[Complete Guide] Customize Folder Options n add new tweaks and make it own
Hi everyone.
Wish you a very Happy New Year.
Welcome 2008
As titled, it’s an article to customize folder options based on Windows Registry. We tweak Windows (Windows Vista and XP) via some registry tweaks or using some tweak software. But here I have written a guide or tutorial and its all about Folder options... and we can add our own options that are used frequently in daily Windows Computing.
Contents
1) How to use folder options
2) What is in Folder options…?
3) Enable or disable Folder Options
4) Basic concepts to add new option
Folder Groups
Checkbox
Radio button
5) Configure Policies in Folder options
6) Customize Folder options (Example)
1) How to use folder options
We can customize our folder view and settings using folder options.
Open (My) Computer and click on Organize in folder band pane and click on Folder and Search Options…
Press ALT key to activate menus and go to Tools menu →Folder Options…
Navigate to Control Panel →Appearance and Personalization →Folder Options
Create shortcut of Folder options
On Desktop
Run registry editor (type regedit in start search and hit enter)
Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace
Create a new key and named it {6DFD7C5C-2451-11d3-A299-00C04F8EF6AF}
In (My) Computer
Run registry editor (type regedit in start search and hit enter)
Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace
Create a new key and named it {6DFD7C5C-2451-11d3-A299-00C04F8EF6AF}
2) What is in Folder options…?
General tab
In the General tab; we can change the way of our folders look and work as desired.
Tasks section
Turn off the Details pane and the Preview pane in all folders. It gives more room to display folder’s contents by hiding panes, select Use Windows classic folders
To turn the panes back on, click Show preview and filters.
Browse folders section
It’s used to open each and every folder in its own folder window, click Open each folder in its own window.
To turn on navigation of a folder in same window, click Open each folder in the same window.
Click items as follows section
Open or run any file or program with a single click, we can say that if we want to perform navigation of files and folders just like links in a webpage, click Single-click to open an item.
To switch back to default, select Double-click to open an item.
To restore or switch back to default (Fresh installed Windows settings) click on Restore Defaults button.
View tab
Used to change or modify advanced file and folder settings
Let’s discuss what action performs by these advanced settings of file and folders.
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Options
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Actions
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Always show icons, never thumbnails check box
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Enable or disable thumbnail view of icons and enable or disable live icons of folders.
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Always show menus check box
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Turn on menu bar to display always…no need to press ALT key to activate.
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Display file size information in folder tips check box
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Enable or disable to display size information of files and folders when mouse pointer over any files or folders.
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Show hidden files and folders
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To show or hide files or folders in Explorer. It’s used to hide unauthorized users.
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Display simple folder view in Navigation pane check box
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To see folders with lines that connect folders and subfolders
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Hide extensions for known file types check box
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To hide or show the extension part of file names
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Hide protected operating system files check box
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To hide or show system hidden files
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Launch folder windows in a separate process check box
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It launches explorer.exe separate process for each n every folder navigation. It increase stability of explorer but require additional RAM.
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Remember each folder's view settingscheck box
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Used to stop specified custom folder view by force.
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Restore previous folder windows at logon check box
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Enable automatically open the folders that were opened when performed last shut down Windows whenever we start your computer.
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Show drive letters check box
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Its used to show or hide drive letter in (My) Computer
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Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in colorcheck box
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Enable or disable to show encrypted or compress files in a unique color (by default blue)
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Show preview handlers in preview pane check box
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Enable or disable to show contents of files in Preview pane. Disable or uncheck this to improve performance of computer system.
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Use check boxes to select itemscheck box
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One of the nice features from Windows Vista that enable to select multiple files and folder without holding CTRL key.
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To apply custom view setting of folder (icon size, folder view such as contains music file etc.) to all folders click on Apply to Folders and to reset to default click on Reset Folders.