How to stop Windows Explorer closing for removable Disks!

[IJustWantItToGo]

I have autoplay completely disabled.
I realize that Windows Explorer (WE) will open if a new dvd, usb drive, etc is connected/inserted.

But 'I open' all of the WE windows I use but "Win7 64 will close that WE window if the thing is removed, even when it did NOT create/open it" !!

Anyone know how to disable this 'automatic' CLOSING of WE by Win 7??

Thanks for any help!! , this is a pain (and infinitely stupid on Win7's part) !!

 

[devenprasad]

Unfortunately there is no feature built into windows 7 that can stop this from happening, there could be a 3rd party application somewhere. I personally think there was a-lot of stupidity on Microsoft side when they built windows explorer

Also Welcome to 7 Forums!!

 

[alphanumeric]

If explorer is actually displaying the contents of the drive you're removing, its going to close the window when you remove that drive. There is no point showing files and folders that are no longer there? If you switch the view to another folder/drive before you remove the drive the window will stay open and the drive you removed will disappear from the tree view on the left and the window will remain open.

 

[mitchell65]

If you remove the drive whilst it is open you are likely to damage some of the files on the drive. Hence the clever facility called "Safely remove hardware and eject media" If you have say a USB stick open and use the Safely remove option then that will close the window before saying "It is now safe to remove etc"
If you choose to ignore that facility then you are likely to damage the contents of the removable device!

 

[IJustWantItToGo]

I take it from your response you never used Windows XP .... windows 95.
(I was not asking how WE works, I know it quite well)

All previous windows, if you were 'viewing' the 'removed' drive/device, Windows Explorer (WE) would 'SIMPLY' move the 'focus' down 1 drive, ex. G:\ is removed, it would move to H:\ or even to control panel (I think) but NEVER would it close WE!!

Maybe vista acted like WE does in Win7 but no other windows ever did!

So thanks for the explanation, but this action must be completely related to 'Autoplay' (and obviously the recoded WE) which I think IMHO, is totally for unsophisticated/inexperienced/and the MAC/OS-X user.

Who wants a 2 TeraByte drive to be 'autoplayed' everytime you connect it?!!
Totally absurd! Personally I want NOTHING to autoplay and have it set thus.

So, it would have been VERY easy for WE to 'know' if it opened a specific WE, and thus close it appropriately OTHERWISE WE would ignore the closing and act exactly like WE did in all previous windows, focus elsewhere.

So, thanks again but......

If explorer is actually displaying the contents of the drive you're removing, its going to close the window when you remove that drive. There is no point showing files and folders that are no longer there? If you switch the view to another folder/drive before you remove the drive the window will stay open and the drive you removed will disappear from the tree view on the left and the window will remain open.

 

[IJustWantItToGo]

This is totally unrelated to 'Autoplay' and the closing of Windows Explorer (WE), you are discussing the 'caching' or delayed writing of file related data (or even background ghost file writing), which IS done by Win7 (foolishly IMHO, except for the few milliseconds it may take to actually finalize a recent file/folder/partition/disk change).

And generally, ONLY if you are actively writing to a device will there be ANY damage if the device is simply removed, damage COULD occur but VERY unlikely, maybe 1 in a 100 or even 1 in 1000 chance. But what you do say is the safe manner to remove a device, but WE acts the same no matter the manner of device removal!!

Thanks anyway!

If you remove the drive whilst it is open you are likely to damage some of the files on the drive. Hence the clever facility called "Safely remove hardware and eject media" If you have say a USB stick open and use the Safely remove option then that will close the window before saying "It is now safe to remove etc"
If you choose to ignore that facility then you are likely to damage the contents of the removable device!

 

[mitchell65]

You are clearly so much more experienced than any of us here on this Forum that I for not shall not embarrass you any further with my ignorance!

 

[alphanumeric]

I take it from your response you never used Windows XP .... windows 95.
(I was not asking how WE works, I know it quite well)

All previous windows, if you were 'viewing' the 'removed' drive/device, Windows Explorer (WE) would 'SIMPLY' move the 'focus' down 1 drive, ex. G:\ is removed, it would move to H:\ or even to control panel (I think) but NEVER would it close WE!!

