WinSetView (Tool to Globally Set Explorer Folder Views)

LesFerch · Jan 24, 2024

Rollback_Jockey said:
I'm not sure what i'm doing wrong but with certain combinations of switches i'm getting black text on folder item labels, this is a pain because i'm using dark mode and cant see the labels. I'll try to work out a specific combinations in case it's relevant.

That would be the "Legacy row and icon spacing" option. I just tested it in dark mode. Same problem. It's a legacy Windows setting, so it's not too surprising it doesn't work in dark mode.

Edit: Version 2.91 is now available to download. If dark mode is enabled, It won't show that option and will remove the setting if it was previously enabled.

Rollback_Jockey · Jan 24, 2024

LesFerch said:
That would be the "Legacy row and icon spacing" option. I just tested it in dark mode. Same problem. It's a legacy Windows setting, so it's not too surprising it doesn't work in dark mode.

Edit: Version 2.91 is now available to download. If dark mode is enabled, It won't show that option and will remove the setting if it was previously enabled.

Many thanks.

abactuon · Jul 27, 2024

I ran WinSetView twice, customized it, then took the reg file from the "..WinSetView\AppData\Backup" folder.

Now I just always run Reg Import <file .reg> when installing Windows.

Wolfzz · Jul 27, 2024

WinSetView v2.96

WinSetView

Globally Set Explorer Folder Views

lesferch.github.io

3.01.3

Globally Set Explorer Folder Views

lesferch.github.io

LesFerch · Jul 27, 2024

abactuon said:
I ran WinSetView twice, customized it, then took the reg file from the "..WinSetView\AppData\Backup" folder.

Now I just always run Reg Import <file .reg> when installing Windows.

That works for capturing the folder view settings only, (as long as you don't open any file dialogs for folder types where you've changed the view from Windows defaults before doing the import), but the backup files don't capture many of the settings from the Options menu. You can also use WinSetBak.cmd or WinSetBak.ps1 from the Tools folder and that will capture most of the settings. It's on my to do list to check those scripts and see if I should add more keys to what they capture.

To apply 100% of the settings at build time, you can run WinSetView.ps1 from the command line with the INI file path provided as the argument. See the section Command Line Operation in the manual for more details.

Edwin · Jul 27, 2024

I still do it manually!

All folders...
• View - Large Icons
• Sort by - Name
• Group by - None

except Recycle Bin...
• Sort by - Date Deleted

LesFerch · Jul 27, 2024

Edwin said:
I still do it manually!
All folders...
• View - Large Icons
• Sort by - Name
• Group by - None

I'm assuming you mean that you make those changes and then click "Apply to Folders" for each folder type where you make a change.

That works well if it's one of the first things you do after first login. Any folders you open via a file open/save dialog before doing that will not get updated to the new view. And, of course, that procedure requires separately setting special views such as Libraries and Search results.

I also have a bunch of settings in the Options menu to help get a new account set up with your preferred settings, but I realize that most of the experienced users here already have reg and batch files for those things.

Edwin · Jul 27, 2024

LesFerch said:
I'm assuming you mean that you make those changes and then click "Apply to Folders" for each folder type where you make a change.

Yep. Gotta do it twice in a Music folder though, a folder and sub-folder with mp3's in it..., I think it has something to do with default rip settings.

Wolfzz · Jul 27, 2024

WinSetView 2.97

Feature added: All third-party shell properties are now dynamically added to the column selection list.

Feature added: Option to set Show hidden files and folders.

Feature added: Option to enable Copy/Move To folder context menu items.

Enhancement: The AppData folder is now dynamically created to protect user’s existing WinSetView settings when updating the app.

Enhancement: Help button is now context sensitive.

Change: PowerShell is now run via its absolute path instead of relying on the System path.

Change: The default setting for “Use General Items view for connected devices” is now off.

WinSetView

Globally Set Explorer Folder Views

lesferch.github.io

cheaterslick · Jul 27, 2024

What would help are before/after views of how the folder views have changed, once that setting in this topic is chosen.

LesFerch · Jul 27, 2024

cheaterslick said:
What would help are before/after views of how the folder views have changed, once that setting in this topic is chosen.

I'm not sure I follow. Are you referring to the WinSetView documentation? Which setting are you referring to?

cheaterslick · Jul 27, 2024

LesFerch said:
I'm not sure I follow. Are you referring to the WinSetView documentation? Which setting are you referring to?

