How do I get Explorer to apply 'size all columns to fit' globally?

I've just bought a new laptop with Windows 10.

For all my subfolders within the Documents folder, I've set Explorer to display the information as 'Details'. Is there any way of telling it to apply the 'size all columns to fit' option for every subfolder? I know how to do this for a particular subfolder but this would be an extremely tedious process if I do it individually for every subfolder. It seems to me there ought to be a way of doing this globally for any subfolders of a folder for which the 'Details' option has been set for displaying the information.

Hope someone can help!

BruceUK said:

I've just bought a new laptop with Windows 10.

For all my subfolders within the Documents folder, I've set Explorer to display the information as 'Details'. Is there any way of telling it to apply the 'size all columns to fit' option for every subfolder? I know how to do this for a particular subfolder but this would be an extremely tedious process if I do it individually for every subfolder. It seems to me there ought to be a way of doing this globally for any subfolders of a folder for which the 'Details' option has been set for displaying the information.

Hope someone can help!

Hello @BruceUK , welcome to tenforums! :)

You can't set 'Size All Columns to Fit' globally, so to speak.
You are telling Explorer to apply that view, (size of columns), to all folders of that viewing type, when there might be other folders that have items with longer names.
You need to choose a maximum size, that you think would be sufficient, by dragging the headers manually, then apply that to all folders of that viewing type.

Note:
You can't apply this global attribute in Libraries. They may retain the chosen size, set at the 'parent folder' level.

As I remember, there are about five "categories" of folders (=pictures, movies, documents, etc) and you can customise the layout of each one and set it as a default for all folders of that type.

This doesn't autofit the column width for each folder, but it allows you to set a preferred setting for column contents, order, _width_ etc and then apply that to every other folder of that 'type'.


To do this, go to a folder (such as "Music") then go:

View > Options > Tab "View" > Apply to folders

this should then apply those column widths etc to all folders that microsoft designates as "Music".

Repeat for "Documents", "Video", etc.


....


But it doesn't autofit the column widths - it's not exactly what you were asking for. If you want/need to set optimum column widths per _individual_ folder, you can speed it up with the following shortcut keystrokes:

alt; v ; z3; sf

---


I seem to remember Win XP remembering the exact setting for each and every folder.

It seems like "progress" has a different meaning in microsoft towers....


more:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...omize-a-folder

Thanks very much for the replies.

I'll try adding an icon to the Quick Access Toolbar for it - that sounds worth doing anyway. It does seem that there is no complete solution to what I was asking, but these suggestions are all helpful.

@BruceUK

In the span of about 10 minutes, you could achieve what you want:

A keyboard shortcut exists to do this. In the Explorer "Details" view press the Ctrl and the plus key at the same time and all columns will be resized to fit!

Note that for this to work you must use the + key on the keypad, the other + sign (on the +/= key) does not work for this. If you do not have a keypad (some laptops don't) then press the Fn at the same time as the Ctrl and + keys.

I registered here just to thank you for posting this. I'm an advanced user and this never occurred to me and I thought to look for a fix and yours was the most helpful. Thank you so much!

FrillyBits said:

Welcome to the forum :)

I went looking for the same thing a while back and found no 'perfect' solution, now I have put the Size all columns to fit icon on the Explorer Quick Access Toolbar which makes it just one click to resize

• View Tab Ribbon
• Right click on Size all columns to fit
• Select Add to Quick Access Toolbar

Tip: If you are going to be using Details view with Size all columns to fit it will be difficut to find empty space to right click on so I suggest you add any frequently used right click items (like New Folder) to the Quick Access Toolbar also but not Delete because it is too easy to make a mistake

Good luck :)