Windows 10: Microsoft is removing some Folder Options in Windows 11

Microsoft released a new Insider build to the Windows 11 developer channel this week. The build makes a number of changes; one of them removes several options in Folder Options.

Folder Options allows users of the operating system to customize File Explorer behavior. There they may enable the showing of hidden files, disable the awful default option of hiding file extensions for known file types, and make several other important changes.



Windows 11 users may access the Folder Options in the following way:

1. Open File Explorer with a click on the icon on the taskbar.
2. Select the three-dots menu and pick Options from the context menu.
3. Switch to the View tab.

The list of advanced settings opens and users may enable or disable certain features with clicks in checkboxes.

The removed Folder Options




Microsoft removed several advanced settings in the Folder Options in the latest development build. These are removed from the Folder Options interface, but may still be set via the Windows Registry.

Note that there is a chance that Microsoft continues to make changes to Folder Options and that it could reintroduce some of the removed settings in a future build before the changes land in Stable.

For now, the following advanced settings are no longer available:

1. Always show icons, never thumbnails. (default on)
2. Display file icon on thumbnail. (default on)
3. Display file size information in folder tips. (default on)
4. Hide folder merge conflicts. (default on)
5. Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). (default on)
6. Show drive letters. (default on)
7. Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color. (default off)
8. Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items. (default on)
9. Use Sharing Wizard (Recommended). (default on)

These options are no longer listed ion Folder Options, but they can be changed using the Windows Registry.

Here is how that is done:

Always show icons, never thumbnails

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
2. Search for IconsOnly. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it IconsOnly.
3. Set it to 0 to show thumbnails, or to 1 to hide thumbnails.

Display file icon on thumbnail

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
2. Search for ShowTypeOverlay. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it ShowTypeOverlay.
3. Set it to 0 to disable showing the file icon on thumbnails, or to 1 to enable it.

Display file size information in folder tips

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
2. Search for FolderContentsInfoTip. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it FolderContentsInfoTip.
3. Set it to 0 to not display size information in folder tips, or to 1 to display the information.

Hide folder merge conflicts

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
2. Search for HideMergeConflicts. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it HideMergeConflicts.
3. Set the value to 0 to disable the feature and do not show merge conflicts, or to 1 to enable the feature.

Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
2. Search for ShowSuperHidden. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it ShowSuperHidden.
3. Set the value to 0 to hide protected operating system files, or to 1 to show these files.

Show drive letters

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
2. Search for ShowDriveLettersFirst. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it ShowDriveLettersFirst.
3. Set its value to 0 to show all drive letters after drive labels, to 1 to show only network drive letters before drive labels, to 2 to hide all drive letters, or to 4 to show all drive letters before drive labels.

Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
2. Search for ShowEncryptCompressedColor. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it ShowEncryptCompressedColor.
3. Set its value to 1 to show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color, or to 0 to disable this.

Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
2. Search for ShowInfoTip. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it ShowInfoTip.
3. Set this value to 0 to disable the feature, or to 1 to enable it and show a popup description for folder and desktop items.

Use Sharing Wizard (Recommended)

1. Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
2. Search for SharingWizardOn.
3. If it does not exist, right-click on Advanced and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it SharingWizardOn.
4. Set its value to 0 to disable the feature, or to 1 to enable it.

Now You: do you use any of these custom options?

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Windows 7 Folder Options

In Windows XP, I used to setup one folder the way I liked and go into the Folder Options to make all the rest that style as well. I can't seem to figure out how to do this in Windows 7. I see Folder Options in the control panel, and it has the same feature as XP to apply to all Windows, but since I'm accessing that through the control panel it doesn't work. I imagine I need to access the folder options through the folder that I want to use as a template for the rest. Does anyone know how I can do this in Windows 7?

Edit: I found out -.- That always seems to happen right after I type up a post asking.

 

Quick Access not searching Pictures folder

Summary, that last suggestion didn't work.

• I moved the pictures to another folder temporarily.

• Then I tried to remove the Pictures folder with option one at Add or Remove Folders from This PC in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials. Even after rebooting, the Pictures folder remained.
• So I tried using option two. Same thing: reboot >> Pictures folder still there.

• Since there were no troubleshooting steps for this scenario, just for the heck of it, I ran through the restore steps. Copied some pictures into the Pictures folder, ran a Quick Access search and initial problem remains: Searching all of QA doesn't find any files in Pictures folder, running search on just the Pictures folder does. I want to run a global search and find matching files in any/all of the Documents, Music, Videos, and Pictures folders.

That article dates from 2015 and I'm guessing is out of date. I hope it didn't create potential future problems in my registry.

Bottom line: I'm still looking for a fix.

 

Removing Windows.old folder

I recently had to reinstall my OS (don't ask). Once I did there were files that I couldn't delete. Basically SecuROM files. Anyway long story short I found this workaround that I wanted to share with my fellow newbs. This will work for any file and works like a charm. Just follow the directions. *Toast :toast:
Note: there is no space between "Administrators: (F)" I just had to but one in because it kept giving me an "unhappy face"

When installing Windows Vista, Windows stores any existing installation of Windows on the install partition inside a hidden folder called windows.old. This folder could take up a large amount of disk space.

Note: Please check the contents of the windows.old folder before deleting it to make sure there are no files stored there that you may wish to keep.

Deleting the window.old folder using the disk cleanup wizard
Click start
Type: disk cleanup
Press enter
Select "Files from all users on this computer"
Follow the rest of the instructions listed on the wizard and select the option to delete the windows.old folder
Deleting the windows.old folder manually
1) Open an elevated command prompt

Click start
Type: cmd
right-click it under programs
click Run As Administrator
2) Take ownership


Change the directory to the windows.old folder (e.g. cd c:\windows.old)
Type: takeown /F . /A /R /D Y > NUL
3) grant yourself permission

Type: icacls . /grant:r Administrators: (F) /T /L /Q
4) Delete everything

Make sure you close any explorer or command windows that are looking at or inside the windows.old folder (except for the command window you are using). If you don't, you will receive an error while performing this step.

Type: cd ..
Type: rmdir /S /Q windows.old