File Explorer wont expand to folder

antspants · Oct 28, 2023

trumpy81 said:
@antspants

Since you uninstalled OneDrive using Revo, there should be very few traces of it left on your system.

Are you syncing with a Microsoft account perhaps? That might explain why it's back.

Open RegEdit and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Then make sure you relocate any OneDrive folders listed there. Point them to some other location on your system. You may also relocate any default folders while you are there, if you wish to.

Open Control Panel > Programs and Features and make sure OneDrive has not been reinstalled. If it has, nuke it!

Then go to C:\Users\*YUN* and delete the OneDrive folder there.

Note: *YUN* = Your User Name

Note: you may find that the OneDrive > Desktop folder contains links that are on your desktop. If it does, then move the Desktop folder to another location and make sure you reassign it's address in the registry, using the link I gave above.

When all of the above is done, make sure you sync with your Microsoft account so that it registers the changes.

Then reboot and double check that all is well.

Fingers crossed, that should take care of it.

And No, I do not have OneDrive anywhere on my system.

Thanks man I’ll check that out this arvo. Like you, I totally disable OneDrive on install, before I do anything else at all. Mainly because it causes problems when wanting to relocate user folders, but also because I

Just

don’t

want

to

use

OneDrive

but they don’t care

trumpy81 · Oct 28, 2023

@antspants

Hey, don't you know, it's no longer YOUR machine, they just let you use it ... lol

Let me know if you have any issues and for the record, I have all sync settings disabled.

Cheers

antspants · Oct 28, 2023

trumpy81 said:
@antspants

Hey, don't you know, it's no longer YOUR machine, they just let you use it ... lol

Let me know if you have any issues and for the record, I have all sync settings disabled.

Cheers

antspants · Oct 30, 2023

trumpy81 said:
Hey, don't you know, it's no longer YOUR machine, they just let you use it ... lol

Couldn't be simpler if I wanted it to be.

Jelnet · Nov 30, 2023

Did this issue get resolved? Is there a fix? I'm having the same problem.

Or maybe there's a bug report I can +1 on?

Thanks for any help!

trumpy81 · Nov 30, 2023

@Jelnet
What issue are you having?

Unfortunately, there are several issues discussed in this thread.

Jelnet · Nov 30, 2023

@trumpy81

Thanks for your response!

The issue I'm having is that Windows libray folders (Pictures, Documents, Music etc.) are NOT expanding to the open folder, in the Navigation Pane, in Windows Explorer, despite this option being checked in the Folder Options view tab. Regular folders DO expand however.

Also, not sure if it's related, but the "Expand" option is greyed out for the library folders on right-click (see attached screengrab):

Thanks for any help!

PS. I'm running an app called ExplorerPatcher, in case that has any effect.

antspants · Nov 30, 2023

Jelnet said:
PS. I'm running an app called ExplorerPatcher, in case that has any effect.

Hi Jelnet, welcome to the Eleven Forums.
I doubt Explorer Patcher has anything to do with it. I don’t use it and the issue you describe is certainly still a thorn in my side, a pain in my …

trumpy81 · Nov 30, 2023

The issue you have is because it is a link you are clicking on and not an actual folder, the link cannot be expanded.

To expand the folder, you would need to navigate to C:\Users\*YUN*\Folder Name, such as Downloads etc. or simply click on the link and then expand the folder that appears in the folder tree.

*YUN* = Your User Name

Jelnet · Nov 30, 2023

trumpy81 said:
The issue you have is because it is a link you are clicking on and not an actual folder, the link cannot be expanded.

To expand the folder, you would need to navigate to C:\Users\*YUN*\Folder Name, such as Downloads etc. or simply click on the link and then expand the folder that appears in the folder tree.

*YUN* = Your User Name

Thanks. However I'm SURE this used to work, link or not, and I'm aware of the workaround you suggest, which is really clunky, however I've never had to do that before

trumpy81 · Nov 30, 2023

I do believe you are correct in that the link did at some stage expand into the folder, but I have never used those shortcut links, because I move the folders in question to separate drives and locations.

This may be something that Microsoft can fix, although it seems that Microsoft are heading in a different direction, so they may not fix it at all.

You can also move the default folder locations if you wish to. Navigate to the folder you want to move, right click on the folder and select Properties. Then go to the Location tab and tell it where you want the folder to be located.

You can then pin the new folder location to Quick Access (Home) just like the default folders.

Jelnet · Nov 30, 2023

Thanks. I did try pinning the folders to Quick Access, though it seemed they were already pinned so they just became unpinned! (it seems the context menu doesn't distinguish whether they are already pinned or not, at least on my machine). Anyway pinning them again re-pinned them.

However this made no difference to whether they were expanded or not, nor did moving the contents of the folders. Oh well, just have to wait to see if Microsoft bother to fix it or not

trumpy81 · Nov 30, 2023

As I stated previously, you cannot expand a link and when you pin something, it is just a link.

My suggestion to move the folder location was to allow you to place them in positions where links are not really required, but still allowing you to pin them if you wish to.

Relocating the default folders to other drives can also allow you to completely format the C:\ drive and reinstall Windows without losing any of your personal files/folders and without needing to back them up, although you should back them up in any case.

After re-installing Windows you simply need to relocate the folders again and you are back in business.

I would not hold your breath waiting for Microsoft to fix the issue.

