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

2013-09-25T07:43:30+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.

I reported abuse to this thread. A shame "stupidity" isn't in the "abuse list"

...
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Anonymous

2013-09-25T05:42:22+00:00

"And I'm here noting, as so many others have, that 39 pages and 387 replies later, MS still hasn't fixed it. "

And I'm here noting that every email I receive about this bug contains three links to this thread.

And ALL THREE links point to the FIRST PAGE of the thread.

MS can't even be bothered to put the correct link in the email - the link that points to the post in the email.

And not only that, but there is no easy way to find the post mentioned in the email. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the first page, enter the last page number in the box at the bottom and then press "Enter".

There is not even a "Last page" icon to click on, like there is in just about 99% of all forum software.

So that merely gets you to the last page - currently page 39.

You then have to scroll down to find the post mentioned in the email.

No other forum software I use is so clumsy and user-unfriendly.

Anyone would think MS don't want people to use it.

Surely that cannot be the case?
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Anonymous

2013-09-24T21:47:36+00:00

This 2013, and I've been suffering from this bug for many years. I'm happy to see this post, feeling that I found the people. I will switch a browser as suggested. I am disappointed by MS.

It has nothing to do with your internet browser; the discussion is about behavior in "Windows Explorer", not "Internet Explorer".

And I'm here noting, as so many others have, that 39 pages and 387 replies later, MS still hasn't fixed it. You can bet that if there are even 350 people posting here who hate this behavior, there are going to be many, many thousands who don't post about it and/or don't find their way here.

It continues to baffle me when MS ignores an issue and there's no up-side to keeping it broken, but in the 4 years that this thread has been posted, they have yet to step up & fix it. Since no other version of Windows does this, it should be obvious that they -could- fix it, they just don't want to bother, no matter how many people are affected.
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Anonymous

2013-09-03T16:52:35+00:00

Still a bug in Windows 7. The jump is annoying, but what's worse is if you're in the process of dragging a file from one folder to another and use the left pane as the destination. Unless you're very fast the left pane contents jump and you end up dropping the file who knows where. Then you have to go searching for it.

If it's by design then it's a BAD design.

Joe Mattioni
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