[BUG] Windows Vista Explorer Statusbar Doesnt Show File Size Information in Drives Root

Here is one more interesting BUG in Windows Vista, which is related to "Statusbar":

1. Open "My Computer" and enable "Statusbar" by pressing <ALT> tab and select "View -> Statusbar" from Menubar.

2. Close "My Computer" window.

3. Again open "My Computer" but remember don't maximize or restore the window. Leave it as it is.

4. Double-click on any drive which contains at least one file in its root, e.g. If your D:\ drive contains any .txt or .jpg or .bmp or any other format file, then double-click on D: drive.

5. Select any file and look at Statusbar. There will be only a line showing "1 item selected" and nothing else. In fact it should show the file size as well.

6. Now do any of following:

a. If your window is maximized, then restore it by clicking on Restore button (middle button) in Titlebar.

b. If your window is in normal state (restore), then maximize it.

c. Or open any other folder in the current drive and then press "Backspace" key or click on "Back" button to come back to root of the drive where you were recently.

7. Now again select the same file and look at statusbar. Now you can see its size in Statusbar which was not visible in "5th step".

So here is the conclusion:

Statusbar doesnt show a file size if the file is in root of a drive. But if we change the window state or open a folder in the drive and again come back to root of the drive, then Statusbar shows the size. Which is kinda strange and definitely a BUG.

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This article was posted in Bugs Report, Windows Vista.

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8 Comments

pat

mine is even buggier because following this procedure exactly still didn't show any file size at all.
VG

^^ Weird. Anyway I have reported the bug to Microsoft and I hope it'll be fixed soon.
Guido

Hi!!

This has been a bug in every version of windows. Its annoying not being able to see the size or free space. It does not only happen in root but in different folders also. People who work with windows (more specifically: file management in explorer) a lot and have been doing so in the past too, will confirm this. I'm amazed MS has not noticed/fixed it yet. From windows for workgroups 3.11 filemanager and upwards.
Geoff

The problem with the status bar it seems is that it consists of a number of segments.

With status bar enabled,you should stretch the folder to the width of your screen

Then click on a file

The file size will appear (but it appears in the second segment)

The first segment is so wide that you cannot see the second segment unless the folder window is wider.

Having viewed the file size you can reduce the width of the window and the file size remains visible

You can then click on other files and their file sizes will also be visible

So the issue revolves solely around the width of the folder window

There seems to be no way to reduce the length of the first segment.

I have no idea why the first segment has been set so wide as it doesnt seem to serve any useful purpose other than to indicate the number of items selected
So space for say 40 characters would have been more enough

But Hey Ho, thats microsoft in action - again

VG - Have you had any response ?
luckluka

...
WeirD
victoria79

hi!

any updates?

this just didn't work for me. I followed all the steps but i still can't see the sizes of my drives and folders. they used to visible and suddenly...gone!

it would be nice to have them back.

thanks!
TrashCompaqtor

There's no dates for the post or the comments, but I'll still add one here...

I'm using Vista Ultimate SP2 32-bit and the bug is still in it. Geoff up above clearly doesn't know what he's talking about - it has nothing to do with the width of the window.

Anyways, this bug is VERY similar to the way the desktop icons shrink temporarily from time to time (when the desktop/explorer automatically refreshes itself), but go back to the user's set size with a manual desktop refresh.

Windows 7's design of everything from the Taskbar and start menu to the Windows Explorer is totally screwed and makes even LESS sense than the ambiguous crap of Vista.

In other words, HOLD ON TO XP FOREVER!!!!!!!!! Or try Ubuntu if you can get all the drivers to work HAH!
Daniel

Windows 7 is extremely usable in my opinion, I think most people who dislike it are just afraid of trying something new (same that happened with Office 2007's ribbon interface, which has improved my speed of getting work done greatly). Just give it 2 or 3 days and you will see that it's actually very well thought out. Besides, if you don't like the taskbar handling, you can always revert to classic mode where everything behaves almost like it did since Windows 95. But I, for example, love the fact that stickied programs in the start menu directly show a list of recently opened documents that can itself also be stickied, the control over when I want to see which tray icons, the dock-like fixing of apps to the start bar, closing ad popups without bringing them to the front, controlling all media players from the task bar without switching windows.....

I do agree though that the Explorer has been increasingly messed up since Windows XP. Most annoyingly, you will always have a huge line spacing in details or list view, even in classic mode, so you can get far fewer files/folders on screen at one time. As one other guy fittingly put it, "it looks like LEGO Duplo."

And relating to the status bar topic of the original post, this is a complete joke in Windows 7. While you can still activate it from the 'View' menu, it is completely pointless and a bad joke. It doesn't display any information anymore! Meaning, instead of fixing the size display in the status bar, they just removed it. All it does now is display how many items you selected (thank you very much) and tooltips of functions you're hovering over. They could have just as well removed the status bar altogether, as it is it's just a bad excuse.