How to Fix Annoying Folder View Type Automatic Change Problem in Windows
UPDATE: This tutorial will work in Windows Vista and all later Windows versions such as Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
One of the most annoying problems in Windows Vista and later Windows versions is the automatic change of a folder view type in Windows Explorer (also known as File Explorer, This PC and My Computer). Imagine a situation when you set a desired customized view type of a folder (such as large icons, list, details, etc) and after some time Windows automatically changes its view type to “Pictures and Videos” or any other view type when you copy a picture or video file to this folder.
It’s a very common problem in Windows Vista and later Windows versions which almost all Windows users are facing. Actually it happens because of “Automatic Folder Type Discovery” feature which was introduced in Windows Vista but instead of making something good, this feature has made the life of Windows users worst as Windows doesn’t remember your customized view types for folders and automatically changes or resets the view type based on folder content.
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But now no need to worry, there is a registry trick to fix this annoying problem. This trick will reset the view settings of all folders and then it’ll completely disable the automatic folder type discovery feature, so you’ll not face this problem any more and Windows will always remember your customized view type settings for all folders.
So if Windows doesn’t remember folder view settings and folder views keeps changing or resetting in your Windows PC, follow these simple steps to fix this problem:
1. Type regedit in RUN or Start search box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.
2. Now navigate to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
3. Under “Shell” key, select “Bags” key and press “Delete” key. It’ll ask for confirmation, click on Yes button.
4. Now right-click on “Shell” key and select “New -> Key” option. Set the name of new key as Bags
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5. Now right-click on “Bags” key and select “New -> Key” option. Set the name of new key as AllFolders
6. Again right-click on “AllFolders” key and select “New -> Key” option. Now set the name of new key as Shell
So the final key path will be:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell
7. Now click on this new “Shell” key and in right-side pane, create a new String value and give it name as FolderType and set its value to NotSpecified
8. That’s it. Either restart your system or log off and now Windows will no longer forget or automatically change your customized folder view type settings.
NOTE 1:
If you are not familiar with Registry editing tasks and want a ready-made Registry script to do the task automatically, download following Zip file, extract it and run the extracted REG file. It’ll ask for confirmation, accept it:
Download Registry Script to Fix Folder View Type Problem in Windows
NOTE 2:
If you want, you can apply same folder view settings for all folders in Windows Explorer using following steps:
1. In Windows Explorer, open any folder and customize its view type to your desired view such as large icons or details, etc.
2. Now open Folder Options (from Tools menu in Windows XP, from Organize menu in Windows Vista and 7, from Ribbon -> View in Windows 8 and later).
3. Go to View tab in Folder Options and click on “Apply to Folders” button.
That’s it. It’ll immediately apply current folder view type settings to all folders in your computer.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ADVANCED USERS:
Our reader “Ile” observed and shared some important information related to this annoying folder view problem:
Well, this worked perfectly for about two or three months after which the folder views started getting reset again, I’m assuming starting from the ones that I set the first after doing this. Now some folders I use even tens of times per day, get reset every time I close them or open a sub-folder and then go back to the previous one. Also, now in Registry Editor under the Bags folder, there are 5000 folders named from 1 to 5000 which I’m not sure were there before doing this. Might they have something to do with the problem I’m having? Do they mean that I can only set the folder view for 5000 folders? Well, anyways, a lot of trouble that I put in to setting the folder views has gone down the drain cause now I probably have to try something else and start the whole thing from the beginning. Except if there is a fix?
Our reader “Tom” provided following solution to this problem:
That it worked for 3 months is good, it means it works. But it seems it only works till the 5000 folder limit that you mentioned, so some folders start to reset. That seems to be the Windows standard size since Windows Vista. You can change the limit, I did 50,000, it should be enough. By default, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are set to remember folder view settings for only 5000 folders. In Windows XP, the limit was 400, but has been increased in Windows Vista.
