File Chooser details always seem to get reset

Just to note, the default folder view you apply to all folders will not get applied to libraries. This would be why libraries may have a different view.

Does anyone know what view has 'Item type' instead of 'Type' . Whatever imposes that view seems to be at the root of the problem.

To me it seems that the software that changes folder views is very complex and there is some sneak path of unintended consequences.

I keep going in circles of change with no point of stability.

All I want is really very simple - I want a single folder view for every explorer shell display no matter what I'm looking at and no matter how I get there.

If I could blast away some registry templates and make only one I'd do that, but that sort of change will probably only last until the next Windows Update.

I feel I'm not getting anywhere here, so I will stop now.

I'm not aware of a folder template that has "Item Type" instead of "Type" unless you may have added the column.

With the exception of libraries, This PC, and open and save as dialog box locations, the default view you applied should be applied everywhere.

You'll have to manually set the folder view for those locations. I'm not aware of a way to 100% apply to all folders everywhere in one shot.

I did not add this, I've never used 'Item Type' as far as I know, and yet it is frequently in the column view for the views that get 'reset'. It may have something to do with Libraries which seem to be a neglected area of Windows development.

I don't know the difference between 'Item type' and 'Type'.

I don't know where this list of file attributes for the column choices is maintained or what they mean. It is obvious that some are meta tags, but others?

And what about my favorite - Link target - does it follow all types of links or just some types of links?

Sorry, because I've spent so much time on this, I find a lot of it a bit irritating because I have to guess about so much of how it works.

I just wish I could be happy with the default views and forget all about this.

I'm not sure what could be resetting them like that.

As a test, when one resets, set it back to how you wanted, and use "Apply to Folders" again to see if it applies it to all the reset folders again.

Set Default Folder View for all Folders in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

You know how it is, you want to stop, but you can't get this out of your mind.

I think I have a clue to the problem, and I believe it has to do with Libraries. But I can't get a reproducible step.

Here is the clue.

Go to some library view, like the view of all Libraries.
Change that view of column settings. Apply to all similar views.
Now go into one of those library folders.
Chances are this folder view will be different from any other view. So change it.
Now TRY to change the folder view to apply to all similar folders.
You can't - that option is grayed out.
Apparently the handling of Library folder view is a special case that fell into a crack somewhere.
When a library is in the folder path you can't change a view of a subfolder.
Or something like that.
I think this is the source of my problems, when I do manage to change one of these library views somehow, it screws up some other view type.

At any rate, I am going to conclude that this is some sort of minor error in File Explorer that is rarely encountered and not likely to get fixed, unless it gets fixed when something else gets fixed in a later update.

Yep, libraries are isolated and separate from actual "folders". Usually a view applied to a library is only applied in that library.

As part of my investigations into this problem, I've become aware that explorer shell keeps track of folder path views in some special ways:

When all parts of the folder path are simple files and folders you get one folder view type.

When one of the 'folders' in the path is a link or shortcut you will get a different folder view type for the same destination.

When a Library is in the folder path you get another view type that isn't handled very well.

There may be more as the various types of links, junctions, etc., may all have minor variations on the type of path.

In short - one has to always think of a 'folder' view as a 'path' view.

That's one reason I like to have 'Link Target' in one column.

I'm going to mark this solved, just so I don't come back again.

Oh yes. Each and every separate path to a folder will have it's own separate view for that same folder.

It does make it fun when trying to change the view of a folder.