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.

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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

2012-10-20T12:28:27+00:00

Do you think you'll buy the next version of Windows if there's only some hazy mémory upgrade thing..? Nop. The MAJOR evolution for Windows 8 wil be... ta daaaa :

The end of the top famous inappropriately Windows Explorer expands folders jumping on bottom !!!

Yes. That's cool.
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Anonymous

2012-10-03T15:49:16+00:00

Hi Blaqsmith,

Welcome to Microsoft Answers community Forum!

This behavior is by design and is working as intended. If you want to make a suggestion or give feedback on a Microsoft product follow the link below.

Microsoft Connect

Hope this helps!

Thanks & Regards,

Supreeth - Microsoft Support.

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum

and let us know what you think.

THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS BUG!!!

I have a computer with two hard drives, and each hard drive has a version of Windows on it. Booting a version of Windows is done by going into the BIOS and selecting which drive is first in the boot list.

I do a lot of file manipulation and often delete entire folders, some of which are duplicated on both drives. I've noticed that the "Bottom Drop" bug will sometimes drop the folder I'm working in on the second drive down so that the duplicated folder on the first drive is displayed in almost the same position.

If I go into the folder on the second drive to check it and then delete it, I'VE ACTUALLY DELETED THE FOLDER ON THE FIRST DRIVE because the left side display dropped down and positioned the first drive folder where the second drive folder was. It's not always apparent that the drop occurred. It's not even guaranteed since sometimes it drops and sometimes it doesn't.

Using a shell such as Classic Shell is not an option because Classic Shell doesn't fix the bug in File Open dialog boxes (yes, I do file manipulations in a File Open box).

So, suppose I want to stop booting off my secondary drive and I delete my Windows folder from it, but accidentally try to delete my primary drive Windows folder. Since this bug is "Working As Intended, does that mean that Microsoft will pay me to have my computer repaired if I delete my primary Windows folder? Or some other folder required by Windows???
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Anonymous

2012-09-12T17:02:46+00:00

The page allowing us to 'vote up the bug' currently reports 'Voting is no longer enabled on this item'.

If Microsoft have successfully fixed the fault in Windows 8, surely a retro fix for the thousands of affected users of Windows 7 cannot be difficult. The code base for Windows Explorer 7 and 8 is probably very similar.

Microsoft appears to be focusing on more obscure bugs affecting fewer people. Maybe they are ignoring us because the fault doesn't actually stop the program functioning.

Can I ask people to arrange dates as YYYY-MM-DD as 11/02/2012 may be Feb 11 in the UK and Nov 2 in the US. This affects a few forum posts here and elsewhere - thanks.
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Anonymous

2012-09-04T17:09:12+00:00

You are right on two parts. One is of course that the Explorer changes it's behavior when you change the settings as you indicated. Two, that there is ire in my comments.

The point I was trying to make is, PLEASE do not offer solutions that do not correctly fix the problem discussed under thread headings.

If a user does not feel like reading the 292 replies, then I suggest it is not useful to provide a solution, especially one that does not work for the problem under discussion, and one that has been given a number of times before, and one that has been dispelled an equal number of times. That's one of the reasons that this thread is up to 292 replies.

My ire is even greater when I remember that among the 292 or so replies there was at least one from Mirosoft that offered the same insufficeient fix as you mentioned for the misunderstood problem under discussion.

So I ask for forgiveness when "my ire is great."
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