You can increase this value to, say, 10000 folders using following registry tweak:
Open regedit and navigate to following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
In right side pane, right-click and select “New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value” option. Name it as BagMRU Size
Now double-click on BagMRU Size, select Decimal as Base and type 10000 (or in Hexadecimal base type 2710)
Click OK and close Registry Editor.
I did 50000 and hope won’t get the issue that you got. Hope that helps.
Also Check:
How to Disable Full Row Select Functionality in Windows Vista Explorer
[Windows Tip] Disable Full Row Select and Auto-Arrange Features in Windows Explorer
[Fix] Desktop Icons Position and Folder View Settings Problem in Windows 10
Thanks,
Wow I’ve had this problem for more than 4 years on a Windows 8.1 machine and there’s absolutely no way to fix it.
Every once in a while in those 4 years i lose a lot of time just trying to find a solution, I’ve tried this method above and many others, nothing works.
Really annoying.
thanks. no worry no matter what tho, do things not worry things
Hi,
My problem is that in ” View / Apply to folders ” is grey no matter from where I get there !
I did this “fix” but now every time Windows 7 refreshes itself (which it does automatically) the folder views are all mixed up – maybe worse than before. So, this does not work.
Is there a way to undo this fix?
@Nana; You had this problem:
“whenever i try to open a folder and scroll down. it will automatically went back up by itself.”
I also had this issue when I first upgraded to Win X. Drove me NUTS when scrolling through a directory with hundreds of entries (I was sorting pictures). Turns out I had set the wallpaper to run as a slide show (it displayed a different Morse Code flash card every few seconds) and each time the wallpaper changed (even though I couldn’t see it!), my cursor went back to the top line in Explorer.
Not sure if that’s your problem, but setting wallpaper to show a single image fixed it for me.
Good luck!
I hate Windows 10 enough that I have stopped using my newest computer, and this was my worst complaint about Windows 7. Thanks so much for the fix, I hope it continues to work. Despite a couple of exceptions where Windows 7 works best, I still prefer XP.
Unfortunately, this fix did not continue to work. After an hour or two (no re-boot), same thing as before. I have not been able to pin down the exact cause, but it appears to depend on what I do elsewhere. I don’t believe I have changed a view elsewhere, which would seem to be a likely possibility for a cause.
This ain’t working anymore. It just deletes the changes I made in registry and rewrites the initial entries, so it’s like my changes weren’t even made. It all started with “Feature update to Windows 10, version 1903”.
Wow I can’t thank you enough. I’ve been puzzling why no matter what I did that my folder customization would always revert back to general items, meaning all of my photo and video folders would revert back to the details layout rather than icons with thumbnails. This solution fixed that completely, I can now freely set the customization to pictures and it will automatically set the layout to be icons again like it used to. It was so frustrating having to go to each folder and manually set the layout to large icons previously.
Hi
I Tried the fix “Download Registry Script to Fix Folder View Type Problem in Windows” but it hasn’t worked – how do I Undo this?
I have been annoyed for a while now that many of my Windows 10 Explorer searches appeared using a view of the results other than what the folder view was set to use and I went looking for a solution to that when I found the procedure above. I figured that I’d give it a try. It did not help.
It did however have one bad side effect. It broke my ability to drag a URL (link or web page address) from any browser’s address bar to a folder where I might like to save that link. Whenever I tried (using IE, FF or Chrome), I just saw the cursor dragging the link turn into a circle with a diagonal bar though it indicating that it could not be done.
Thankfully, I had EXPORTED my old BAGS registry key before deleting it and replacing it with the new key suggested above so that it was fairly straight forward to undo the changes suggested above. Once the registry was changed back and I logged out/in again, I found that I could once again drag links from the address bar to folders to save them.
Not sure if this is the right place but here goes. I’m using Windows 10 to store my pictures. Every year I make a new folder and I use the library photos folder so that I can sort the photos in the year end folder by “month”. It has been working great for years…but today when I made a new folder (with 600 photos/files) as soon as I click on sort “by month” only a few of the months show up and many of the photos(files) disappear even though if I click on “properties” it shows all 600 files (photos). It’s like the photos are still there under sort by month, but they don’t display! Probably less than 1/3 of them display. If I unclick sort by month they all reappear…so they haven’t been deleted.