I'm not setting up anything. I just want to see the results of what happens to "folder views" after you make this change.

LesFerch · Jul 27, 2024

cheaterslick said:
I'm not setting up anything. I just want to see the results of what happens to "folder views" after you make this change.

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "this change". Please elaborate.

hdmi · Jul 28, 2024

LesFerch said:
Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "this change". Please elaborate.

I guess that this feature request is to add an option that would allow the user to, before either choosing to apply any new changes to folder views or choosing to cancel the new changes, do a side-by-side comparison of all the folder view's current settings and all the new settings that are about to be applied to it. I.e., allow the user to do a before/after comparison to verify that all the new changes [that the user wants to apply next] are going to be correct, so as to help the user to avoid making mistakes as a result of too easily getting confused sometimes.

cheaterslick · Jul 28, 2024

hdmi said:
I guess that this feature request is to add an option that would allow the user to, before either choosing to apply any new changes to folder views or choosing to cancel the new changes, do a side-by-side comparison of all the folder view's current settings and all the new settings that are about to be applied to it. I.e., allow the user to do a before/after comparison to verify that all the new changes [that the user wants to apply next] are going to be correct, so as to help the user to avoid making mistakes as a result of too easily getting confused sometimes.

Actually I'm not talking about adding any features to this program. I'm asking for pictures posted in this thread to see the results. I have no idea what these settings do until I see it illustrated here in this thread. Before/After pictures of Explorer views in this thread to see the results of these settings would be nice.

Wolfzz · Jul 28, 2024

WinSetView 2.98

Bug Fix: Fixed issue, introduced with previous update, that caused error when running from a path containing a space

WinSetView

Globally Set Explorer Folder Views

lesferch.github.io

LesFerch · Jul 28, 2024

cheaterslick said:
Actually I'm not talking about adding any features to this program. I'm asking for pictures posted in this thread to see the results. I have no idea what these settings do until I see it illustrated here in this thread. Before/After pictures of Explorer views in this thread to see the results of these settings would be nice.

The core functionality of WinSetView is to let you set the default views for each folder type to what you prefer. For example, the Windows default for the Documents folder type is Details view with Name, Date modified, Type, and Size as the displayed column headings, for the Pictures folder type it's large icons, for the Downloads folder type it's Details with Group by date enabled, and so on. WinSetView lets you change those defaults on a global basis and lets you reapply them any time with one click.

The way Explorer looks is exactly the same as if you were to change those settings yourself folder by folder in Explorer.

There are a few options in the WinSetView Options menu that have some effect on the look of Windows, but those are explained (with pictures as needed) in the Options section of the manual. If there's a specific option, you want more details about than what is covered in the manual, just ask here.

Rollback_Jockey · Jul 28, 2024

Someone has been doing some homework @LesFrerch, thankyou again.

Wolfzz · Jul 28, 2024

WinSetView 2.99

Bug Fix: Fixed problem, introduced with 2.97, with header being blank after switching language.

WinSetView

Globally Set Explorer Folder Views

lesferch.github.io

jameskg · Sep 7, 2024

Hello, @Wolfzz
Thanks for this great application. I'm using v2.99 and it works great for what I wanted to do. If you have a place to donate for dev funding, I would like to as a thank you for your work on this.

I have one issue that I have tried to resolve and cannot, either fiddling with options or reading the manual.

I have unchecked "General", then selected various folder types like Pictures, Video, Searches, etc to customize. All that works great but when I 'submit' my changes, the app is changing the existing folder types on my drives to General Items from whatever they were.

Example:
Windows 11 Pro
I have D:\video\ full of various video folders which contain files. In windows explorer, I 'customize' the D:\video\ folder type to "videos" and check the box to apply to subfolders. Works great. When I make a change to the videos folder template with WinSetView, it resets this (and all others) to be of type General Items and I have to set them back again as a last step. Not the end of the world but it's extra steps while trying new settings each time. Assuming that is not the intended behavior, I have unchecked what I thought were the obvious things to try in WinSetView's options like setting all folders to generic, etc. Can't seem to stop the behavior.

Is there an option I am missing that I could check/uncheck so your app leaves the folder types set as they were when submitting / applying the changes?

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