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

Anonymous

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.

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

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:

The engineers are aware of this issue.
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:

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.

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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Anonymous

2012-12-04T20:19:45+00:00

I have that checkbox checked and it doesn't work. I use Classic Shell which causes the Windows Explorer windows to work correctly, but Open File dialog boxes still jump to the bottom.
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Anonymous

2012-12-04T20:08:00+00:00

I was searching for an answer to this problem and i came across a solution which said about changing the folder options......so i clicked on organise,folder and search options and then ticked the option under navigation pane to automatically expand to current folder............

And after testing it WORKS

Hope this helps .....still working now just closed explorer and reopened
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Anonymous

2012-11-17T18:44:24+00:00

This is the attitude that keeps pushing me toward Macs. I've been working on PCs since 1984 and have used every version of Windows and most Microsoft products. I have defended Microsoft all of these years when it's been unpopular to do so. But I'm done with that.

Whenever there's a big flaw, it is always working "as intended." This way, it doesn't have to be fixed, and we are the idiots that can't recognize a great new "feature," right?

There's no purpose for this to work the way it does. I have been pulling my hair out trying to go through my files for deletion to clean out some of my hard drives. Every time I click on a folder, boom...everything flies to the bottom, where I have to scroll down each time and re-choose the folder. And you say, "This behavior is by design and is working as intended." Microsoft NEVER takes credit for their mistakes.

THIS ATTITUDE is why you (Microsoft) have so many people who want to take you down.

I clicked on your bug reporting links and noticed that you are not accepting feedback on this issue and you are not allowing people to begin new issues. You are only allowing people to seek help from others which is why I am here and thank goodness that help can be found in spite of you.

Maybe you get so involved aiming for new goals that you don't care that you are destroying the functionality that we depend on. You've really made so many basic things so much more difficult in both Windows and IE. Don't you test these things on real people? Or do you just tell each other how great you are and throw bugs in just for kicks (and call them features)? Do you think this is funny?
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Anonymous

2012-11-15T17:16:53+00:00
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.

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.
Unfortunately ALL of the links about this bug are now 404 - Page not found. Every. single. link.

Apparently this will not be fixed with a Windows 7 SP. Which sucks.
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