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
    2014-09-27T15:16:19+00:00

    On the Microsoft Connect home page, instead of

    FEEDBACK IN ACTION

    it should say

    FEEDBACK  INACTION

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-09-27T13:17:21+00:00

    I yearn for something that lets me work my way, that puts me not marketing at the centre of my PC experience

    I found it on 25th August 2001. It was called Windows XP. It still is. I'll change only when my PC dies and manufacturers stop producing drivers for it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-09-27T12:26:50+00:00

    It's always something...

    Microsoft sucks the fun out of using a computer... it's like a pebble in your shoe...

    Very apt.  Somehow MS always seems to make things feel like 'compulsory fun' ... and that's never fun.

    I yearn for something that lets me work my way, that puts me not marketing at the centre of my PC experience, and makes a real effort to simplify tasks.  That execrable ribbon for example does nothing to help produce well structured documents.

    Why are my templates buried in a sub-folder called My Templates?  Why aren't they top billing?  After all if I went to the bother of creating them presumably it would be because I wanted to use them?!? Or is that too hard a concept for MS to grasp?

    I still find most users employ a double <enter> key to separate out paragaphs.  How hard would it be to recognise that and substitute a single paragraph mark with paragraph formatted for spacing after?  Or documents with paragraph numbering and cross references ... how hard would it be to recognise that and convert the formatting to numbered paragraph styles and turn those cross references into active self updating cross-references?  I read a lot of local government papers and often find two sections with the same number, or cross references to the wrong paragraph.  And we all know how that happens through late changes / additions / deletions / re-ordering.

    The tools are there to do the smart thing if you can be bothered using them but 99% of users don't seem to want to bother learning and using them.  Word is just a typewriter on a screen to many.

    I could go on ... but maybe better not.

    Instead of their efforts going in to animated icons, prettification, and 'reorganising the toolbar' (thank you Gaius Petronius) I'd like to see a lot more effort in making those things work easily that ought to work easily but seem to be beyond the interest of most users.

    Do I think users are stupid?  Not at all.  I just think they have better things to do with their lives and decent tools should relieve them of the burden of turning their genius into robust presentable accurate documents.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-09-27T09:41:49+00:00

    There is an even worse bug than this.  If you view a 3D file with thumbnails turned on in explorer... it triggers dllhost to consume ALL ram till the computer crashes.  Not fixed in years.  Reproducable on all computers.  Fixable by removing IE11 or IE10 I forget now which one triggers it.

    I feel very very sad using Windows. 

    And the kicker is... I LOVE Windows 7 - EXCEPT the scroll bug!  I have 48 terrabytes of storage.  I HAVE to use a 3rd party program to manipulate my files because endlessly losing my folder and having to scroll down after every click is just plain stupid...

    It's always something...

    Win 98 lost passwords, Win ME had compatibility problems, Vista was slow and bloated, 7 is almost perfect...  8 is horrendous... I'll never install 8 or 8.1.  I loathe Metro.  I'm trying very hard to migrate some customers to Linux, some to Mac, and so far I've kept thousands of customers on Windows 7.  Never bought a single copy of Win 8 except when forced to in a laptop.

    Microsoft sucks the fun out of using a computer... it's like a pebble in your shoe...

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