Align to grid in menu ;FFlags turns off Auto Arrange when set to 43000000 and 43000001 is on ;Vid sets the type of file that is in the folder icons, list, thumbnail, tiles etc ;mode is the icon size used in vid 10/30/60/100 Small/Medium/Large/X-Large Icons ;Tiles vid uses 30 on and details and list views use 10 only. ;sort is how the folder is sorted. Type, name etc ;All templates can be set same as generic but can be modified if you decide to use them. ;_____________________________________________________________________________________________ [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell\{5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}] "Rev"=dword:00000000 "FFlags"=dword:43000000 "Vid"="{0057D0E0-3573-11CF-AE69-08002B2E1262}" "Mode"=dword:00000001 ...[/quote]

 

If you put the key 'Inherit' under a bag, that simulates the checkmark for applying to all folder types.

This sounds really dangerous - I think I can probably play with a few bag settings and force inheritance on all remaining bags, since they all start with 'Dekstop'.

Anyone want to try that? I'm chicken.

 

Also, this reference

FOLDERTYPEID (Windows)

Describes the many folder types. There are more than just Documents, Pictures, etc.

On my system there seem to be many dozens.

FOLDERTYPEID values are GUIDs and are declared in Shlguid.h.

In practice, any FOLDERTYPEID value can be applied to any folder regardless of that folder's contents. The FOLDERTYPEID is a view template only, supplying appropriate layout and columns for the expected folder content. There is no verification of the folder contents against the FOLDERTYPEIDvalue to ensure suitability.
These and other folder types are defined in the registry under the FolderTypes subkey, which is located as shown here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Explorer
FolderTypes

 

You could create a restore point before playing with it. This way you could do a system restore using the restore point to undo it if you don't like what it did.

 

I have restore points disabled, I just do full image backups.

I keep C: small so my backups are fast, frequent and I don't need restore points (which only make the backup bigger).

I've found that when I go into these types of customization, I just get bit by the next windows update, or some upgrade no longer works, or Acronis tries to install itself on my I: drive or ...

In other words, I can't seem to make the truly simple system that I'd like - Windows just loves complexity.

 

I have tried the following RegEdit file and it seems to work well enough. There are still a few problems, but most folders show up looking fine to me.

Libraries and their handling seems to be broken In Windows 10 as far as folder view handling goes.

Code: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ; remove all bags [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags] [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell] ; make derived folders use details view "KnownFolderDerivedFolderType"="{57807898-8C4F-4462-BB63-71042380B109}" ; make folders look like Generic folders "SniffedFolderType"="Generic" "FolderType"="NotSpecified" ;inherit these settings [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell\Inherit] "FolderType"="Generic"[/quote]

 

Libraries are in their own little world.

 

I guess it is because Libraries are combined views of possibly many folders, so they have to trigger a specialized view mode to allow the folders to be grouped and organized.