Solved How can I permanently select folder categories like "date" and "type"?

The only thing that I truly hate about Windows (from Windows 7 to Windows 11) is that I have to keep selecting categories like "date" and "type" when I am listing files. I have contacted Windows about this and they show me how to select default categories for specific directories, but the categories that I select never stay put. Eventually, those same folders for which I specify defaults will show up in some circumstance requiring me to add (or re-add) the categories that I require.

And there is often no rhyme or reason to the categories that Windows displays. They will almost always show me "contributing artist," for instance, which I never require. But they will often NOT show me any date category, which I always require. They will sometimes even show me a "#" field but no "type" or "date" field.

Even if my category defaults would always work, I would still have to keep adding the "date" and "type" fields that I want to new directories, and I am often creating new directories.

Is there no way to tell Windows once and for all to always show me, say, a "date modified" field and to always show me "type" when listing files? It would save me a great amount of time in the long run.

Attached is a random example of the sort of Windows directory listing that I am talking about. In this case, Windows shows me "Album," a category which I NEVER need, but does not show me "type" or "date," which I always need.

It's quite easy to add more categories in File Explorer by right-clicking the heading of a column, works like a spreadsheet. I do it when working with music files to get the Artist list, etc. Also, clicking a heading allows sorting by Ascending or Descending like Date as the Newest or Oldest, Name as A-Z or Z-A. And there's more settings in View and Sort, one has a Folder setting, click the 3 dots.

Short answer:

You can use my free WinSetView app to set your preferred folder views globally once and for all. It works by setting the correct registry values for you. It doesn't add any processes or patch Explorer.

Long answer:

The view you see depends on the folder type and that is set by Explorer automatically based on the majority folder contents. So, a folder that contains music files should be type Music and be displayed in the current default view for Music. The major folder types are Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and General items. The latter being the default when there are a mix of file types.

Note that Explorer can be set (via a registry setting) to treat all folders as "General items" which turns off its automatic folder type discovery feature.

To change the default view for any given folder type, in Explorer, set the view as you like and then click ⋯ > Options > View > Apply to Folders. But be aware that this option will not be available for special folder views such as Libraries and Search results and it won't update the saved views for file open/save dialogs (i.e. the view you see from within an app when you open or save a file). Also, the procedure must be repeated for each folder type.

If your view setting for a particular folder does not appear to stick, often that's because you've opened the folder via a slightly different route and are actually looking at a separately saved view for that particular "name space". For example, a folder within your local profile's "Pictures" folder has at least 5 distinct name spaces and therefore 5 distinct saved views for that same physical folder. It's ridiculous, but that's the way of Windows.

Also note that it's possible to have views that won't stick when you've hit the 5000 saved views default limit in Windows which can happen sooner than expected given the redundant saved views.

And if you're looking at the view for an MTP/PTP connected device, such as a phone, then that's very different, very limited, and whole new discussion.

I wrote WinSetView to solve these view settings issues. I wanted a tool that would let me set (and reset when needed) all my views across all folders with one click. It can't do much for phone views, so if that's what we're talking about then your expectations may not be met.

Thanks. I'll give the app a try. I will also try again to use the options mentioned by Berton. That approach didn't seem to work before, but I might have screwed up. I find the Windows guessing algorithm to be very unsatisfactory. Whoever wrote it has a very different idea of what I should need when it comes to file listings. I consider a date field always important, and the type field as well, but I guess the coder thought otherwise.