How to keep sort order persistence in explorer

3Bit said:

Nope.

OK, but why did you show that screenshot? The "Make all folders Generic" option is in the Options menu.

But I did notice the unchecked items in the screenshot. Please note that unchecked folder types will revert to Windows defaults. They won't pick up any settings you've done via WinSetView.

3Bit said:

Also, how do I get "Downloads" recognize my download folder at: M:\_1. Downloads

WinSetView sets defaults for folder TYPES, not specific folders. So, if you changed your Downloads location using the procedure provided here, then that new location would be a folder of type Downloads and pick up the setting for that folder type. If you used that procedure, your Downloads folder will have the Downloads folder icon:


However, if you just set your browser to use that M: drive location as your Downloads folder, then it's just another regular folder (type determined by contents, but typically General items) and your original Downloads folder would still be the only folder of type Downloads.

3Bit said:

All the folders I had as part his example set to identify as "pictures" seem to now stubbornly defaulted to "general items"

This is possibly explained by the way File Explorer sets the folder type and what gets reset when you run WinSetView.

When you set a folder to a particular type, such as "Pictures", File Explorer creates a hidden, system file in that folder named Desktop.ini, containing a line that specifies the folder type (e.g. FolderType=Pictures). The Desktop.ini files are not touched by WinSetView, so the folder type you set stays set (when set for each individual folder).

However, when you set the folder type for an entire folder tree, by checking the option "Also apply this template to all subfolders", it's different. Logically, it would be the same as going to each individual subfolder and setting the folder type. That is, one would expect it to create a Desktop.ini file in every subfolder to specify the folder type. Unfortunately, it does not work that way. Instead, a Desktop.ini file is created only for the top level folder and all the subfolders get their type set by an "Inherit" registry key with a "FolderType" value. This is set within each folder's saved view in the Bags registry key. That's the same key that WinSetView must clear in order for the new folder view defaults to get applied. So, running WinSetView will cause subfolders of a tree, where the folder type was changed using "Also apply this template to all subfolders", to typically revert to their default type (i.e. detected type). However, if a type had once been explicitly set for that folder, so that a Desktop.ini file exists, then that folder will revert to the type specified in the Desktop.ini. file. Confused yet?

Fortunately, on Windows 10, you can just reset the folder type for that folder tree after running WinSetView and all those subfolders should then be set to the type you want.

Alternatively, you can clear out all the Desktop.ini files so that automatic folder type discovery sets the type based on content.

And a final option is to individually set each folder's type so that a Desktop.ini file is created in every subfolder. This will lock in the folder type. You could painstakingly do that one folder at a time or do it quickly with a PowerShell command like this:

Code:

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\SomeFolder" -Recurse -Directory | ForEach-Object {
  Copy-Item -Path "Desktop.ini" -Destination $_.FullName
}

In your case, if you haven't forced all folders to be type General items (by checking the option to make all folders Generic), and those folders in question primarily contain pictures, then they should just automatically be detected as type Pictures, unless they contain Desktop.ini files that are explicitly setting the folder type to General items.