How to Change the Template of a Drive, Folder, or Library in Windows 10

Windows 10 includes five built-in templates that you can select to optimize the view of your drives, folders, and libraries for General Items, Documents, Pictures, Music, or Videos.

When you use a template, you will still be able to further customize the view to how you like.

This tutorial will show you how to optimize a drive, folder, or library template for General Items, Documents, Pictures, Music, or Videos for your account in Windows 10.

Contents

• Option One: To Change Template of a Drive or Folder
• Option Two: To Change Template of a Library
• Option Three: To Change Template of All Folders using a BAT file

EXAMPLE: Templates in Details view

OPTION ONE

To Change Template of a Drive or Folder

1 Open File Explorer (Win+E), and do step 2 or step 3 below for how you would like to open the properties page of the drive or folder.

2 Right click or press and hold on a drive (except Windows drive) or folder that you want to change the template for, click/tap on Properties, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)

3 Open a drive (except Windows drive) or folder that you want to change the template for, right click or press and hold on an empty area of it's main window, click/tap on Customize this folder, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)

4 Click/tap on the Customize tab, select a template in the Optimize this folder for drop down menu, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)

You can also check the Also apply this template to all subfolders box if you wanted to quickly apply the selected template to all subfolders as well.

OPTION TWO

To Change Template of a Library

All added folders in a library share the same view settings, so when you change the template of a library, it is applied to all the folders in the library.

1 Open File Explorer (Win+E), and do step 2 or step 3 below for how you would like to change the template of a library.

 2. To Change Library Template in Ribbon

A) Select or open a library (ex: Pictures) that you want to change the template for, click/tap on the Library Tools Manage tab, and select a template in the Optimize library for drop down menu on the ribbon. (see screenshot below)

 3. To Change Library Template in Library Properties

A) Right click or press and hold on a library (ex: Pictures) that you want to change the template for, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)

B) Select a template in the Optimize this library for drop down menu, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

OPTION THREE

To Change Template of All Folders using a BAT file

Setting a folder template for all folders will also disable Automatic Folder Type Discovery. You will still always be able to manually change the template and view of any folder to what you like though.

Automatic Folder Type Discovery is when Windows will automatically change the template of a folder to match the file type of the last file added or saved in the folder. For example, if your folder contains music files and you add a picture file, then Windows may change the folder template and view to the "Picture" template to match the new picture file.

The Downloads folder in the "Quick access", "This PC", and "C:\Users\<username>" locations is not affected when setting a default template to all folders using this option.

This does not get applied to libraries.

1 Do step 2 (default), step 3 (General items), step 4 (Documents), step 5 (Pictures), step 6 (Music), or step 7 (Videos) below for what you would like to do.

 2. To Restore Default Templates for All Folders

This is the default setting.

This will reset the template and views of all folders back to default, and enable Automatic Folder Type Discovery.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 8 below.

Reset_Folder_View_Settings_of_All_Folders_to_Default.bat

Download

 3. To Set General items Template as Default for All Folders

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 8 below.

All_Folders_Use_General_Items_Folder_Template.bat

Download

 4. To Set Documents Template as Default for All Folders

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 8 below.

All_Folders_Use_Documents_Folder_Template.bat

Download

 5. Set Pictures Template as Default for All Folders

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 8 below.

All_Folders_Use_Pictures_Folder_Template.bat

Download

 6. Set Music Template as Default for All Folders

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 8 below.

All_Folders_Use_Music_Folder_Template.bat

Download

 7. Set Videos Template as Default for All Folders

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 8 below.

All_Folders_Use_Videos_Folder_Template.bat

Download

8 Save the .bat file to your desktop, and run the .bat file.

9 Unblock the .bat file, and run the .bat file.

10 You will now notice your screen flicker and a command prompt quickly open and close as explorer is restarted to apply the registry changes.

11 When finished, you can delete the downloaded .bat file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn

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