Windows 7: How to change default folder view

The default folder view for small-extra large is the folder open on its side with some documents sticking out.

I find this view rather confusing and would like to have the same view that XP had with some images or the image of your choice on the front of the folder. This is mainly a problem with my photo collection. The Vista/Windows 7 view just makes it harder to quickly recognize what's in the folder.

Is there a Windows setting that I can change or a registry entry or do I have to install third party icons?

Do you mean the box in the snapshot? Or...

If I read your post incorrectly, you can change the Folder Options in the Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Folder Options

Hello Finus,

In addition to Captain Zero's post:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ort-stack.html

and

File and Folder Arrangement - Change in Windows Explorer Window

and

Icon Size - Change in Windows Explorer Window

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Another way to access the Folder Options:

Just from the explorer, press ALT => Tools menu => Folder Options.

Once there, and once the current folder has the default view you want,
check the View tab and hit the "Apply to folders" button.

No. What I don't like is the 3D view of the folder on its side when the folder view is set to icon. I want something similar to XP where it showed the front of a folder and you could place an image on the front of the folder or by default it showed four images from the folder.

I like the size of the folder icons in large or extra large view but they do not give a quickly recognizable indication of the images in the folder as well as XP did (I think Vista is pretty much the same as Windows 7). The images inside the folder icon are at an angle and are hard to recognize quickly.

Thanks, I'll check those out.

Thanks, I know how to get to folder options. The thing I want to change is not available in the folder options.


Also, while I'm at it, is there any way to show the folder size in details view. I don't think any Windows version has done this and cannot understand why.

Finus,

That has been removed in Vista, but you might give these a try to see if you can get close to it.

Folder Icon Change - Vista Forums

and

Folder Preview Picture Change - Vista Forums


Unfortunately the only way to see a folder size is to right click on it, click on Properties, and look under the General tab.

Why on earth won't they list the folder size?

It has to do with how long it would then take to navigate through Windows Explorer with Windows 7 or Vista calculating the complete size of every folder in the window.

You can see an example of the delay it could cause by right clicking on the C:\Windows folder and clicking on Properties. Notice how it takes a moment as the size is adding up. Image that everytime you go from one window to another in Windows Explorer. Scary.

Couldn't they index it in the same way they index all the files? It doesn't take long to search for a file.

Well, Windows 7 is much faster at it than Vista, but I do not know if they could or not. I would imagine that if they could that they would have though.