Maybe vista acted like WE does in Win7 but no other windows ever did!

So thanks for the explanation, but this action must be completely related to 'Autoplay' (and obviously the recoded WE) which I think IMHO, is totally for unsophisticated/inexperienced/and the MAC/OS-X user.

Who wants a 2 TeraByte drive to be 'autoplayed' everytime you connect it?!!
Totally absurd! Personally I want NOTHING to autoplay and have it set thus.

So, it would have been VERY easy for WE to 'know' if it opened a specific WE, and thus close it appropriately OTHERWISE WE would ignore the closing and act exactly like WE did in all previous windows, focus elsewhere.

So, thanks again but......

If explorer is actually displaying the contents of the drive you're removing, its going to close the window when you remove that drive. There is no point showing files and folders that are no longer there? If you switch the view to another folder/drive before you remove the drive the window will stay open and the drive you removed will disappear from the tree view on the left and the window will remain open.

I've used XP, 2K, 98 ,95, etc. If what you say is correct, IMHO Microsoft finally got it right. It saves me from having to manually close explorer when I remove the thumbdrive or CD/DVD. Dude what is your problem? You mentioned Autoplay in your first post. Then you flame somebody when they mention it in their reply?

 

[alphanumeric]

I'm on my XP pc at the moment. If I open My Computer and then eject my thumbdrive explorer remains open and the thumbdrives icon disappears. If I navigate to the actual thumbdrive to view the contents and then eject it, explorer closes. Seems to me that that is almost exactly the same way windows 7 does it?

 

[IJustWantItToGo]

I apologize to all if I offended. I just don't do well with the very 'obvious' answers, which honestly was what was posted.

I suppose I just use WE differently than most. I ALWAYS have at least one if not more WE open at all times, since I navigate across my 3 Hdd's and multiple partitions very frequently.

I also always have a 'folders' view in WE so WE action is very important since so much time is spent using it.

But again, I am using WinXP as I type this and also have Autoplay disabled, I suppose I just do not 'auto' stuff too much since it rarely does what I want.

One of the few 'auto' things I encountered was a rental car and it would 'lock' the doors above 5-10mph, I actually liked that, but M$ autoplay I absolutely abhor, so its just me.

So I apologize again! Thanks Mom!

I take it from your response you never used Windows XP .... windows 95.
(I was not asking how WE works, I know it quite well)

All previous windows, if you were 'viewing' the 'removed' drive/device, Windows Explorer (WE) would 'SIMPLY' move the 'focus' down 1 drive, ex. G:\ is removed, it would move to H:\ or even to control panel (I think) but NEVER would it close WE!!

Maybe vista acted like WE does in Win7 but no other windows ever did!

So thanks for the explanation, but this action must be completely related to 'Autoplay' (and obviously the recoded WE) which I think IMHO, is totally for unsophisticated/inexperienced/and the MAC/OS-X user.

Who wants a 2 TeraByte drive to be 'autoplayed' everytime you connect it?!!
Totally absurd! Personally I want NOTHING to autoplay and have it set thus.

So, it would have been VERY easy for WE to 'know' if it opened a specific WE, and thus close it appropriately OTHERWISE WE would ignore the closing and act exactly like WE did in all previous windows, focus elsewhere.

So, thanks again but......

If explorer is actually displaying the contents of the drive you're removing, its going to close the window when you remove that drive. There is no point showing files and folders that are no longer there? If you switch the view to another folder/drive before you remove the drive the window will stay open and the drive you removed will disappear from the tree view on the left and the window will remain open.

I've used XP, 2K, 98 ,95, etc. If what you say is correct, IMHO Microsoft finally got it right. It saves me from having to manually close explorer when I remove the thumbdrive or CD/DVD. Dude what is your problem? You mentioned Autoplay in your first post. Then you flame somebody when they mention it in their reply?