Jelnet · Nov 30, 2023

Well as mentioned, this did work in some fashion previously, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed it not working, and while you say "it's just a link", in an OS like Windows, a button can be anything, it's not limited to being say a hyperlink on the internet, so in essence, that "link" can behave any which way that Microsoft deem fit and in any case the folders do expand when accessed going the User/Folder route, and why are those clickable icons (links?) any different to the Quick Link icons, other than the fact that Microsoft have made them behave that way and given them a fancy colour.

I could move the contents of the folders but I don't think I'd gain much by doing that, I've reinstalled Windows before and haven't lost files with the folders being in their default locations, and I have backups running nightly anyway. As for them being in a position where links are not required it's still going to be inconvenient as they'll be under a drive location requiring multiple clicks, unless I'm missing something here.

Anyway, thanks very much for your help!

antspants · Nov 30, 2023

For me, the links (pins) at the top left of Explorer always jumped down to the physical folder structure in the bottom left of Explorer which then opened the corresponding folder in the right panel until I upgraded to eleven.

Example, If I had folder structure D/folder 1/folder 2/folder 3 etc and dragged folder 3 as a pin, when clicking on that pin the entire structure would open bottom left to show that folder with its contents showing on the right. Not any more.

glasskuter · Nov 30, 2023

The new file explorer aggravates the pe-waddling-do out of me. There are a lot of 3rd party replacements, some paid, some free. I found a little stand alone app called Explorer++ that works exactly like I want. Totally free and in active development. Got it pinned to my taskbar. I don't jack around with file explorer much any more. Lots of screenshots here.

Explorer++ - A small and fast file manager for Windows

explorerplusplus.com

Other alternatives The 10 Best Windows File Explorer Alternatives and Replacements

AndreTen · Nov 30, 2023

antspants said:
For me, the links (pins) at the top left of Explorer always jumped down to the physical folder structure in the bottom left of Explorer which then opened the corresponding folder in the right panel until I upgraded to eleven.

Example, If I had folder structure D/folder 1/folder 2/folder 3 etc and dragged folder 3 as a pin, when clicking on that pin the entire structure would open bottom left to show that folder with its contents showing on the right. Not any more

trumpy81 said:
As I stated previously, you cannot expand a link and when you pin something, it is just a link.

My suggestion to move the folder location was to allow you to place them in positions where links are not really required, but still allowing you to pin them if you wish to.

Relocating the default folders to other drives can also allow you to completely format the C:\ drive and reinstall Windows without losing any of your personal files/folders and without needing to back them up, although you should back them up in any case.

After re-installing Windows you simply need to relocate the folders again and you are back in business.

I would not hold your breath waiting for Microsoft to fix the issue.

Not entirely true.

- pinned folders under the User folders (wherever the location could be) are not expanded in Navigation tree.
- pinned folders not under the User folders (wherever the location could be) are expanded as expected in Navigation tree.

Any pinned location, accessed from context menu in Taskbar (which I use the most) are not expanded in Navigation tree

My observation.

This bug has several roots..

Edit: ...and things get even weirder: If you open User folder (Downloads, etc) from This PC ( I have those links in This PC view), then opening the next folder from Explorer pane would cause the Navigation pane to expand (but showing just this folder). Doing the same from the link in Quick Access does nothing.

hdmi · Nov 30, 2023

Jelnet said:
, and why are those clickable icons (links?) any different to the Quick Link icons, other than the fact that Microsoft have made them behave that way and given them a fancy colour.

Pinned folders also appear in the jumplist of File Explorer (i.e. the menu that appears when you right click on the File Explorer icon that is visible on the taskbar). The Quick Access area (nowadays it's just called "Home" because Microsoft thought it was too easy for people to be able to understand and/or remember what exactly it is that we are referring to here...) is some ways similar to a jumplist that opens by default each time when you open a new File Explorer window, and that belongs to Desktop in the Navigation Pane of File Explorer. That is, similar in that jumplists also don't let you expand/collapse the folder items that may be listed by them.

Jelnet said:
I could move the contents of the folders but I don't think I'd gain much by doing that, I've reinstalled Windows before and haven't lost files with the folders being in their default locations, and I have backups running nightly anyway. As for them being in a position where links are not required it's still going to be inconvenient as they'll be under a drive location requiring multiple clicks, unless I'm missing something here.

Open-Shell gives the option to choose a Windows 7 layout/style for the Start Menu, and, it gives the option to choose which keyboard shortcut and/or mouse action does what (so that it is possible to still also be able to access the Start Menu of Windows 11 if that's what you want). More importantly, this specific Windows 7-like Start Menu allows you to attach folder locations to it in such a particular way that you are free to choose whether or not the folder item will be able to be expanded. Better yet, it gives tons of extra options to let you customize the cascaded sub-menu behavior like nothing I have ever seen before. Open-Shell also has a feature called Classic Explorer. It brings a whole new life to File Explorer. So much so, a replacement for File Explorer is not necessary. In short, when combined with ExplorerPatcher's setting of File Explorer | Control Interface: Windows 10 Ribbon it takes all the Microsoft stupidities, bugs, shenanigans, scandals etc. out of File Explorer and carries them over to the dumpster for you. It's too good to be true... but it's true. For me, it works.

hdmi · Nov 30, 2023

AndreTen said:
This bug has several roots..

Yuppers.

Root #1: Microsoft
Root #2: Microsoft
Root #3: Microsoft
Root #4: Microsoft
Root #5: Microsoft

antspants · Nov 30, 2023

I read the replies and I trust peoples experiences are true for them. But I know how my File Manager worked before and I know how it works now. This thread is just going in circles, I’ll leave ya’ll to it.

File Explorer wont expand to folder

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