Solved Relationship between Bags and BagMRU keys

[PDXmatt]

I'd like to able to delete some of the Bags keys, but I don't want to have to delete the entire key so I don't lose all my custom folder views. I've never been able to find any advice other than to delete the whole key, can anyone tell me how the Bags and BagsMRU keys relate, like what specific keys are being referenced in BagsMRU, because they're not numbered the same as the Bags keys.

 

[PDXmatt]

I ended up just clearing them again, but I'd still really like to know how to interpret the BagMRU key. If I deleted just some of the Bag keys would the data in the BagMRU key end up messing up any new Bag keys?

 

[PDXmatt]

Let me try to explain it differently, I'd like to delete some of the bags keys because the more I have the slower new folders open. All I've ever found is how to completely delete all custom folder views, how I can just delete some of them without deleting all of them?

 

[PDXmatt]

I'm not going to get any help on this, am I? Is it because it involves editing the registry? It seems like it's almost impossible to get help about that.

 

[Megahertz07]

Never heard about Bags keys. Can you please explain what you want?

 

[LMiller7]

It would help if you were to specify exactly where you found these keys.

 

[Snick]

The ShellBag information comprises two main registry keys, BagMRU and Bags. The BagMRU key stores folder names and records folder paths by creating the similar tree structure. The Bags key stores the view preferences such as the window size, location and view mode. The BagMRU key itself represents the Desktop.
Explaining the Bags/BagMRU registry tree (trying) - Tielen Consultancy

 

[PDXmatt]

Never heard about Bags keys. Can you please explain what you want?

I want to know how to delete the Bags entries selectively, rather than deleting the whole Bags key.

 

[PDXmatt]

It would help if you were to specify exactly where you found these keys.

They're in a few places, but only seem to be written in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell, which I believe are linked.

 

[PDXmatt]

The ShellBag information comprises two main registry keys, BagMRU and Bags. The BagMRU key stores folder names and records folder paths by creating the similar tree structure. The Bags key stores the view preferences such as the window size, location and view mode. The BagMRU key itself represents the Desktop.
Explaining the Bags/BagMRU registry tree (trying) - Tielen Consultancy

"The BagMRU is the database of folders which are currently stored." That does help me! How do I edit BagMRU to reflect if I delete some of the Bags keys? I don't want to have to always delete the whole key when it gets too full, so at least some of my custom folder views are retained.

 

[Megahertz07]

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve by editing the BagMRU database.
As I understood by the article, it will be recreated as soon as you use the computer.
My advise is to leave it as it is.

 

[PDXmatt]

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve by editing the BagMRU database.
As I understood by the article, it will be recreated as soon as you use the computer.
My advise is to leave it as it is.

Once the database gets too big it starts taking a long time to open a new folder, I'm constantly extracting archives and going through the folders it extracts so my database gets filled up very quickly. I have a very large "BagMRU Size" because once it hits the limit it just stops keeping any new custom folder views so lowering it won't help, I'd still have to clear the Bags entries. Even renaming a folder will create new Bags entries, while still leaving the old ones.

 

[Brink]

The Bags key is part of your folder views.

Folder View Settings - Reset All to Default

Folder View Settings - Back Up and Restore in Windows Tutorial | Windows 8 Help Forums

 

[PDXmatt]

The Bags key is part of your folder views.

Folder View Settings - Reset All to Default

Folder View Settings - Back Up and Restore in Windows Tutorial | Windows 8 Help Forums

I know, but what if I just want to reset some folder views? Every tutorial is like that one, it only shows how to reset all folders to default, but I only want to reset some.

 

[Brink]

That's the main problem. It's not real friendly towards individual folders as for making it easy to know what each item in the registry is for in Bags.

The only way that I know of is to back up your folder views using the tutorial below, and then use trial and error deleting individual items in Bags, restart the explorer process, and see if that was it. Once found, you can restore your backup, and then delete the found item.

 

[PDXmatt]

That's the main problem. It's not real friendly towards individual folders as for making it easy to know what each item in the registry is for in Bags.

The only way that I know of is to back up your folder views using the tutorial below, and then use trial and error deleting individual items in Bags, restart the explorer process, and see if that was it. Once found, you can restore your backup, and then delete the found item.

But wouldn't the BagMRU key get messed up since it has still has the information about the Bags entry I deleted?

 

[Brink]

You would need to do it in both keys. It's pretty much pure trial and error to find the value for the exact folder.

 

[PDXmatt]

You would need to do it in both keys. It's pretty much pure trial and error to find the value for the exact folder.

That's what I've been trying to ask, how do I edit the BagMRU entries? The BagMRU entries are in Binary, and the entries in the Bags and BagMRU keys don't seem to match up at all.

 

[Brink]

Now you can understand the complete difficulty in trying to only delete the view settings of a specific folder with everything in binary.

Basically, you would delete the same number key under the "BagMRU" and "Bags" keys below hoping it is for the folder you want to reset.

HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU

HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags

To be honest, it would be much easier to just manually set the folder to the view you want instead of trying to nail it down in the registry.

 

[PDXmatt]

I'm not trying to reset specific folders, I just fill up the Bags key so quickly, then new folders take a long time to open. I just want to be able to clear some of them, most of the folder views I want to keep would be in the first 100. Let me just ask this, what will happen if I just delete some of the Bags keys, without changing any of the BagMRU keys? Will it just skip those numbers when making new Bags keys?