Windows Explorer expands folders inappropriately, jumping the folder you expand to the bottom of the navigation pane

Anonymous
2009-10-28T18:12:01+00:00

When using a left-side Navigation pane, if there are enough folders in the navigation pane such that you have a vertical scroll bar, if you click on a folder with the mouse (so as to see the contends in the right pane), then expand the folder (either by clicking on the + symbol or with the arrow key), then the left pane will automatically scroll up as far as it can such that the folder you expanded is still in view at the bottom of the pane. This removes the folder from under your mouse, where it would be expected to stay.

This is certainly a bug, as it only happens the first time you attempt to expand a folder in the manner. After doing it once, you can scroll the navigation (left) pane so that the folder in question is back in the middle of the pane, and it will expand and contract as expected, remaining under the mouse.

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

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Anonymous
2011-06-30T22:14:30+00:00

Because many people seem to be interested in this issue, I'll post some info on my recent contact with Microsoft regarding this issue.

It seemed that everywhere this issue was talked about, all anybody would get from a Microsoft employee was a boilerplate "Thanks for your feedback" response. Never was the validity of the issue discussed or even acknowledged. I decided to write an email to the man in charge, Steve Ballmer, clearly laying out the problem with links to a walkthrough of the problem, this discussion, and the bug report with 220 votes (at the time). I realized that Steve would never read it himself, but I figured his email must get auto-forwarded to someone who might actually read it.

Two days later I got an email from an Advocacy Specialist from Microsoft saying a "grace case" has been created and the Windows Escalation Team would get in touch with me. The next day an Escalation Engineer emailed me asking when would be a good time to talk on the phone about the issues. So that he would be completely clear with what I was talking about, I recorded a screencast that walked through precisely what the issue was.

Edit: I've made a more condensed video demonstrating the "folder jump bug", view it here.

The end result of our talking was this:

  1. The engineers are aware of this issue.
  2. They may or may not provide a fix for it.

Nothing groundbreaking, but it's one more little push in the right direction. In my opinion, posting in this thread about the problem is virtually worthless. I would suggest:

  1. Voting up and commenting on the bug here:

http://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsServerFeedback/feedback/details/621426/bug-when-expanding-folders-in-explorer-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7

He said that site is closely monitored by the dev team.

  1. Writing intelligent, profanity-free complaints that mention how the bug negatively affects your everyday file-management workflow. Email these up the Microsoft food chain until you get a response. You are a paying customer and you deserve to be heard.

I got tired of dealing with it, so am now using XYplorer when doing heavy file management. It stings to have to pay for a decent file manager, but that is life. If this issue bothers you at all, please comment and vote on the bug, and write an email.

UPDATE 9/13/11: Bug is still present in Windows 8 Developer Preview, see it here.

UPDATE 1/30/12: Finally we have a public acknowledgment that this is in fact a bug that needs to be addressed, and it will apparently be fixed in the upcoming Windows 8 Beta. This is good news, but I know I will be using Win7 for at least another year or two, as will many, many others. We deserve a patch to fix this issue in Win7. Until that happens, keep bugging Microsoft about it.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This is a real bug with 645! votes on their feedback page, however MS has no plans to fix it for their Windows 7 users. The bug is fixed in Windows 8, which means nothing for a vast number of us who have no plans to upgrade. If this bug really gets under your skin, I suggest installing Classic Shell, which has been recommended a few times in this thread. You can choose to only install the 'Classic Explorer' feature which fixes this bug among others, and even brings back the old File Copy UI which is so nice to have back. I've been using it for many months now without any troubles.

Also, to those of you who think they find a solution to this problem by simply changing a few options settings somewhere... thank you for your desire to help all of us, but you must not be having the same problem, and please don't post your 'solution' here. If you read some of the 29 pages of this thread, you'll see every solution imaginable has been suggested. This is a bug in Explorer itself. If you use Windows 7 and plan to keep using it, your options are 1) use Classic Shell, or 2) use a third party file management tool, such as XYplorer. If you stumble across this thread because you just noticed this bug, please vote up the bug, and do either 1 or 2.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-12-19T23:25:01+00:00

    After 25 years using MS and Windows I have started to free myself from MS. Up to Vista I used to defend MS to the Anyone-But-MS crowd, but some kind of mental rot set in during the development of Vista (User Experience Program?).

    First off, MS Office has now been dumped and I am ribbon-free at last!

    Unfortunately, for a new machine I had to get Win 7 for some compatibility reasons, but this will be the last Win version I ever use. I lost a whole subfolder this morning because of explorer jumping. Win 7 is now so infantile I sometimes have to laugh out loud at it. A list of all the annoying garbage would be OT for this thread.

    As someone at MS is reported to have said, when questioned about changed functionality: 'Time to move on'. I think we users need to say that about MS. Ubuntu is for me the OS of choice at the moment. Works beautifully. IMO Apple will stuff you more than MS has done - not an option.

    OK what office suite do you use now? Does it have compatibility with excel, word, etc. that 99% of the business world are hopelessly tied to? The problem as I see it is the decision makers only do the most trivial of work in Office, so as long as it boots up and lets them look at their spreadsheets or whatever, they are fine with it. The people who have to do the actual work are the ones who suffer.

    MS so ****ed stubborn. All users (except complete dyed-in-the-wool newbs and "MVPs") hate the ribbons, yet MS stubbornly insists they will never go back.

    Now this business about the folder jumping, which I swear to ****** bugs the **** out of me every time I open explorer. Someone needs to be taken to school over how programs should work. They can't possibly defend this as appropriate behavior for any piece of software, let alone your most-commonly-used interface to your files etc.

    The whole "TIME TO MOVE ON" concept is fine when there's something to move on to, but the problem with this folder jumping is they don't realize they have a broken, non-feature here.

    And the fact that they, themselves don't realize it is just proof that they don't even use the junky software they create and promote. How could you tolerate these behaviors day in and day out if you actually had the power to change them?! I sure couldn't...

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-12-16T09:18:18+00:00

    After 25 years using MS and Windows I have started to free myself from MS. Up to Vista I used to defend MS to the Anyone-But-MS crowd, but some kind of mental rot set in during the development of Vista (User Experience Program?).

    First off, MS Office has now been dumped and I am ribbon-free at last!

    Unfortunately, for a new machine I had to get Win 7 for some compatibility reasons, but this will be the last Win version I ever use. I lost a whole subfolder this morning because of explorer jumping. Win 7 is now so infantile I sometimes have to laugh out loud at it. A list of all the annoying garbage would be OT for this thread.

    As someone at MS is reported to have said, when questioned about changed functionality: 'Time to move on'. I think we users need to say that about MS. Ubuntu is for me the OS of choice at the moment. Works beautifully. IMO Apple will stuff you more than MS has done - not an option.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-12-11T21:08:41+00:00

    This has to be one of the worst features any company has ever purposely implemented.

    It's like walking up to a kitchen cabinet to open the drawer and the moment you open it, someone pulls the cabinet 10 feet away from you. And as you walk up to the cabinet again to take out a spoon they pull it back yet again.

    Come on MS - a new feature? - really?

    Fix it please, it's an annoying bug and you know it!

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-12-09T11:33:19+00:00

    Me too

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