Windows Explorer folder sizes and positions in Windows 10

I have two laptops (stopped using desktops years ago) that came with Windows 7 Pro. As MS will stop supporting W 7 next year, I decided to buy a new W 10 Pro licence and install onto a separate drive.

I am a heavy user of Windows Explorer for displaying the contents of folders. But W 10 has major problems in this area.

Folders open in a very small size, so with two folders open I right click the date/time and select 'Show windows side by side'. In W 7 this will display one folder on the left of the screen and the other on the right, filling the screen.

But in W 10, I get two very small folders one above the other. They are so small that they are useless until edges are dragged to enlarge them. The W 7 feature of locking to the screen top/sides is also missing or I can't find how to turn it on.

How can I get folders to open in my default 'half-screen' size automatically?

dalchina said:

I understand you want to open two file explorer windows side by side, filling your screen.

Correct.

If you have windows open, and then rt click the taskbar, you will see
'Show windows side by side' and other options.
Show Windows Side by Side in Windows 10 | Tutorials

As I wrote in my first posting, "with two folders open I right click the date/time and select 'Show windows side by side'. In W 7 this will display one folder on the left of the screen and the other on the right, filling the screen."
This is what is given in the tutorial, and what I expected to happen and want, "But in W 10, I get two very small folders one above the other." They cover only the left third of the screen.
This has never worked in any W 10 PC. I also have a little used Surface Pro 4 and as this problem existed when new, the SP 4 gets little use.

'snap' is supported - if you drag a window by its title bar such the the mouse pointer is in the middle of a screen boundary, or its corners, the window will resize (showing first a translucent rectangle) and thus fill a corner, or half the screen, for example.
Turn On or Off Snap Windows in Windows 10 | Tutorials

This does not happen at the moment, but I will later go through the whole of this tutorial later as using these two Keyboard shortcuts:
Windows + Left arrow
Windows + Right arrow
I can now achieve what I want. Thank you very much.

This could be done with a small script, e.g. in Autohotkey (free). This can launch the windows, and position and size them.
* Have you considered using a dual pane file manager?

I will investigate this later when I have the time.

The correct normal behaviour is that the window should open at the same position and the same size as when it was closed.
How are you opening them?

This only happens some times. I have shortcuts for frequently used folders on the desktop. I open folders by clicking on their icons. I use a 'Quick' toolbar on W 7, not had time to do this on W 10, due to wasting so much time re-learning how to use another version of Windows. My first version was on a 5 1/4 inch floppy, V-1.00.
Thanks again for your assistance.

dalchina said:

Just a comment on using frequent files and folders 'universally' - here are two ways I use, both using 3rd party tools.

Many thanks. I was getting to the point of rejecting W 10 as it wasted too much time and was being frustrating to use.

I'll now find time to review all the tutorials.

An extra question. I am now investigating cleaning up the 'Navigation pane'.

I've found how to remove unwanted entries under 'Quick access'. But the same method does not work for items below (but not including) 'This PC' down to drive C: (again, but not including).

I don't use '3D Objects', nor any of the others, preferring to manage all my data files in a well organised tree of folders. An old DOS habit!

dalchina said:

Agreed the N. pane seems messy. There are various tutorials which may help, and at the end of the main text, a bunch of links to more related tutorials.

Thanks Dalchina. Much reading now required. Your help has tremendously improved W 10.

You may wish to consider using a more configurable start menu that fully supports drag 'n drop and deeply nested start menus. Many here use Open Shell (formerly Classic Shell) - free.
Win 10's is very inflexible,

I use, "If its not broke, don't fix it". Perhaps MS should give that some thought !

On my other laptop (new 2012), that is used mainly to support my technical hobbies, I installed Classic Shell when it was new. This laptop is newer (2013) and never had Classic Shell installed. I was aware of its loss and re-invention. I'll give it a try in it's new name.