Make all folders have the same view in Windows XP

Posted on August 1, 2008 at 5:30 am

One annoyance I see in XP is the different views in each folder as your navigating through explorer.  When looking for that really hard to find specific folder or file, having varying views usually is not all that efficient.  We can easily correct this annoyance in XP by making the views in all folder the same.

First open up My Documents and click on the Views button.  Here you can see it is in Thumbnails view.

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Now set the view to your preference.  Personally I prefer Details as it can be easier to find specific files by date.

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Now that you have My Documents set up how you want the other folders to look go to Tools and Folder Options.  Now in the Folder Options Window click on “Apply to All Folders”.

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A confirmation dialog box will come up go ahead and click Yes.

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Finally click OK to close the Folder Options window.  Now when you go into any of your folders you will have the same view throughout.  Just to verify it worked here I went into various directories and as you can see everything is in detailed view.  Simple but very useful time saving tip!

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If for some reason you want to change the settings back you can simply go back into Folder Options and click the “Reset All Folders” button.

Written by Mysticgeek who is also a contributing author at How-To Geek.

» Filed Under Windows XP

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Comments

2 Responses to “Make all folders have the same view in Windows XP”

  1. Ron Boyd said on : August 1st, 2008 at 9:42 am

    I know there are a few people still using XP but… Can this be accomplished in Vista?

    (I am also curious about “my” navigating — as in “different views in each folder as your navigating…”)


  2. Mh said on : June 30th, 2009 at 2:16 am

    Thanks bro, exactly what I was looking for.


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