How to get horiz scrolling in Navigation Pane in Win 10 Explorer

linuxgarou · 31 Aug 2017

Hello everyone,

My fiance just got her first Windows 10 laptop recently, and the behaviour of Explorer is driving her nuts. The navigation pane on the left will not scroll horizontally (neither with a horizontal scrollbar nor auto-scrolling as it did in previous versions of Windows), or at least we can't find the right option to enable either:

How to get horiz scrolling in Navigation Pane in Win 10 Explorer-explorer-no-horiz-scroll.png

This is pretty unusable as it is, so I'm hoping that someone can suggest something. She will switch to an alternate file manager (we've seen recommendations for Classic Shell and xplorer2) if necessary, but would prefer to stick with the Windows 10 file explorer if possible.

Thanks to everyone!

Bree · 31 Aug 2017

linuxgarou said:

This is pretty unusable as it is, so I'm hoping that someone can suggest something.

Welcome to TenForums @linuxgarou

One suggestion would be to hover the mouse over the dividing line between the navigation pane and the list of files (it's the right-hand edge of the navigation pane's vertical scroll bar). When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow you can click-and-drag to make the navigation pane wider.

I have mine set to about twice the width of the one in your screenshot.

Edit: and so apparently does Ztrucker in the following post.

Ztruker · 31 Aug 2017

It's certainly possible:

I just can't remember what I did. Hopefully one of the other folk here, like Brink will know.

On the left !!! Sorry, missed that. You can get some relief by clicking on View, Navigation Pane drop down and selecting Expand to Open Folder.

Turn On or Off Navigation Pane Expand to Open Folder in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

Caledon Ken · 31 Aug 2017

Hi linuxgarou. Welcome to the TenForums @linuxgarou

I would add that I normally drill down in the right hand pane. You will still see where you are in the location bar.

xpclient · 01 Sep 2017

Classic Shell allows adding a horizontal scroll bar so it's your best option. Install Classic Shell with the Explorer add-on. Check "Show all settings" checkbox at the top of the Settings window. Then go to the Navigation Pane tab. Pick whatever style you want - XP Simple or Vista. (XP Simple means single click to expand/collapse folders, Vista style means double click to expand/collapse).

There is also an option "Show horizontal scrollbar" and other nice goodies like "Don't fade buttons" which prevents the arrows for subfolders from disappearing once the focus moves into the right side file pane. :)

You'll have to close all existing Explorer windows and open them again for the changes to take effect. Also make sure the Explorer add-on for Classic Shell is properly enabled: Classic Shell: FAQ You must enable it via Internet Options in Control Panel. (Because in the past, Explorer and IE shared a common addon model). Windows/IE sometimes disables the add-ons by default.