 

[IJustWantItToGo]

I type this from within WinXP myself, and just tried your scenario, it acts as I said earlier, it moved focus down 1, in my case Z: is my dvd drive, and when I eject the DVD, it moved down to control panel. So Autoplay is 'at play' here again. Same for a flash mem reader at B:, moved down 1 to C:.

PS: I obviously have autoplay turned off in WinXP as well!! via tweakui. I ASSume that is why it acts that way and why I want Win7 to act the same way.

Sometimes changes are great, but often times changes almost seem arbitrary especially dealing with M$! Many changes in Win7 ARE nice IMOH, I am not a luddite, just know how I like some things, Autoplay being VERY annoying to me. "where is that voice control for a pc - Watson in a chip!" That would be change I would completely love!

Whoever redesigned WE behavior did change things, just NOT completely to my liking in this case, whereas copying and deleting files are MUCH better in Win7!

So you see a diff behavior in WinXP, and it simply MUST be Autoplay behavior in Win7 (original complaint), and the 'lack' of altering its behavior to my setting Autoplay completely 'off' unlike in WinXP which responds to my liking.

So, I must contend with this 'you are not in control, M$ is' behavior which really has increased in Win7 (probably Vista but I essentially skipped that one) maybe for the better but maybe not .........

Thanks!


So, once again "Is there a registry setting fix for this, anyone??"

I'm on my XP pc at the moment. If I open My Computer and then eject my thumbdrive explorer remains open and the thumbdrives icon disappears. If I navigate to the actual thumbdrive to view the contents and then eject it, explorer closes. Seems to me that that is almost exactly the same way windows 7 does it?

 

[alphanumeric]

OK fair enough, I might have overreacted a bit myself. I have auto run turned off on both of my PC's. There is an update/patch out for XP that turns it off for thumb drives and CD/DVD's. There is also a Microsoft Fixit 50471 that you can run to turn auto run off for all media. It's a little easier than tweakui I think. Tweakui is still a pretty awesome little bit of code though. I'd really like to see a tweakui for windows 7. If there is a reg key for that, and where it might be, I have no Idea. The Customization section of this forum might be a place to look, and maybe start a new thread. Or have a mode move this one there.

 

[FliGi7]

Ok, Windows 7 closes the explorer window instead of taking you back one directory and leaving the window open. Why is double-clicking on my computer again after this too much trouble? Are you just upset because it's changed or because it is an actual hindrance somehow? I can't seem to understand what loss this is causing.

And what does Autoplay have to do with this problem at all, or is that a separate issue? Autoplay has nothing to do with the removal of a drive.

 

[IJustWantItToGo]

AUTOPLAY IS absolutely in the middle of this. But only the cognitive know this I suppose!

I will try to make this a little clear for you, if you change AUTOPLAY to completely 'off', one would 'expect' the closing of WE to cease, as 'off' should tell M$ Win7 to change behavior, ie do not interfere with my use of WE, do not open or close WE as I am controlling WE myself. 'I' opened that WE, keep away from it, I will close it when I desire!! (ps: even a reboot brings back the same WE windows I had before the shutdown, obviously hibernate does as well - this is how I want and like it)

This is exactly the manner that WE acts in WinXP, and if memory serves Win9x and NT/2000 as well.

So Win7 is what has changed, not me or how WE acted in the past OS.

So, this is an actual hindrance, if you have used WE for a period of time, disk/partitions are already open to past folders, so jumping around to often used/view folders is MUCH quicker than opening a new WE and navigating to the desired folder again and again!

Unfortunately too often a used WE is still 'focused' on a removal thing, and if Win7's infinite wisdom, closes it when it DID NOT open it in the first place! Understand?

I suppose for the unsophisticated I should state that some of us actually arrange the folders and files ourselves, in a organized and desired manner, with WE and M$ just throwing WE closed or the OS throwing files and shortcuts wherever it desires, & is almost ALWAYS NOT what some one who organizes their files want. I actually organize my menu to MY liking as well, not to M$ or Adobe or anyone else 'assumed' grand idea, understand now?