*also this has affected all of the previous years files. Not sure if it is something I did or something with the program? Any thoughts?
Thanks, David
^^ May be the remaining photos are old and showing in last year or similar group?
I get right to the last step: set Folder types value to “NotSpecified”. How do you do that?
Dave
^^ Double-click on the “FolderType” and now set the value.
No it does not work. Day after I started my PC, Windows 7 changed my folders back to detail view. How to make this changes permanently?
^^ Check NOTE 2.
Fantastic, been trying for ages to fix this on both my laptop and my desktop, nothing else worked apart from this. Thank you so much.
May 31, 2020. (W10/64) Auugh! I thought it was me. I was hoping it was me. No matter how many times I change the file folder type “pictures”, unselect the “read only” button, and click the “apply to all sub-folders” button–the file resets. Some file folders I can rename, others I can’t. And all of this is beyond my 68 year-old brain! SOLUTION: bookmark this page, then find a geek who needs CASH and see if he/she can fix this problem. I do so admire the technical savvy on display, here! If I could teleport one of you folks into my chair I’d set a $50 bill on the keyboard, serve you steak and an ice-cold Monster, and massage your scalp while you negotiate with the REGISTERRRRY! And evidently, should I wish to complain to MS about this problem it will require a..,STAMP? Will Windows 11, 12, 13…fix the problem? Howling done. 🙂
Thank you for this fix!! My folders have been driving me nuts for ages!
This is fantastic. My only problem is, it changes the recycling bin to where I cannot have it as its own specified viewed (i.e. details), and keeps resetting it. It keeps it at the General Items like the rest of the directories that I had it applied it to. Any idea how to change that back?
thanks!
your two fixes work perfect, even speeds up computer performance !
(I set fix no.2 to 50000)
Excellent, I’m going to give this a try, thank you!
My main purpose is for music folders, where I prefer to have these columns only, and in the Details view…
Name
Artists
Title
Album
I don’t need the Ratings column, I’m not exactly going to think, hmmmmm, let me listen to loads of One Star music today am I 😂
Note to Microsoft, simply give a tick box in the Folder Options which let’s the user decide if to choose their own layout or to let Windows do it for them 👍
This did not work for me on Windows 7. I used the automatic method and within 24 hours, most folders reset to “general items”. This includes the “My Pictures” folder and other folders with only pictures in it.
Also, as usual, all folders reset to “general items” when I restart my PC. It does not matter if it is all pictures, all music, or all videos. Folders revert to “general items”
This is only happening on the C: drive. This issue is nonexistent on my E:, F:, or G: drive which are external drives that are always plugged into my PC
I checked the registry and the entry is indeed there but still reverting to “General Items”
Why is it NOT working for me? I tried literally everything I could find on the internet about this problem and nothing fixes it 🙁
^^ Follow the steps mentioned in NOTE 2 to apply desired folder view settings to all folders.
That is one thing that I already tried. The steps in Note 2 did not fix my problem. I have tried that dozens of times. Folders still revert to “general items” regardless of what is in them
Still only happening with the C: drive. All other drives unaffected
It works but… now the folder shape keeps changing from how I want it – is there a fix for that?
This whole time I thought I was triggering an annoying shortcut but nope, just another Microsoft “feature”. While this fix worked for the main ‘file explorer’ it still does the same annoying thing when I search for files within an app. I’m sure it’s a similar fix but I don’t know the right file paths to change to fix it. The mere fact we have to do this much work just to turn off an annoying “feature” is a testament to how poorly designed Windows is to begin with.
I don’t know yet if your solution fixed the view problem, time will tell, I guess. But, it fixed another, way more serious, more annoying problem that microsoft created a while ago, namely, I had a folder on an external drive that windows 10 insisted had moved to an unspecified location. I wasn’t able to open it or delete it. Your registry change solved that, for some reason. Go figure, windows 10 strikes again.