Changing Built-In Folder View Templates For Windows Explorer

Apply to Folders is found on the View tab of the Folder Options dialog:


And it only sets one FolderType at a time. If you work with the folders under This PC, you'll cover all the types.

Desktop uses the Generic type. The rest match thier FolderType. So open each in turn, set the view to your liking, and the access the Folder Options dialog from the View ribbon & execute Apply to Folders.

To verify, this bit of PowerShell will list which FolderTypes have a custom view set. Copy & paste into a PowerShell window to execute:

Code:

$Defaults = 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Defaults'
$FT = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes'
(Get-Item $Defaults).Property | %{(Get-ItemProperty "$FT\$_").CanonicalName}

While Apply to Folders will reset saved Explorer views to your new template, it doesn't reset saved dialog views (Open, Save, Save as). If you want to wipe out existing dialog views, run the following bit of PowerShell:

Code:

$Bags =  'HKCU:\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags'
Get-ChildItem $Bags -Recurse -ea silent | ?{$_.PSChildName -match 'ComDlg'} | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force

Keith, that's brilliant, worked a treat. I have not checked all the folders but it worked in the ones I checked. Your assistance has made Win 10 life much easier for me. Thank you. This was one of the last steps when setting up Win 10 from my Win 7 computer. I had a very critical look at all my Firefox bookmarks, and decided to start from scratch on the Win 10 box. There was a lot of bookmark dross on the win 7 setup.

Tharwatime said:

I want most folders to have details, with the order date modified, file name, size and file type. Pictures are to start with date taken.

It's important to arrange your Picture folders with the desired columns and view then r-click a blank spot & choose 'Customize this folder', choosing Pictures, Music or whatever before applying to folders.
IE; in Pictures, I may choose Dimensions while in Music I may choose length and year which are unique to those types of folders vs Documents or General. If later, you adjust even the width of any columns for different size windows, then the Apply feature will redo that in all folders with the same view and window size. Good Luck