Sorting in Explorer

bobtheflower · 09 Aug 2010

This might belong in Customization, but i'm not sure so i'll give it a shot. In Explorer (specifically My Pictures) i have a bunch of folders. If i say, for example, sort one folder by date they ALL sort by date. If, for example i have one in details, they are ALL in details, if i have one in Large Images then they ALL become in large images.

Previously (in XP) each folder was sorted differently, each one held its own and wouldn't just change ALL the folders (in all My Documents folders, not just My Pictures) to whatever the current one is. Now, i'm not sure if i've hit a setting - or haven't hit a setting - or what, but is there a way to make sure that if i change the sorting or display style of one folder they ALL don't change

Brink · 09 Aug 2010

Hello Bob,

Is this from within the Library location?

If so, open My Pictures from the C:\Users\(user-name)\My Pictures location instead. It will have separate folder views from this user folder location.

If you open it from the "Pictures" button in the Start Menu, then that opens to the Library location. If you like, you can change that to open to the user folder location with the tutorial below instead.

Start Menu User Folder Buttons - Open to Users Instead of Libraries

Hope this helps,
Shawn

mitchell65 · 09 Aug 2010

Hi Bob
I think what you mean is that if you have say 5 folders in the My Pictures folder then if one folder, when opened, shows it's contents in "Details" view then all the other folders contents will be in "Detail" view. If you change one folder to say "Large Icons" view then that changes all the other folders in My Pictures to "Large Icons". Whereas in XP the view stayed as set. You could have all five folders showing different views. I have searched but cannot see how you can achieve this in Win 7. Perhaps other better brains than mine might have the answer!

bobtheflower · 10 Aug 2010

mitchell65 said:

Hi Bob
I think what you mean is that if you have say 5 folders in the My Pictures folder then if one folder, when opened, shows it's contents in "Details" view then all the other folders contents will be in "Detail" view. If you change one folder to say "Large Icons" view then that changes all the other folders in My Pictures to "Large Icons". Whereas in XP the view stayed as set. You could have all five folders showing different views. I have searched but cannot see how you can achieve this in Win 7. Perhaps other better brains than mine might have the answer!

Thats precisely it. I think i have to just avoid the Libraries all together (i don't like them anyway) and just get to the documents another way. I don't keep the My Documents folder within the windows OS anyway, i have lost all my documents too many times due to windows OS faults or emergency reinstalls. Up until about a month ago i kept them on an entirely separate drive, however due to recent hardware failure i had to rebuild and in the process lost a HD, and installed windows 7.

This means that the My documents folder is on C (but its still a separate folder, its just "C:/My Documents") It still works through libraries, but i liked them anyway so i might just access it directly. It seems to 'hold' the preferences if i just access it directly instead of through libraries (which force library-wide changes)

Thanks!

mitchell65 · 10 Aug 2010

Hi Bob
It's a shame not to use Libraries. I shared your view at one time, couldn't really see the point of duplicating my docs and images anyway. Eventually I discovered how to use Libraries properly. They are, of course, only a link to the actual path where the files are stored. I have two external hard drives for my video files and still images etc and find it very convenient to access them all from just one window. No need to go the Computer then select drives etc or to have loads of shortcuts cluttering up my desktop.
I would urge you to give Libraries another try. It does take a bit of getting used to but I reckon it's one of the best features of Win 7. Just as an aside, If you apply folder options to a folder that will reflect in Libraries.
One more interesting point on this subject. In View, in Folder Options the Folder Views options are greyed! as here:
out!

bobtheflower · 10 Aug 2010

For anything other than my vast array of images i probably will keep using the libraries, but with the images i have some folders with i want sorted by date and others by name. Things like documents and so on are more or less fine after all.