Changing Built-In Folder View Templates For Windows Explorer

Hi everyone,

In short, Windows 10 Anniversary has some nasty Windows Explorer (aka Windows File Explorer) habits which didn't exist in previous versions, so I'm trying to find a way to work around them until Microsoft gets off its behind and fixes them.

The specific issue here is that I need to amend/change/update the default built-in templates for "General items", "Documents", "Music", "Pictures" and "Videos". Allow me to explain why.

The main issue I'm experiencing, and which I've reported on the official feedback hub, is that Libraries completely ignore the customer folder view I have defined for "General items" and instead set all subfolders with any Library folder (Documents/Music/Pictures/Videos) to "Details" by default.

The only way to fix this currently would be to go into each and every subfolder from the Library view and change it to my preferred view (small icons zoomed in 9x using CTRL + wheel mouse up). This is clearly not a practical solution and would have to be done for any new folder I create.

Outside of the Libraries, all other folders do obey my default folder view, so it's something very wrong with the way that Libraries function since the Anniversary update. (The anniversary update also introduced the left-aligning filename / folder name bug for views where it should be centre-aligning that Microsoft still hasn't fixed either!)

If, however, you set the Library in question to optimise for any view other than "General items", the library and all the subfolders instead perfectly obey this folder view, even though they won't obey "General items".

If I can actually amend the built-in folder view templates to my preferred view, I can change the Libraries to optimise for their default setting but have the folders look how I want them to, rather than how Microsoft wants to dictate I should view them.

I've tried searching for solutions to this, but so far I've not found any existing entry where someone has asked to specifically alter the built-in templates as a way around this ridiculous design oversight by Microsoft.

Please note that I am not just looking for a way to set the default folder view for all folders, as this does simply does not work for Libraries.

Thank you in advance for your help :)

dalchina said:

Note that installing Quizo's Qttabbar (you don't even have to enable it) fixes the left aligned text. Freeware.
Downside: Quick access recent file icons are blank.

Thank you kindly re: the left-aligned text. I'd been looking at QTTabBar (along potentially with Directory Opus) as a way around the issue, since I didn't want to have to roll back to before the Anniversary update.

Any thoughts re: changing the built-in folder view templates?

Thanks :)

kado897 said:

Is this what you are looking for? Folder View - 'Apply to Folders' in Windows 10

Sadly no, but thank you for the reply.

The issue is that Libraries ignore this entirely since the Anniversary update. In order to work around this, I will need to amend the built-in templates for folder views within Windows 10.

By editing these at the lowest-possible level, I can then set each each of these folders to "optimise" for a specific media but end up with my preferred folder view. (In other words, I will built Microsoft software engineers at their own game for trying to force specific folder views on me!)

kado897 said:

No problem. You do realise that although the templates for libraries have the same names as the folder templates they are separate. In fact for the same folder it can behave as if it had a different template if viewed via a library or not.

Yep: fully aware of the difference here :)

I desire to change the built-in templates as the Libraries ignore the setting if you tell them to optimise for "General items" but will happily comply with the default templates for "Documents", "Music", "Pictures" or "Videos", along with all subfolders.

If I can amend those built-in templates (heck, even one of them!), then I can force Windows 10 to display files how I want and work around the bug that is causing all subfolders to display as "details" instead of the setting I have told it to use via "apply to all folders".

The unacceptable way around this is to manually change the view for each and every folder and subfolder when viewed via the Libraries, which I naturally refuse to do.

This is the tutorial that you need to follow - Folder Template - Change in Windows 10 which shows you how to change Library templates in Option 2.
Although I don't use Libraries, being the only User, you can open any type of folder, either under Libraries or This PC and set the details columns exactly as you wish. Then r-click a blank area in folder, 'Properties/Customize/'Optimize this folder for' and select Template; like Music, Videos, etc. Then go to View tab to apply to all folders of this type.
Here's what it looks like for my Videos folder which has custom details like Length, Frame size, etc unique to this type of folder. If I create a new folder, I just need to r-click and 'Customize' this new folder for Videos and it remembers all the same details columns for previously created Video folders. I think this is what you're trying to achieve ? Good Luck

mrgeek said:

This is the tutorial that you need to follow - Folder Template - Change in Windows 10 which shows you how to change Library templates in Option 2.
Although I don't use Libraries, being the only User, you can open any type of folder, either under Libraries or This PC and set the details columns exactly as you wish. Then r-click a blank area in folder, 'Properties/Customize/'Optimize this folder for' and select Template; like Music, Videos, etc. Then go to View tab to apply to all folders of this type.
Here's what it looks like for my Videos folder which has custom details like Length, Frame size, etc unique to this type of folder. If I create a new folder, I just need to r-click and 'Customize' this new folder for Videos and it remembers all the same details columns for previously created Video folders. I think this is what you're trying to achieve ? Good Luck

Thank you for your reply, but nope, that's not what I'm asking to do.

I'm trying to actually amend the built-in templates for each of those settings within Windows 10 so that I can indeed use them, but they'll display my custom folder view because I've amended the templates.

I'm basically trying to work around an issue with Windows 10 since the Anniversary update whereby Libraries are ignoring my folder view settings and showing every single deity-damned folder and subfolder as "details" until I manually change them, rather than accepting the global folder view setting I've told it to use.

Since the folder view settings other than "General items" are carried to each and every subfolder, I need to amend the default, built-in folder view settings for these templates.

What I'm after is:
• Where these templates are located
• How to change them to custom settings

Most likely this will involve a few edits to the registry, possibly a few file tweaks even.