Windows 7 How to stop Explorer from moving the Folder list?

[Jedi2016]

This has been a pet peeve of mine on Win7 ever since I upgraded months ago.

I'm real big on using Windows Explorer to navigate around my drives, looking at files, photos, movies, whatever. There are two things that the folder list, on the left side of the screen, does differently from it's XP predecessor that bug me:

1) It doesn't auto-expand a folder when I click on it. I have to double-click. Years upon years of doing things one way, and they suddenly change it.

2) This is the one I'm posting about... As I'm browsing down the list on the left, burrowing into sub-folder after sub-folder using the arrows.. right as I'm about to click on a folder that I want to view.. Suddenly the list will SNAP back to the top of the page as if it still thinks I want to be looking at whatever other folder I used to be in (usually the default Libraries folder). So I'll sit there and flip my mouse wheel a few times to get back to where I was.. and it'll SNAP BACK TO THE TOP AGAIN. It also happens when I've selected a particular folder, but I'm trying to navigate to one of the many sub-folders. It'll SNAP back up without warning, putting the root folder that I've selected at the very bottom of the screen, forcing me to scroll down. Again. Also happens when I'm trying to use Explorer to open a file from inside of a program.. File>Open, search, scroll, SNAP, scroll, SNAP, scroll, STOP IT, scroll, there it is. Frankly, it's pissing me off.

If there's one thing that bugs me the most about computers these days, it's when they try to do something "helpful" that I honestly don't want it to do. I know better than Windows what I'm trying to do when I'm using this computer. I am not the AOL-using end user that doesn't know what he's doing.. Technical Support? Yeah, been there, done that.. now I train tech support.. believe me, I know what I'm doing.

Is there some option somewhere to tell Windows to leave Explorer the hell alone when I'm browsing my drives? Get it to play the way I want it to play?

Thanks.

 

[CallmePC]

You are right, explorer is annoying...
Especially - when opening a folder and it flips the current folder to the bottom, wtf is this, and why has it not been corrected, this error was also present in the rc.

I think I'll have to try Mac or Linux.. course this is just plain stupid!!

Seven has it errors - but this is by far the most annoying!

 

[Alabastah]

Yes! I thought I was just going insane, but this drives me nuts! So much so that I don't use the sidebar if I can possibly avoid it, or I might end up deleting something important, or copying everything into some random folder.....

Anyone know how to stop this from happening?

 

[bjornmmcc]

Hello? Anybody gonna help here or what?

 

[MrSmartyPants]

ClassicShell did it for me. Very easy workaround. GET IT and relieve yourself of the MISERY of this BUG (I don't work for Classic Shell. It's free BTW). Here's the website to get it at: Welcome to Classic Shell

1.) Unless you want to mess with Start Menu options as well, only install the "Classic Explorer" module of Class Shell.
2.) Once installed, open up the "Classic Explorer" module from your start menu, and click on the "All Settings" radial button at the bottom of the configuration window.
3.) Click on "Navigation Pane" tab.
4.) Under the 1st choice, ""Navigation pane style", click and choose the "Windows XP Simple" option.
5.) That's it - your done. Close out of any Explorer windows you might have open. The next one you open, won't have this wonderful Microsoft Windows 7 'feature' anymore.

BTW, if you also are annoyed by the fact that the Copy/Move dialog box doesn't offer up the detailed information anymore, Classic Shell ALSO fixes that...

1.) In the same "Classic Explorer" window, click on the "File Operation" tab.
2.) Check the "Always show more details" box.
3.) You're done.

Now, when you copy or move something, the dialog box will expand all by itself to show you the details we all desperately need to see.

Hope this helps.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

He's right, this used to drive me nuts.
It's the reason that I installed Classic Shell, but I like the interface you get with it better as well.

Explorer works much better afterwards.

Mike