Win Explorer jumps back to parent

Hello,
I am trying to selectively delete a number of subfolders, working in Windows Explorer. Every time I delete one folder, windows 7 jumps me back to the parent folder, so I have to scroll down again to where I left off. Very inefficient. In XP, the next folder in the list is highlighted after deleting one. I know Windows 7 is not XP, but this seems to be another unnecessary annoyance with file management, added to my growing list of file management annoyances.

I suppose MS found some good reasons to make file management so cumbersome, or I am not yet with the program, or there is something I can do to make this better, and I haven't yet found it
.
Is there something I can do to avoid this? Is there some other view of Windows Explorer I can use?
If I'm stuck with it, I'll learn to live with it.
Many thanks.

Jack

Jack C said:

I suppose MS found some good reasons to make file management so cumbersome, or I am not yet with the program, or there is something I can do to make this better, and I haven't yet found it
.
Is there something I can do to avoid this?

You might consider using a "replacement" product for Windows Explorer, or at least as an alternative for those situations where you're not comfortable with the Win7 changes and wish you were back in XP.

I've settled on Free Commander for about 99% of my Explorer-related needs.

Its 2-pane presentation is perfect for drag/drop work, and you can instantly revert (by button) to 1-pane presentation if you want to see more of a tree. Also, the fact that it retains multiple selected items even after the function you've applied to the group (using a right-click context menu item, e.g. "expand with WinRAR" on a whole set of ZIP files) is completed, makes consecutive operations (e.g. now DELETE all of these ZIP files) on the entire selected set a piece of cake.

Highly customizable toolbar, panes, etc. Lots of keyboard shortcuts as well.

Kind of old-fashioned in its Win98-looking presentation, but that's actually a good thing if you're looking back. The new Win7 Explorer has lots to be said for it, but when you want to do things like WinXP or Win98 used to, I think you'll really like Free Commander.

Highly recommended. Give it a try.

Brink said:

Hello Jack,

If the subfolders are in the same folder, you could use the check box option to check the ones you wish to delete to be able to delete them all at once.

Select Items with Check Boxes

Hope this helps,
Shawn

That helps! Took me a minute or two to realize that after checking the "use check boxes" in tools|folder options|view, I had to double click on the parent folder to make the "checkbox selectable" files do that in the right pane. But now I can work on it. I admit I didn't realize that choice existed.
Thanks Shawn.

Jack

dsperber said:

Jack C said:

I suppose MS found some good reasons to make file management so cumbersome, or I am not yet with the program, or there is something I can do to make this better, and I haven't yet found it
.
Is there something I can do to avoid this?

You might consider using a "replacement" product for Windows Explorer, or at least as an alternative for those situations where you're not comfortable with the Win7 changes and wish you were back in XP.

I've settled on Free Commander for about 99% of my Explorer-related needs.

Its 2-pane presentation is perfect for drag/drop work, and you can instantly revert (by button) to 1-pane presentation if you want to see more of a tree. Also, the fact that it retains multiple selected items even after the function you've applied to the group (using a right-click context menu item, e.g. "expand with WinRAR" on a whole set of ZIP files) is completed, makes consecutive operations (e.g. now DELETE all of these ZIP files) on the entire selected set a piece of cake.

Highly customizable toolbar, panes, etc. Lots of keyboard shortcuts as well.

Kind of old-fashioned in its Win98-looking presentation, but that's actually a good thing if you're looking back. The new Win7 Explorer has lots to be said for it, but when you want to do things like WinXP or Win98 used to, I think you'll really like Free Commander.

Highly recommended. Give it a try.

That sounds like an interesting and valuable program. I downloaded it along with the help file, and made a donation, even though I haven't tried it yet. I am assuming I can try it and then uninstall or disable it without any permanent damage to the Win7 Windows Explorer. But I'm going to hold off, because I'm really trying to see if I can learn to live with the current Explorer (which crashes regularly by the way: "Windows Explorer has stopped working".) I was hoping I could get rid of libraries and other pointers and make Win 7 just let me manage my own damn files! But it's a lesson in progress.
Many thanks for your help.
Jack
By the way, how do you quote just parts of a post you are replying to? Can't find forum explanation for this.

Jack C said:

I was hoping I could get rid of libraries and other pointers and make Win 7 just let me manage my own damn files! But it's a lesson in progress.
Many thanks for your help.

A few links tro help you remove Libraries from the Nav Pane:

Library Pane - Turn On or Off

Libraries Folder - Add or Remove from Navigation Pane


I'm not sure what you mean by "other pointers", but be careful about removing system or user folders, including the junctions for Documents and Settings on some machines. This includes changing permissions. There are many posts in this forum from those who have hosed their systems doing so.

By the way, how do you quote just parts of a post you are replying to? Can't find forum explanation for this.

You can use the 'Wrap' icon on the message icon bar (pasting the text in between) or you can type in your own starting and ending Quotes, i.e. [?QUOTE], [?/QUOTE]. Remove the question marks, as they are just there to prevent the QUOTES from being converted to HTML.

Jack C said:

That sounds like an interesting and valuable program. I downloaded it along with the help file, and made a donation, even though I haven't tried it yet. I am assuming I can try it and then uninstall or disable it without any permanent damage to the Win7 Windows Explorer.

Just to be clear, this isn't actually a "replacement" for Windows Explorer. I hope my original use of that word didn't mislead.

It's simply a 3rd-party product that performs the functions of Windows Explorer (plus enhanced equivalent functions, plus additional functions, in a more "familiar" if old-fashioned GUI). So even if you install it, you have done zero to impact true Windows Explorer.

You're free to use either program whenever you want to. They're completely independent of each other. Note that the same right-click context menu popups you would get from Windows Explorer on items... you'll get the same right-click menu from Free Commander.

So it's really intuitively similar, making it instantly usable with no real learning curve, although with more experience and customization you'll grow to learn more about its enhanced capabilities.

You're free to use either program whenever you want to.

But I'm wondering if by using Free Commander, and adding/deleting/modifying files and folders ... those changes get carried over into the "real" Win7 Windows explorer?
I guess I'll just have to work with it and see what happens. Thanks.
Jack

Jack C said:

But I'm wondering if by using Free Commander, and adding/deleting/modifying files and folders ... those changes get carried over into the "real" Win7 Windows explorer?

Absolutely. You can use either of them interchangeably at any time, to perform any function performed by the "real" Win7 Windows Explorer. The changes are actually made to the folders and files identically, by either. Identically.