File Explorer – how do I set the default View to Details?

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First, let me say that if this is not the right place for this question, then the mods can move it and let me know – thanks.

I have looked at 3 or 4 pages on the web in an attempt to answer this question and none of the proposed solutions that I have found actually worked.  When I open folders on File Explorer to the actual file level, the default level seems to always be “Large icons”.  I would like it to be “Details”.  Can anyone tell me how to set “Details” as the default View in File Explorer so that whenever I open a folder to the file level, it shows me the Details immediately?

Thanks.

Ron M

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Highlight the top folder in the left panel of Explorer (example c: or Users or your ID).
Click on the View tab then Details – should change that folder to details.
On the right Click on Options then Change folder options.
In the Folder Options box, click on the View tab.
While you are in this box, click on “Show hidden folders” and UNCHECK “Hide extensions for known file types”
Click on Apply to Folders, then Apply, then OK.

That should change the view to Details for the subfolders

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PKCano, thanks for the reply and the detail.

Ron

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Ron, please use the Thanks button instead of posting thanks.

cheers, Paul

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I have tried this several times and it does not change all the sub folders to ‘details’!
The ‘apply’ button at the bottom of the window remains inactive and only the ‘OK’ button is active.

Nothing I do seems to work!

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[Al Taylor]

Ron M wrote:

Can anyone tell me how to set “Details” as the default View in File Explorer so that whenever I open a folder to the file level, it shows me the Details immediately?

When re-opened, various windows my File Explorer always show the last “View” selection that I made for them; however, that particular selection had to initially be made when the Window was first opened, but then remains each time re-opened.

This is not quite the same having a default where “every” Window opens with the identical View selection, but is functionally the same as long as one is OK with first setting it (and then it can be forgotten).

But I don’t know if Windows itself is doing this “always the same View” function for me or not.

The reason is that, for all of my installs, one of the first programs I put on is a small utility called “ShellFolderFix” (SFF) whose purpose is (it says in it’s post) “to Manage folder position/size.”  Since each of my folders, when opened, ARE exactly the size and location where I last put them, then my suspicion is that SFF is also making my View selection persistent for each folder.

While SFF was designed for Windows 7, I have successfully used it without issue on all subsequent versions of Windows, including the present Win 10-2004.

The program is on the Windows 7 Forum and can be found here:

https://www.sevenforums.com/free-developer-programs-projects/40916-shellfolderfix-manage-folder-window-positions-size.html

(FWIW, it’s accompanied by 13 pages of comments that go all the way into 2020.)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by Al Taylor.

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