still learning here..... XP

[dacflyer]

is there a way to turn off auto arrange for all folders ? i have to constantly turn it off for new folders of sone exhisting ones i have not got into yet.. very annoying here..
i'd like to set it on one place to work for all folders and new ones as well..

[MrAl]

Hi there,


I guess you tried "Tools/FolderOptions/View/Apply to All Folders"
already?

I found this:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Program Manager\Settings

and under that it has AutoArrange set to '1', so maybe you can try setting that to '0' if the above doesnt work.

LATER:
I tried setting every one of those 'Settings' i could find to 0 and it didnt seem to work. It may be possible that there is no global setting like this available so each folder has to be done separately with a program.
What i did find was that it looks like a variable called "FFlags" gets set to 1 for autoarrange and to 0 for not.
There appears to be one FFlags for each folder, and when the folder autoarrange is turned off manually from Explorer FFlags for that folder goes to 0. There is a problem though that i havent worked out yet, and that is that the folders in the registry are referred to by number, not by path, so it may be difficult to find a given folder. On the other hand, if you want every single folder turned off, it may be possible to scan the registry with a program that sets every folder found "FFlags" to 0.
The FFlags variables (one for each folder i think) are found under:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags\n\Shell]
where 'n' in the above is the number of the folder. How the system finds a given folder that way im not sure of yet.
Like is said though, setting all of these FFlags to 0 will probably turn off auto arrange for every folder, but i havent tried that yet either.
The proposed program would work like this:
You create one or more new folders with icon view, then double click the program icon and that would turn the auto arrange off for those new folders as well as refresh the old ones. Alternately, the program would have to detect only the new folders and set them alone to 0.

LATER LATER:
Ok, i verified that FFlags seems to control the auto arrange feature and that setting it to 0 turns it off and setting it to 1 turns it on for a given folder. There is another catch however, and that is that the folder view has to be closed out or possibly the instance of Explorer that was opened to create the folder has to be closed out before the registry is changed or else the registry gets set back to '1' even though set to '0' manually. If the view is closed out, it always seems to work however.
Maybe we could write a program to set them all to '0' then? As i said though, you'd have to double click it after you create new folders (one or more). The usage procedure would go something like this:
1. Create one or more new folders with an icon view in Explorer
2. Close out that Explorer
3. Double click desktop icon for the new scan program
Now next time that folder view is opened in Explorer it will have auto arrange turned off.
I dont know if this would help you or not so it's up to you.

[haklesup]

right click on the desktop, select "Arrange Icons by ->" from the top of that menu and then select anything but auto arrange.

I have gone so far as to draw wallpaper in paint to use as dividers for my desktop to arrange icons onto.

[dacflyer]

i have done that, and even have unclicked the auto arrange.. but i have to do it to each folder i go into..

[MrAl]

i have done that, and even have unclicked the auto arrange.. but i have to do it to each folder i go into..

Hi again,


You didnt seem to comment on my previous post, did you take a look at those things?

[haklesup]

Arranging thumbnails or icons within a folder seems to be a little more limited than on the desktop. Frankly its not something I ever tried to do. I stick to detail view in all my folders and frequently sort by the standard headers (name, date, type).

In any case, the "Apply to all Folders" button on the view tab of the Folder Options dialog (tools menu) is supposed to be how you change that for all folders to match the one you just setup.

[MrAl]

Hello again,


Hackle, i assumed he tried that already. I guess if he didnt then that would be a good idea to try first before resorting to a special program to do it.

[CeaSaR]

In any case, the "Apply to all Folders" button on the view tab of the Folder Options dialog (tools menu) is supposed to be how you change that for all folders to match the one you just setup.

That is supposed to apply to the current folder and the subfolders after it. If you want to try it, go ahead.

I'm with haklesup. Detail view sorted as needed. Rather have the info than a pretty picture. BTW, I make
sure that I can see the file extensions for ALL FILES. Just my OCD there...

CeaSaR

[MrAl]

Hi,

I just tried it and it seems to work, although i modified by registry a lot so someone else should try it too.