Windows 10: Size All Columns to Fit for Folder in Windows 10

How to: Size All Columns to Fit for Folder in Windows 10

How to Size Width of All Columns to Fit for Folder in Windows 10


In Windows, you can change the layout view of the content of your folders to how you like.

When you are using a details layout view for items in a folder to be displayed in columns, you can change the width of all columns to fit their contents.

This tutorial will show you how to change the width of all columns to fit their contents in a folder for your account in Windows 10.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To "Size All Columns to Fit" from File Explorer Ribbon
• Option Two: To "Size Column to Fit" or "Size All Columns to Fit" from Context Menu
• Option Three: To Manually Size Width of Columns
• Option Four: To Set Width of Selected Columns in Pixels

EXAMPLE: Before and After "Size all columns to fit"











OPTION ONE [/i] To "Size All Columns to Fit" from File Explorer Ribbon
1. In File Explorer, open the folder with a details layout view that you want to change the width of columns to fit.

2. Click/tap on the View tab (Alt+V). (see screenshot below)

3. Click/tap on Size all columns to fit in the ribbon. (see screenshot below)









OPTION TWO [/i] To "Size Column to Fit" or "Size All Columns to Fit" from Context Menu
1. In File Explorer, open the folder with a details layout view that you want to change the width of columns to fit.

2. Right click or press and hold on a column's title bar (ex: Date modified), and click/tap on either Size Column to Fit or Size All Columns to Fit for what you want. (see screenshot below)









OPTION THREE [/i] To Manually Size Width of Columns
1. In File Explorer, open the folder with a details layout view that you want to change the width of columns to fit.
2. Move the pointer over the right border line of the column you want to change the width of until the pointer turns into a

cross with double arrows.

3. Click/tap and hold, drag the column border left or right until it's the width you want, and release. (see screenshot below)

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above for any other column that you want to change the width of.









OPTION FOUR [/i] To Set Width of Selected Columns in Pixels
1. Right click or press and hold on an empty area on the column title bar, and click/tap on More. (see screenshot below)



2. Select a column (ex: Type) in Details, type how many pixels wide you want the selected column, repeat for any other column, and click/tap on OK when finished. (see screenshot below)

*note The number of pixels you can enter will vary depending on your DPI scaling level.




That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

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• How to Reset Folder View Settings to Default in Windows 10
• How to Apply a Folder's View to All Folders of Same Template Type in Windows 10
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:)

 

COLUMN RESIZING

Windows File Explorer:

I would like to see the lack of ability to apply "Size Columns to Fit" and "Size All Columns to Fit" to all of sub-folders of a folder addressed.

Thank You.

 

How do I widen the columns in File Explorer search results?

While attempting to try the "Size all columns to fit" suggestion I discovered that the folder view setting has to be set to "Details" (In File Explorer click on the "View" tab and select "Details" in the Layout group) in order to make the column headings
be visible. After doing that I was able to drag the columns to adjust their width as well as using Ctrl-+ to execute the "Size all columns to fit" command.

Why Microsoft decided to hide the column headings and disable the "Size all columns to fit" command in the other folder views is beyond me.

 

Hello Gator, *Smile

It sure would be nice if the columns would automatically resize on the fly to fit the contents, but I haven't seen anyway for this.

As a workaround, you could set a default folder view for all folders with the column width set to 350.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

 

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I'm trying to shrink the width of the "Size" column. Right now it's over twice the width needed, and following Option 4 in the OP, I see column width is set to 170. I cannot seem to change that to anything smaller. I can change it to, say, 85 and click OK, but when re-opened (even after reboot) it still says 170. Is there any way to make the width smaller than 170?

Here's what I mean about the column size for Size being exceedingly large. This is the narrowest it will go:





PS: I have two monitors, one 4K (3840 x 2160) and one non-4K (1920 x 1080). On the non-4K monitor, the minimum width seems to be 170, and on the 4K monitor it seems to be 340, so there's some resolution-dependency, but on both of them I'd like to shrink the width to 50% (or perhaps even slightly less) its current size.

 

Hello wpcoe, *Smile

Is this on a removable drive? If so, that would explain folder views not being remembered.

Are you seeing the same results using any of the other options?

 

Thanks, Brink for your prompt message!

This is not a removable drive. The four columns I have visible (Name, Date modified, Type and Size) are all set to 170 (on my non-4K monitor) and won't save a lower number. They will (with immediate effect) accept and save a >170 number. 170 seems to be a hard-wired minimum.

I suspect there is some Registry tweak that might control this, but I scanned the list of Metrics keys and none of them seemed appropriate for File Manager.

PS: The computer is running Windows 10 Pro (version 10.0.16299.309)

 

The number of pixels that you can enter is directly tied to the screen resolution and DPI scaling level.

However, it usually doesn't wouldn't have that much empty space left in the width though.

Are you seeing the same results using any of the other options?

 

Now this is odd? Displaying the contents of the C:\ drive, Date Modified and Type were 135 and Size was 90 -- until I tried entering another number, then they changed to 170 minimum. So, it is physically possible to have the columns narrower than 170.

(Until now, I had been fussing with File Explorer settings on a second, data partition.)

I never have displayed some options like Tag, #, Authors and Date Created before. When I select them to display them, the initial defaults are 170, 85, 153 and 340 (!) respectively. I cannot set them to anything smaller than those initial sizes, except Date Created which I can shrink to 170. But, at least they don't jump to 170 when modified.

Since you mentioned the scaling level, I changed my primary monitor (the 4K one) from 200% to 100% and rebooted. The column sizes didn't change on either monitor. (My second monitor has always been set to 100%.)