Windows Explorer Auto Arrange - Disable

Glad it helps. And another thing in regards to something you posted previously

I have literally hundreds of photo folders, and am now gibbering at the thought of having to manually go through them all, not only changing the view to large icons, but also changing the arrange by choices. Can this be done globally?

I've attached a video you might be interested in. It has audio to explain what I'm doing but it's only in English and it's 12 and half minutes long and around 40mb in size.

It allows you set the default view for pictures, music etc... You still can't change the sort order or icon sizes while browsing your folders then move to a sub folder and have those changes apply to the subfolder but you might like it to set a default template.

One other point, Duzzys' post about checking the Align To Grid and unchecking Auto Arrange may work well for some folders, but is far from perfect for photo folders, as when opening a folder with large icons, only the left hand side of the folder (in maximised view) is populated with thumbnails.

With the above quote I don't know what's happening there as it works ok for me. I know if you have it set to view as Extended Tiles you'll only get one column on the left.

There are a few bugs with disabling auto arrange but there's not alot that can be done other than finding some less than perfect work around like the F5 trick.

Just one other thing, when arranging a folder of objects by, say, name, why is it that the first time it's done the results are in descending order, so you have to do it again to actually get them ascending??!!

This is another little bug that can't be fix. I think it happens because when you copy a file into a folder or manually arrange files a part of Windows still thinks it arranged by what it previously was. I not entirly sure and different view modes act differently in my experiences.

@Brink & Roo
One thing I should have probably pointed out when I first posted the info about auto arrange and align to grid is that if you try to move several files at once around in the same window it tends to jump around a bit and put a gap between some files.

@Brink
If you check the video as well and like anything then you have my permission to use, redistibute or do anything else with it and I hope I'm not stepping out line by posting this in your tutorial without your permission, if I am then delete the post or just let me know to ask first.

NOTE: Video is stored in a split RAR Archive, all 5 parts will be required (40mb total). If your unable to decompress it then decompress it using WinRAR.

You're welcome Roo, and thank you Dustin. I'm glad that we were able to help. :)

Really great work, I tried this fix and it worked for me. However I have three questions about this:

1) I see the vertical spacing in the details view has shrunk since applying the fix. I now find it uncomfortable and cramped to read the folders ever since the extra spacing disappeared. Is it possible to increase the vertical spacing of the details view such that the list feels roomy and comfortable to read again?

2) Can there be a 'Tiles' view option, regardless of auto arrange or not. (I don't care about auto arrange here)

3) Is it possible to to have the 'Auto arrange' setting to be by default on (as opposed to default off), with the choice for us to manually disable 'Auto arrange' at will in specific folders?

Hello Noted, and welcome to Seven Forums

Answers inline. :)

noted said:

1) I see the vertical spacing in the details view has shrunk since applying the fix. I now find it uncomfortable and cramped to read the folders ever since the extra spacing disappeared. Is it possible to increase the vertical spacing of the details view such that the list feels roomy and comfortable to read again?

It doesn't seem to be any different for me on my system. Could you post a screenshot comparing the two when Auto Arrange is enabled and disable?

2) Can there be a 'Tiles' view option, regardless of auto arrange or not. (I don't care about auto arrange here)

There only appears to be an "Extended Tiles" view except in the "Computer" window.

3) Is it possible to to have the 'Auto arrange' setting to be by default on (as opposed to default off), with the choice for us to manually disable 'Auto arrange' at will in specific folders?

When you have Auto Arrange disabled, you will still be able to sort files in a folder just like you always have been able to, but you just now have the added option of being able to place them in any order and arrangement within the folder.

File and Folder Arrangement - Group by - Sort by - Arrange by

File and Folder Arrangement - Change in Windows Explorer Window

Hope this helps,
Shawn

You're welcome Noted. :)

noted said:

1) I see the vertical spacing in the details view has shrunk since applying the fix. I now find it uncomfortable and cramped to read the folders ever since the extra spacing disappeared. Is it possible to increase the vertical spacing of the details view such that the list feels roomy and comfortable to read again?

If you really want to increase the spacing then I did come across a forum ages ago that gave some instructions to do this. The post was detailing how to decrease the default spacing without the disable auto arrange but it could be used to increase it as well but I'm not sure how it will go working together with disabling auto arrange.

Warnings
This involves editing your explorerframe.dll with a resouce hacker. It is essential you make a backup of the dll in case Explorer won't load. Before replacing it in the System32 folder make sure it's the same size. Theres a small chance a later Windows Update will overwrite the file and most likely running SFC /scannow will restore it.

I could not find the article I looked upon previously but you might get a idea from this thread, possible to change list item height/spacing?, it's not the best and is for list view but check the last post first. And you don't need 3rd party software to close Explorer, just hold CTRL + Shift and right click the right side of the Start Menu

If your dead set on doing this but this article does not make enough sense and you can't find good help on Google or the like then I guess I could write something easier to understand.

Most people actually perfer the tighter spacing because it allows more items on the screen meaning less scrolling so if you can get use to it I wouldn't go to the hassle of changing it.

I personally didn't notice any change myself but I didn't take much notice either. I did read somewhere in that thread that changing the FFlags (what this tutorial does) did change the spacing, well for some anyway.