Navigation Pane On/Off in File Explorer necessarily always global?

JohnW2 · 15 Aug 2018

Hi there. I'm new to Windows 10 (but very familiar with most other versions of Windows from the very first!), so this is my first post here.

Am I right in assuming that (unfortunately for me!), the option to turn on/off the Navigation Pane in File Explorer is always necessarily 'global' - i.e. there is no way of making it folder-specific? If that is the case, is there any workaround (other than using an alternative to File Explorer)?

Kind Regards, John

bro67 · 15 Aug 2018

Nope. The Ribbon is either maximized or minimized.

JohnW2 · 15 Aug 2018

bro67 said:

Nope. The Ribbon is either maximized or minimized.

Thanks for your interest. However, I'm talking about the Navigation Pane (which, unless I'm missing something, is either present or absent, and cannot be 'minimised'), not the ribbon.

Kind Regards, John

bro67 · 16 Aug 2018

JohnW2 said:

Thanks for your interest. However, I'm talking about the Navigation Pane (which, unless I'm missing something, is either present or absent, and cannot be 'minimised'), not the ribbon.Kind Regards, John

Same way as the Ribbon. Either there or not there.

JohnW2 · 16 Aug 2018

bro67 said:

Same way as the Ribbon. Either there or not there.

Yes, I realise that (I'm not sure where it could be minimsed 'to'!), and it's very simple to turn it on/off.

However, that's not my question. As far as I can make out, this particular feature (Navigation Pane present or absent) is, like some other features (e.g. window shape/size) a 'global' setting, which therefore applies to every appearance of File Explorer, and was asking whether that is correct.

What I was hoping (but don't think it is the case) is that W10 File Explorer could be made to behave like Windows Explorer under XP - with which one could configure most aspects (e.g. window shape/size/position, presence/absence of folders pane, details/icons/tiles etc.) differently for each folder. It seems a little odd that the 'development' of Windows Explorer into File Explorer seemingly resulted in such configuration options being removed!

Kind Regards, John

bro67 · 16 Aug 2018

No there is no way to make the settings stick depending on the folder. There are not even any third party app's that allow you to choose if you want a Navigation pane to be open depending on the folder. It is like that with all programs. You could write your own program that allows a person to choose if they want each folder operation to have a select set of operations and then troubleshoot when things go wrong.

JohnW2 · 16 Aug 2018

bro67 said:

No there is no way to make the settings stick depending on the folder. There are not even any third party app's that allow you to choose if you want a Navigation pane to be open depending on the folder. It is like that with all programs. You could write your own program that allows a person to choose if they want each folder operation to have a select set of operations and then troubleshoot when things go wrong.

Thanks. That's how it seemed to me, and what I suspected/'feared' - and, as you say, I haven't even be able to find any third-party apps/utilities that can do it.

I was just concerned that I might have been missing something, since it seemed odd to me that that they would have removed functionality (which I found useful, even if no-one else did!) that had persisted through all flavours of File Manager / Windows Explorer from Windows 3 up to at least XP (I 'jumped' thereafter, so am not sure!).

Kind Regards, John