Windows explorer moves the selected folder to bottom of folders list. How do I stop this?

Anonymous
2009-12-27T19:25:21+00:00

THIS PROBLEM DOES NOT HAVE AN ANSWER.    I DID NOT MARK ANY REPLY AS SUCH.

BEWARE MODERATOR ANSWER ABUSE!!!

Open a windows explorer

show folders on left

Double Click Computer

Double Click C disk

Scroll to windows   Double Click 

Double Click diagnostics  (example)

The folder is now moved to the bottom of the folder list.

This also happens when any folder is clicked once and the the open gadget is clicked once.

This is increadably annoying.  How do I stop it?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2010-03-22T08:24:10+00:00

Hi j1234567890j - and everyone else that repsonded to this post. 

I also expierence this problem and like with everyone that replied on this post an many others that this is driving me insane. To make matters worse, this problem presents itself also on the Open or Save file dialogs in any application that relies on the Windows File Dialog.

In my case I also found that the behaviour is inconsistent. Sometimes the problem presents itself and sometimes it does not. - This is why it is difficult to zero in on the behavior and some folks cannot replicate the problem. So, I believe other replies on various posts where this problem cannot be replicated. As a developer I understand this, since we often have the response: "...but it works in my computer..." - And yes it does, because typically a dev/support machine is set up for ideal circumstances. I am digressing...

Trying to understand the Problem

I have noticed a pattern, however. I have found that if I collapse the folder in question and expand (double click) again, that the navigator moves again, this time exposing all sub-folders that are direct descendants of the folder in question. I have also noticed that if the sub-folders are too many to display in the navigation panel, that the selected folder is scrolled to the top of the panel, exposing as many folders that can be viewed. 

I think the intention of the navigation behavior is that when the user expands the folder, it will show as many as possible sub-folders in view - but I also think that this is where there is a bug - or at least where some other setting has an impact on the behavior. - For some reason, when a folder is expanded the navigation pane only finds the first sub-folder and exposes that one - hence the anoying movement of the selected folder away from the current mouse pointer position.

Finding an answer

And yes - even though I think I understand the problem - I agree with everyone elses user experience - This must be fixed!

I am not sure that a moderator will pick this up as this post is marked as awnsered - even though in my opnion it is not.

But if someone does: I think providing an option on the General tab of the Folder Options dialog for a user to turn off this behavior and just expand the folder without attempting to present all viewable folders in the navigation pane.

Regards

Andre Coetzee

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-13T05:56:33+00:00

    I have confirmed that the best fix for this problem is to simply install 'Classic Shell', located at: http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ as this solves the jumping and scrolling when selecting items in Windows Explorer. There are lots of other cool things this open source program does as well. It has many enhancements for the start menu and for Windows Explorer. I've now called this problem 'solved' in my opinion, no thanks to M$ by the way. Leave it to the smart independent devs of the world to conquer this ridiculous conundrum. Thanks to Classic Shell... I will donate a few bucks to their cause.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-09-12T07:10:55+00:00

    i was looking for fix to this problem too, found http://bbs.blackviper.com/index.php?topic=2970.0 and it does seem to help, just not 100%. It doesn't really automatically expand like you'd think, so maybe another bug, but does seem to stop the moving to the bottom BUUUG most of the time.

    quote:

    Open Explorer, go to Organize and then to Folder and Search Options, then under the general tab at the bottom, put a check in Automatically expand to current folder.

    edit: it only helps when clicking the lil arrows, dbl clicking on folders still gets you to the bottom.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-09-07T14:49:32+00:00

    There is an easy workaround.  The "moving to the bottom" only happens when you double click the folder, causing the folder contents to be displayed in the right pane.  Instead, single-click the tree expansion arrow to expand the folder tree in the left pane.   Once there, click on the folder of interest to view the its contents in the right pane, if desired.

    This all sounds fine and dandy, so you click the folder once to see the contents in the right pane as you state in your last sentence, then when you realize that was not the folder you had been looking for, so you single click the arrow to the left again and.... BAM... we're now all the way scrolled back down to the bottom again. Every time, and 100% reproducible.

    My argument to M$ about it being a "desired feature" is, ok, fine then M$, if it is that simple, then give us a regedit key to turn the appropriate '1' into a '0' so we can eliminate that branch of code altogether so we can toggle-off that 'feature'. And the reason they can't do that is because it is a bug, there is no branch of code that they designed into it to make it do this. They are trying to cover it up too. I've worked in software dev for many years and the devs always know about the bugs (as there is no such thing as bug-free code), and these guys would also like to see the bugs get fixed, but to see the real problem, we must go WAY up high onto the corporate ladder and you will see a bunch of corporate textbook-smart clowns who know nothing about computers or software-dev, and they say that there are bigger fish to fry elsewhere and these piddley bugs like the one described here are 'not something that your average guy will even notice, so let's move on...' These are rich people like Obama who are so out-of-touch with the average people in society that they only try to guess what THEY think the majority of society would ever want, and they even think they are close in delivering that which the people want, when the truth is they are so far off base most of the time. The only way they WOULD EVER fix this bug is if they had cold hard evidence that this bug was a DIRECT CAUSE of a significant loss in product sales, and for no other reason would they ever repair this problem. And they will never see a 'significant loss' in product sales because they have too many iron clad contracts selling OEM version of Win7 now, that a few lost sales in the private sector wont even be much noticed. Many of the OEM sales are overseas too where there will be many first time computer users using them whom will never know the difference anyway. So perhaps the corp clowns are half-right about many people not knowing the difference anyway.

    They may possibly fix this bug in a future release of Windows however, because it has been proven that when they break stuff and the people get mad, that later, when the new version of Windows comes out, then the people are double-happy again (got their pacifier back in mouth) because that issue got fixed. It's like an old love came back. Look at Windows Millennium... that OS made people eventually very appreciative when XP finally came out. So much so that XP started selling like hotcakes. They thrive on breaking things, so they can fix them later and sell more copies... The cycle is fix-break-fix-break-fix, etc. Because if you just fixed all the time, you'd eventually get a perfect scalable product and this is what they fear most, because they thrive on keeping the money river flowing, and this requires a new OS every few years. Because look at the automotive industry... They thrive on cars that will break down every 7 years, but an OS can't wear out, because it is just bits that can be re-installed on new hardware. Something's gotta give...

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-08-25T22:07:16+00:00

    Everyone else who is disgusted by the NON-answer posted by the MS support person can do like I just did. I clicked the moderator's "Report As Abuse" link and explained that the answer was a canned response unrelated to the question asked.

    And for the rest of the MS support staff who hasn't been observant enough to notice the bug, another user "topflynn" has posted a very detailed step-by-step walkthrough on how to reproduce the bugs, with explanations along the way. MS, don't bother replying to me and offering any suggestions because there are none. This is a bug, and there's no setting anywhere in windows to fix it. 

    Here's the post by topflynn explaining the bug IN DETAIL: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/29d69da6-0f15-427b-9b07-7360910fc871

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