Windows 10: How to get horiz scrolling in Navigation Pane in Win 10 Explorer

Hello everyone,

My fiance just got her first Windows 10 laptop recently, and the behaviour of Explorer is driving her nuts. The navigation pane on the left will not scroll horizontally (neither with a horizontal scrollbar nor auto-scrolling as it did in previous versions of Windows), or at least we can't find the right option to enable either:





This is pretty unusable as it is, so I'm hoping that someone can suggest something. She will switch to an alternate file manager (we've seen recommendations for Classic Shell and xplorer2) if necessary, but would prefer to stick with the Windows 10 file explorer if possible.

Thanks to everyone!

:)

 

Windows 10 File Explorer Navigation pane auto scrolls after 15 seconds

I want File Explorer to start in a particular folder. To do that, I define a shortcut to explorer.exe, and add the required folder to the Target. If I run the shortcut, and then scroll down and select another folder in the Navigation pane, the Navigator
pane scrolls back to the top 15 seconds after running the shortcut. I can reproduce the problem on three Windows 10 computers, as follows.

In File Explorer, choose ‘View > (Panes) Navigation Pane’, and check only ‘Navigation pane’ and ‘Expand to open folder’. Reduce the height of the window so that when C: is expanded, ‘Windows’ is not visible in the Navigation pane. Close File Explorer.

Create a shortcut to ‘C:\Windows\explorer.exe C:\’. Run the shortcut. In the Navigation pane, use the scroll bar to scroll down, and click ‘Windows’. The Navigation pane scrolls to the top 15 seconds after File Explorer was started. ‘Windows’ is still
selected, but no longer visible in the Navigation pane.

This also happens with the standard File Explorer shortcut, but only the first time File Explorer is used after a restart. In the Navigation pane, click the arrow next to C: to expand the folder before scrolling.

With either method, if you delay doing anything for 15 seconds after the program starts, the problem doesn’t occur.

I have a plain Windows background color (no slideshow).

 

Scroll Speed of Navigation Pane in File Explorer

I've set that setting to 3, but the navigation pane only scrolls one line per wheel step. All other applications and even the other panes of the Windows Explorer scroll by the correct amount.

It's very annoying that this explorer behaviour is different between Windows 7 and 10, as there's no obvious justification for that change. And if there is some actual reason (rather than some intern thinking it would be fun to hardcode his own preference
into the Windows codebase), the ratio between normal scrolling and this "Special Explorer Navigation Pane Scrolling Speed" should be configurable somewhere.

 

Welcome to TenForums @linuxgarou

One suggestion would be to hover the mouse over the dividing line between the navigation pane and the list of files (it's the right-hand edge of the navigation pane's vertical scroll bar). When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow you can click-and-drag to make the navigation pane wider.

I have mine set to about twice the width of the one in your screenshot.

Edit: and so apparently does Ztrucker in the following post.

 

It's certainly possible:





I just can't remember what I did. Hopefully one of the other folk here, like Brink will know.

On the left !!! Sorry, missed that. You can get some relief by clicking on View, Navigation Pane drop down and selecting Expand to Open Folder.

*Arrow Turn On or Off Navigation Pane Expand to Open Folder in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

 

Hi linuxgarou. Welcome to the TenForums @linuxgarou

I would add that I normally drill down in the right hand pane. You will still see where you are in the location bar.

 

Classic Shell allows adding a horizontal scroll bar so it's your best option. Install Classic Shell with the Explorer add-on. Check "Show all settings" checkbox at the top of the Settings window. Then go to the Navigation Pane tab. Pick whatever style you want - XP Simple or Vista. (XP Simple means single click to expand/collapse folders, Vista style means double click to expand/collapse).

There is also an option "Show horizontal scrollbar" and other nice goodies like "Don't fade buttons" which prevents the arrows for subfolders from disappearing once the focus moves into the right side file pane. *Smile

You'll have to close all existing Explorer windows and open them again for the changes to take effect. Also make sure the Explorer add-on for Classic Shell is properly enabled: Classic Shell: FAQ You must enable it via Internet Options in Control Panel. (Because in the past, Explorer and IE shared a common addon model). Windows/IE sometimes disables the add-ons by default.