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
    2010-06-24T11:11:41+00:00

    Is anyone going to fix this? This thread is very old, and since then no Microsoft employee has answered. For now i just turned of the navigation pane, because it's unusable, FIXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ITTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-06-01T02:32:40+00:00

    This has been going on for OVER a year and half. And they have been told many times for OVER a year in a half. And out of all the sum 500 updates/hotfixes it has not been fixed. This whole we listen to the people noise has lost totaly meaning. Not only that, people have been known to misplace files/folders because of this built in this is how its ment to work mentality.. There is hope people.. this lil "hack" has worked for me sence ive used it over 6 months ago with zero problems. Just seems to me im having to use more hacks and programs to get windows 7 to a more friendlier and less clicking way..

    yall might want to check this out  http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/features.html   this FREE program returns all the useful stuff that was taken out of explorer and start menu if want..

     I am using windows 7 64bit. I didnt write this up.. credit goes to Noel...

    I have found the ways to remove several things I never want to use from the Explorer navigation pane:  Favorites, Libraries, and Homegroup.  This has the effect of reducing visual clutter, moving the stuff I DO want to use up to the top, and making it less likely things will jump around after I have opened Explorer (e.g., right as I'm trying to click on them).

    Note:  This post involves modifying the registry.  This is not to be taken lightly.  If you undertake registry modifications, make backups, make notes on what you're doing and what you've changed, and be extremely careful!  If you're not confidently familiar with making registry modifications, don't do it!   If you don't absolutely know that you don't want these things in the Explorer Navigation Pane, don't do it!

    The information here is being provided for reference only.  I have only tested it on 32 bit Windows 7 Ultimate.

    I do NOT recommend you undertake this modification on a system that you need to use for any critical purpose whatsoever, and I cannot take responsibility for any fault that may occur on a system after these modifications are attempted.  If something goes wrong, return the registry values to their default settings and/or reenable the services.

    Of course, you'll need to use administrator privileges to make these changes.

    Note that before making each of the registry modifications you will need to change the permissions on the registry key so that you can write to it.  If you don't know how to do this you probably shouldn't be undertaking these modifications.

    These changes affect all users, and they take effect immediately.

    To remove Favorites, change this registry value:

          [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder]

          "Attributes"=dword:a9400100

    To restore Favorites to its default setting (i.e., so it shows):

          [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder]

          "Attributes"=dword:a0900100

    To remove Libraries, change this registry value:

          [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}\ShellFolder]

          "Attributes"=dword:b090010d

    To restore Libraries to its default setting (i.e., so it shows):

          [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}\ShellFolder]

          "Attributes"=dword:b080010d

    To remove Homegroup (and stop Homegroup networking functionality):

    Go to Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> HomeGroup, and click on Leave the homegroup link to unjoin from any existing home group.

    Note: If the home group are shared and hosted from the PC, all HomeGroup connections will be disconnected.

    1.      Click on Leave the homegroup and confirm.  In the future, if you want to use Homegroup networking you can create a homegroup using this same dialog.

    2.      Go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools, and double click on Services. Alternatively, type services.msc in Start Search.

    3.      For each of the following two services:

    HomeGroup Listener

    HomeGroup Provider

    Do the following:

    Stop the service, and then double click on the service to open Properties dialog, and set its Startup type to Disabled. Click OK when done.  In order to reinstate Homegroup functionality in the future, you will want to set the Startup type back to Manual.

    4.      The HomeGroup icon and group will no longer be shown in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer in Windows 7.  Note that this does not interrupt "traditional" windows networking functionality (e.g., Map Network Drive).

    Please let me know if you find this useful.

    Enjoy your clean Navigation pane!

    -Noel

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-05-14T17:54:47+00:00

    Please add me to the list of people who are affected by this bug. Whoever investigates this issue, be it developer or moderator, needs to figure out how to replicate this bug before responding. If you can't replicate the bug, then don't reply until you do. Don't answer us with another canned response; canned responses at this point are insulting.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-05-02T07:27:27+00:00

    This has been bugging me no end as well, I am trialling this explorer replacement, you can view two drives/folders at once through a split pane and you can opt to have it replace your win browser permanently when you install it, well worth a look: http://download.cnet.com/Xplorer2-Lite/3000-2248\_4-10407731.html

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