How to make an "Up one Level" / "Parent" button?

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  1. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       #1

    How to make an "Up one Level" / "Parent" button?


    For 10 years now, the lack of an "Up" button has really irritated me. Does anyone know any way to add one? Whoever decided it would be a good idea to remove the "Up" button, frankly, wants their head examined!

    Yes, there's a keyboard shortcut (Alt+up) but it's an extremely cumbersome shortcut which requires two hands. Most of the time when you've got your hand on the mouse and you're dragging files around, you don't want a keyboard shortcut, you just NEED AN UP BUTTON!

    I've read quite a few people saying that an up button is redundant because we have the breadcrumbs menu. I could not disagree more strongly!

    Why the Breadcrumbs is NOT a suitable replacement for an "Up" button

    The breadcrumbs menu is EXTREMELY cumbersome to use, requiring 3 slow and difficult steps:

    1. First you have to look at the breadcrumbs, read what it says, and try to figure out which portion of text represents the current directory, and which represents the parent directory. This all requires READING which needlessly slows down your brain.
    2. Next, you have to carefully move your mouse over the bit of text representing the parent directory and click on it. That's quite difficult because more often than not, this is a tiny, truncated, nonsensical couple of characters.
    3. Finally, you must start this entire painful process all over again and repeat it the number of levels you're trying to move up. So, if you want to move up three levels, you need to do this process three times. (Yes, there are times when you can jump up multiple levels at once, but this function often unavailable, so you can't rely on it being there.)

    In contrast, with an "Up" button, you don't have to read anything. You don't even have to even think at all. You can just click "Up" 3 times and you're exactly where you want to be. Click-click-click. Done.
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  2. Posts : 2,246
    Windows 7 Pro SP1 64 bit
       #2

    I don't know the answer to your question but, are you talking about an up button in Windows Explorer or something else?
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  3. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    wither 2 said:
    are you talking about an up button in Windows Explorer or something else?
    Windows Explorer. (I thought this whole site was exclusively about that?)
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  4. NoN
    Posts : 4,166
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 - x64 [Non-UEFI Boot]
       #4

    If you press F5 while at the bottom of your page it will refresh and go up...might be a bit late to ask MS.

    You'll need only one finger, though it doesn't always refresh well...Worth a try!

    Or if your mouse have a center Wheel that allow (like mine) to click and hold, you'll just have to move up or down the mouse to quickly go up.
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  5. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #5

    NoN said:
    If you press F5 while at the bottom of your page it will refresh and go up...might be a bit late to ask MS.

    You'll need only one finger, though it doesn't always refresh well...Worth a try!

    Or if your mouse have a center Wheel that allow (like mine) to click and hold, you'll just have to move up or down the mouse to quickly go up.
    How strange, neither of those tips worked for me.


    Also, what exactly do you mean by "at the bottom of your page"? Could you elaborate? Surely a shortcut should work regardless of where the cursor is?
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  6. Posts : 2,246
    Windows 7 Pro SP1 64 bit
       #6

    The left pointing arrow at the top left side of the page takes you up one level.

    By the way, you're in the General Discussion area of the forum. This forum covers all topics related to Win 7.
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  7. Posts : 16,129
    7 X64
       #7

    classic explorer - part of classic shell can do it.

    Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

    How to make an "Up one Level" / "Parent" button?-explorer1.png
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  8. Posts : 2,246
    Windows 7 Pro SP1 64 bit
       #8

    The left pointing arrow in the standard Windows Explorer window (such as in your screenshot of Classic Explorer) does the same thing. Perhaps I'm missing something.
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  9. NoN
    Posts : 4,166
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 - x64 [Non-UEFI Boot]
       #9

    In Control Panel => Mouse Properties => Wheel: try to set up how much vertical lines number you want it to move up or down. So with your mouse center wheel it will scroll very fast.

    For exemple, if you set to max 100 vertical lines number, it surely brings you nearly at top or bottom of the page. Default settings is 3 lines. (picked up screenshot on net)
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails How to make an "Up one Level" / "Parent" button?-word-image-170.png  
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  10. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #10

    wither 2 said:
    The left pointing arrow at the top left side of the page takes you up one level.
    No, that's the "back" arrow. It takes you to whatever folder you were in previously. The button is unavailable if this is the first folder you're viewing. It's also unavailable in an application's "Save As" dialog, which is mostly where I'd need an "Up" button.

    wither 2 said:
    By the way, you're in the General Discussion area of the forum. This forum covers all topics related to Win 7.
    Yes, I am aware of that. I didn't see a relevant sub-forum, and noticed that similar topics were posted to this forum in the past.



    SIW2 said:
    classic explorer - part of classic shell can do it.
    Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements
    Thanks! That program certainly looks good, though I am a little nervous about installing it because I already have Windows 7 set up in a highly customized way and don't want any of my changes to be undone by it. I will probably back up the registry then give it a try.


    NoN said:
    In Control Panel => Mouse Properties => Wheel: try to set up how much vertical lines number you want it to move up or down. So with your mouse center wheel it will scroll very fast.

    For exemple, if you set to max 100 vertical lines number, it surely brings you nearly at top or bottom of the page. Default settings is 3 lines.
    This has totally confused me. I honestly have no idea what you are talking about. What do you mean by "the bottom of the page"? Explorer windows aren't normally referred to as "pages"? Why would I want to be able to scroll faster, and what does that have to do with an "Up" button? If I want to go to the bottom of a folder, all I need to do is hit the "End" button?
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