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

[Marty McFly]

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.

 

[wither 2]

I don't know the answer to your question but, are you talking about an up button in Windows Explorer or something else?

 

[Marty McFly]

are you talking about an up button in Windows Explorer or something else?

Windows Explorer. (I thought this whole site was exclusively about that?)

 

[NoN]

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.

 

[Marty McFly]

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?

 

[wither 2]

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.

 

[SIW2]

classic explorer - part of classic shell can do it.

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

 

[wither 2]

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.

 

[NoN]

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)

 

[Marty McFly]

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.

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.

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.

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?

 

[wither 2]

My apologies for being so thick headed. I was standing on the back porch this morning having a smoke and, for some reason, I got thinking about this thread. It suddenly dawned on me what you wanted.

 

[SIW2]

You only need to install the littlle classic explorer part, the rest you can deselect.

Classic shell has been used by millions.

 

[NoN]

Confusing, thought you were talking about files in explorer too.. Not only folders. My bad!

 

[Marty McFly]

You only need to install the littlle classic explorer part, the rest you can deselect.

Classic shell has been used by millions.

Thanks. This definitely seems like a neat program. I tried installing it and it kind of works, kind of doesn't.

There is now an "Up" button in Explorer, which is fantastic! But sadly, this button doesn't appear in the "Save As" dialog of any applications - and that's where I really needed it because that's where the window is usually smaller, meaning you can't see the Breadcrumbs.

Also, now I've installed Classic Shell, the Explorer File menu is permanently visible and I can't find a way to hide it. Just a little glitch, I guess.

My apologies for being so thick headed. I was standing on the back porch this morning having a smoke and, for some reason, I got thinking about this thread. It suddenly dawned on me what you wanted.

No problem, thanks for trying to help anyway.

Confusing, thought you were talking about files in explorer too.. Not only folders. My bad!

OK, I still have no idea what you mean. Explorer doesn't display files, it only shows you folders containing files?

 

[MourningStar]

...Explorer doesn't display files, it only shows you folders containing files?

what do you call it when you're in a folder and viewing it's files?

 

[MourningStar]

Off topic: I use one of Mr. Grimm's custom dark themes. Will the Classic Folder interfere with the folder's 'dark' visual?

-thx

 

[Marty McFly]

what do you call it when you're in a folder and viewing it's files?

I don't suppose what I call it matters. I just don't understand why Non mentioned scrolling or the mouse wheel? What does that have to do with Explorer buttons? The buttons never change, regardless of how far down you've scrolled in a folder. He said it had something to do with viewing files, but when you click on a file in Explorer, it opens in its own application, not in Windows.

 

[Marty McFly]

So, just to update this in case anyone's interested,

Classic Shell has been superseded and is now Open Shell.