This is all about control and having your PC (its just a frigging tool you know) acting and being your way NOT M$ or anyone else way, I own this PC I own the OS, it should act the way I want, I know better (for me at least), do what I say!!

It appears that no one knows how to change this behavior, so I am done!

Class dismissed and over!

Ok, Windows 7 closes the explorer window instead of taking you back one directory and leaving the window open. Why is double-clicking on my computer again after this too much trouble? Are you just upset because it's changed or because it is an actual hindrance somehow? I can't seem to understand what loss this is causing.

And what does Autoplay have to do with this problem at all, or is that a separate issue? Autoplay has nothing to do with the removal of a drive.

 

[FliGi7]

To be honest, I have no clue what you're talking about with autorun as you clearly don't understand what it is and does. Autorun has nothing to do with closing an explorer window when the drive is removed. I'm not sure how else to tell you that, nor does anyone else apparently.

Regardless, it is painfully obvious you're projecting your lack of understanding of Windows onto others that are trying to help you. You talk about how you have to open up a WE and navigate to folder time and time again, a problem easily solved by just copying/pasting the address from the toolbar into another window or setting up a shortcut that opens in that particular folder every time. Someone even remotely well-versed in the Windows system as you say you are (or should I say more sophisticated?) would understand how to do that.

But, I do get it now. There are obviously some other issues going on here on a personal level that a Windows forum can't help you with, and you were merely looking for a platform to rant rather than engage in a constructive collaboration. Mission complete. Let us know if you are ever open to receiving Windows Seven help in the future and we'd be more than happy to not waste our time at that point.

 

[alphanumeric]

I'm on my XP pc at the moment. If I open My Computer and then eject my thumbdrive explorer remains open and the thumbdrives icon disappears. If I navigate to the actual thumbdrive to view the contents and then eject it, explorer closes. Seems to me that that is almost exactly the same way windows 7 does it?

I just repeated what I did above on my windows 7 PC and got the same results. My windows XP PC doesn't do anything different than my windows 7 PC does in regard to windows explorer and removable media. Maybe windows 98 did it different, but I have yet to see explorer work the way you describe or want? If you don't want explorer to close change the focus to another drive or folder before you remove the media. Only takes on mouse click.

 

[mitchell65]

To be honest, I have no clue what you're talking about with autorun as you clearly don't understand what it is and does. Autorun has nothing to do with closing an explorer window when the drive is removed. I'm not sure how else to tell you that, nor does anyone else apparently.

Regardless, it is painfully obvious you're projecting your lack of understanding of Windows onto others that are trying to help you. You talk about how you have to open up a WE and navigate to folder time and time again, a problem easily solved by just copying/pasting the address from the toolbar into another window or setting up a shortcut that opens in that particular folder every time. Someone even remotely well-versed in the Windows system as you say you are (or should I say more sophisticated?) would understand how to do that.

But, I do get it now. There are obviously some other issues going on here on a personal level that a Windows forum can't help you with, and you were merely looking for a platform to rant rather than engage in a constructive collaboration. Mission complete. Let us know if you are ever open to receiving Windows Seven help in the future and we'd be more than happy to not waste our time at that point.

Well said!

 

[unifex]

Rants aside, here's what I observe in XP and 7 when I remove a flash drive, or SD card, or eject an optical disk, with or without properly safe removal procedure:

Suppose the removable drive is D: and Windows Explorer is open to some folder on the drive, say D:\foo. Now, remove the drive.

In Windows 7 the Explorer window will close.

In my XP the Explorer window does not close, the main pane still shows the content of D:\foo, while in the navigation pane I see that D: is gone and now E: (or whatever the next drive you've got) is now highlighted (or, if you want, "in focus").

Now, my question is: so what?

Must Windows 7 necessarily follow the XP model? Is that a major issue? I don't think so.

Is there any way to change the Explorer in Windows 7 to make it behave as XP's? I don't think so.

Does it have anything to do with Autorun? I don't think so. In fact, Autorun is completely disabled on both XP and 7 machines that I used to make this little test.

