Windows/File Explorer tip: folder view

Ed Bott, of TechRepublic, has come up with another great tip.

He reminds us that File Explorer (aka Windows Explorer, pre-Windows 8) displays five types or views of folders, allocated according to Microsoft's internal 'logic'. The folder views are General Items, Documents, Pictures, Music, or Videos.

Each view has a folder type default display template. As Ed says, "Music folders, for example, show Track Number, Title, and Album fields, whereas folders set using the General Items and Document templates include the Date Modified, Type, and Size columns".

I often find Microsoft's view logic is off-kilter, but there is an easy fix. We can manually change our folder templates. All we have to do is to:

1. right-click the folder name,
2. click Properties from the view toolbar, and then
3. choose a different template from the list on the Customize tab.

We can also add columns to any views that we use regularly. I add a "Created on" column to my music folders. To do that, all we have to do is to:

1. open a folder that's defined using the Music template,
2. switch to Details view,
3. right-click the column headings, and
4. add the Created on column to that view, then
5. drag it to the position you want the column to appear in the file view, then
6. open Folder Options,
7. click the View tab, and then
8. click Apply To Folders.

So easy.


Sam

• Reference: Bott, Ed (11 May 2017). Windows tip of the week: Change the default view for a folder. Retrieved 11 May 2017 from http://enews.techrepublic.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=43888531589&ch=AA55E992BC56FCF68F17ACD4C9E4F757&h=a1e59615f83f3d5a1e1a1091a9750cb4&ei=WQtBRv2NS&schema=echo3