New
#1
How to Backup and restore Default folder views
This has been copied from a 2017 article I wrote on another forum. I'll review this thread, including any suggestions for improvement, when I get/make the time and I will probably then suggest it as a TenForumsTutorial.
Introduction
Once you have set up the default folder views [Music, Documents, Videos, General, Pictures] for your user account on your computer, you can backup these settings so that the views you want can be restored quickly after reinstallation or after a major Windows 10 version upgrade has reset them. You can also restore them to a different user on the same computer and to a different Windows 10 computer.
The procedure
1 Set up the default folder views that you want for any or all of the folder types [Music, Documents, Videos, General, Pictures]. For each folder type -[none of this is destructive so you can play around as much as you like]
1.01 In File explorer, find a folder of the type desired [Music, Documents, Videos, General, Pictures] or create a new folder temporarily to use in this procedure.
1.02 In File explorer, right-click on the folder name, Properties, Customise - set this to the type desired if it is not set already [including sub-folders if relevant to the case in hand] then click on OK.
1.03 In the bottom-right of File explorer's right-hand pane, click on the Displays information about each item icon.
1.04 In File explorer's toolbar, select the View menu then, in its Layout section, select Details.
1.05 In File explorer's right-hand pane, right-click on any column header then select More... at the bottom of the list.
1.06 Choose the columns you want to see then click on OK.
1.07 Drag column headers across each other to get them into the layout you want.
1.08 Grab the separator lines between the columns and drag them to set the required width for each column - the default width for Name is likely to be too narrow whilst the default widths for Date modified, Size, Attributes are likely to be too wide & hence wasteful of your limited screen space.
1.09 Sort the entries the way you want by clicking on the relevant column header. You'll see a little v symbol [descending order] or a little ^ symbol [ascending order] appear at the top of the column you have sorted by. I can never remember which v/^ means what so I always have to look at the entries in the folder I am working in to check they are sorted the way I want.
1.10 Personally, I set all this up in a maximised window then I use WinKey-LeftArrow to show it occupying half the screen width so I can check that what I have set up is sensible for both these common ways of seeing File explorer windows. Even in the half-size window, I like to be able to see the Name & the Date modified columns because I find that avoids a lot of scrolling around whilst working.
1.11 In File explorer's toolbar, View menu, [at the right-hand end] click on Options then select the View tab of the dialog that appears.
1.12 Click on Apply to folders to set all folders of the same type to match the layout you have just designed. In other words, click on Apply to folders to set the default for that folder type
2 Run RegEdit & go to
Code:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Defaults
- This key contains the settings for the currently logged on user.
- From Ver 1703 onwards, you can paste that path into the RegEdit address bar rather than mess about digging down through the Registry to find the key.
3 Right-click the key and Export it in .reg format.
- This format can easily be read in Notepad so there is no particular need to do a .txt Export as well.
- Personally, I find the layout of .reg Exports easier to read in NotePad than .txt Exports anyway. Just make sure that you have turned off NotePad's Word wrap feature as that can cause confusing displays which can lead to editing errors.
4 To restore the default folder views later on just double-click on the .reg file.
- The correct terminology is that this "merges" it rather then "runs" it.
- There are one or two confirmations to accept and then a confirmation dialog appears to tell you it has succeeded.
- Different logged on users & different computers can all use the same .reg file if their default folder view requirements are the same. So there is only a need to create this .reg file once.
- Before restoring default folder views, you ought to Export the key's existing settings for that user or that computer as a temporary backup so that you can change your mind afterwards and get back to where you started. You can then delete this temporary .reg file when you can see that the changes are what you wanted.
- To allow changes to take effect, close any open File explorer windows then reopen them.
Additional notes that might be of interest to some people
5 If you are only interested in particular items then note their GUID references below because they do not carry any explanatory label. Each entry in the Registry key is created when that default folder view is set up so if, for example, you have only ever set up General & Documents default folder views, you will only see two lines in the Registry key.Music {94D6DDCC-4A68-4175-A374-BD584A510B78}
Documents {7D49D726-3C21-4F05-99AA-FDC2C9474656}
Videos {5FA96407-7E77-483C-AC93-691D05850DE8}
General {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}
Pictures {B3690E58-E961-423B-B687-386EBFD83239}
6 Exporting the Registry key backs up all of them [that have been set up i.e. for which the entries exist] but you can manually edit a copy of the .reg file in Notepad if you just want to restore one of them.
7 These items are the same for other logged on users on the same computer and on different computers. So, once the items have been set up for one logged on user on one computer, the .reg file can be used to set all others that require the same settings.
- To set this up for another user, just log in as that user and use the procedure shown in paragraph 4.
- There is no need for the target user or target computer to have set up any default folder views beforehand.
- I have tested this on Windows 10 Home & Pro, 32 & 64 bit
- I set up one computer's default folder views then restored its .reg file on two others. I then changed their default folder views manually in File explorer and restored again to prove that the procedure was robust enough to cope with repeated changes.
8 There is no need to restart explorer.exe [i.e. Windows itself] at any stage of this procedure.
9 I used NirSoft's RegFromApp to identify the key used.
Denis
Last edited by Try3; 22 Oct 2020 at 14:26.
Quote
)
