Mar 26

An annoying thing that occured to me when starting work with Vista was the small default size of the windows explorer. Unfortunately, saving the folder settings and applying them to all folders via the folder settings dialog had no effect. Not even as administrator.

Finally, I found the trick:

  1. Open an explorer with your preferred method (start menu, [Windows]+E, anything else?)
  2. Resize the window to the desired initial size.
  3. Close the window while pressing the shift key.

The next time you open the explorer, it should have the size of your choice.

12 Responses to “Default size of Windows Explorer in Vista”

  1. Hans Gielen Says:

    This was one of the really annoying issues, where did you find the solution?

    THANKS

  2. mklinke Says:

    Hi Hans,

    I compiled it from several posts across the net and some trial and error. I don’t remember the URLs, however, since I did some googling and have never visited those pages before or after that again ;)
    Great that my post was helpful!

    Martin

  3. Peter Says:

    Thanks mate, just what I’ve been looking for :) Ain’t the internets something else!

  4. shai Says:

    thanks, just what i was looking for…so simple :)

  5. sdchung Says:

    Thanks, that’s awesome. This annoyance was really driving me nuts. Much appreciated!

  6. Bruce Says:

    Excellent!! A million thanks! This was one of my pet peeves with Vista Explorer – Great Job!

  7. Bruce Says:

    Actually on my 64bit version, its the CONTROL key that does this while Closing, not Shift.

  8. Dave Says:

    Cool, thank you!

  9. Jim Says:

    Worked like a charm. This is just what I needed. Thanks!

  10. Mattias Says:

    Hmm, neither Ctrl nor Shift does the trick for me… strange.
    Are there other ways? Register tricks etc?

  11. Mattias Says:

    Oh! Now it works.
    I have to be in the same view (“Computer”) as when starting Explorer, when closing it with Shift-[close]. Makes kind of sense, if it’s a per-folder setting.

    The first times I opened it I went to “Documents”, resized the window so that it showed just as many icons I want it to, and then shift-closed. Didn’t work. Have to return to “Computer” (where the icons don’t matter much to me, that’s why I left it) and shift-close from there. :-)

  12. Ben Says:

    Confirming Bruce, on my Vista 64 the Ctrl key did the trick, not Shift.
    Thanks guys!

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