Sorry to repeat the obvious.

 

[Corne]

Actually, this is a problem for me. We use multiple barcode scanners on one PC. In Win XP, the removable device's explorer window would remain open when you undock it. When you dock a device again, WE refreshes and you can work with the files as you wish.

In win7, the window closes everytime you remove the device. When you dock it again, Mobile device centre first needs to initialize and after that you select the device to open and navigate to your required folder.
This whole process eats up 10-15 seconds each time. May not sound like much, but doing this 100-150 times per stock count, becomes an issue.

 

[lexluthermieste]

@IJustWantItToGo;

I feel your pain. You are correct, Explorer in previous versions of windows[pre Vista] behaved differently. FYI; Vista does behave in the same annoying manner, auto-closing an Explorer instance when the drive/folder presence/focus is lost[IE, drive removed or Optical Disc ejected]. I have personally contacted members of the MS developer group and have been told that this is a common complaint, but that the common user is their focus and us "power users" have many alternatives in the way of after-market file managers to chose from[which was stated with a certain level of smugness]. And with MS moving away from a useful file manager with Win8 and "Metro", they are not likely going to give us "power users" much consideration. Sad really...

@mitchell65;

I don't care if you are a senior member or not, IJustWantItToGo has been been very clear in what problem he is having and how it's happening. Reading his posts made it clear to me that he was experienced at the very least. You and others clearly showed that you didn't understand the problem he, me and many like us have been having and why it is a problem. You have been disrespectful and have been less than dignified. Do grow up. If you don't understand a problem feel free to ask for more details, but insulting/belittling someone because YOU lack understanding smacks of teenage like immaturity.

@FliGi7 and unifex;

Again senior members or not; it is very clear from reading your posts that, in fact, YOU two don't seem to understand the problem either nor have offered any real help. IJustWantItToGo was entirely correct about this problem being related to the "autorun" features of windows vista/7 as much[if not all] of that code originates from explorer.exe. Calls/queries the os makes to drive/folder states are always compared against the autorun routines. Since MS removed the checks that determine the owner/originator of the instance of explorer in question, windows acts according to it's coded and non-configurable[I would LOVE to be wrong about that if someone wants to rise to the challenge] default; if device/folder = not present, close explorer instance. And had you known this information, you could have saved yourselves some embarrassment.

@unifex;

Quote; "Now, my question is: so what?"

So what? Seriously? Read on...

Quote; "Must Windows 7 necessarily follow the XP model? Is that a major issue? I don't think so."

The issue here is not whether vista/7 should follow the XP model, but rather whether this specific behavior was needed and whether or not it should be configurable. For us power users, the answer is a very resounding Yes. Why you ask? Example; I preform data recovery/transfer, os reinstalls and various other data preservation and transfer services professionally and like IJustWantItToGo, very often have explorer open with a dozen or more folders/drives open/expanded and in use. For explorer to close while I'm working, forcing me to reopen and renavigate to said folders/drives is extremely cumbersome, time consuming and ultra frustrating. So to that question that answer must be; I DO think so.

@Corne;

Since MS isn't likely to fix this issue, if this "function" in Windows 7 is that much of a problem for your productivity, you may wish to run the idea of a transition back to XP passed your higher-ups.

@everyone;

I have been coming to these forms for tips on how to tweak and config win7 for a long while, but never before have I seen an honest question met with such arrogance, ignorance and lack of maturity. IJustWantItToGo may not be the greatest communicator in the world and may come off a bit harsh and arrogant himself, but that does NOT give any of you license to behave with such contempt. After all, he IS correct. Each of our pc's belong to us, and it is reasonable for each of us to expect that we can make them run/behave the way that fits OUR needs, not MS's way. Isn't that the very premise and purpose of what these forums are all about or did I miss something? Regardless, many of those whom have posted replies here need to kick it up a few notches in the maturity, dignified and respectable civilized behavior departments. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

It really saddens me that my first post on this most excellent website has to be one like this. What is this world coming too?