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

2010-01-25T17:09:34+00:00

Not only that, but the fix above seems to work only on a folder the second time until you close windows explorer. When reopening explorer to the same file, you have to go thru the same thing again
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Anonymous

2010-01-22T20:55:59+00:00

This 'feature' has been driving me nuts ever since I tried the Windows 7 RC. I guess some people may find this useful, although I honestly can't imagine what purpose it serves. Is there any way to get the folders to completely stop jumping around? There should be an option in Windows Explorer folder options setting for this to be turned off if you want.
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Anonymous

2009-12-25T23:13:23+00:00

I don't think Supreeth B understood the original post. To clarify:

If you expand any folder in the left-hand pane without first clicking on the folder to display the contents in the right hand pane, the folder will remain in its current position and expand as it has in past versions of Windows. I.E. - The folder stays in its position under the mouse curser unless there are a sufficient number of sub-folders to force the folder to scroll up.

However, if you first click on the folder to display its contents in the right-hand pane and THEN click to expand the folder, it will jump (or scroll) to the bottom of the left-hand pane. This will occur even if there are enough sub-folders that it would normally scroll UP.

But, this action will only happen the first time you click through the sequence of displaying the contents and then expanding. After that (until you open Explorer again) it works correctly -- the folder will maintain its location in the left-hand pane (under the mouse cursor) unless there are enough sub-folders to force it to scroll up.

So, if this action only happens when if you first click the folder to display the contents in the right-hand pane and then doesn't happen again (with that folder) in the current Explorer session, it can't possibly be by design or working as intended. How could it be? It's inconsistent, doesn't make sense in the context of how Windows Explorer has worked in the past, and doesn't offer any value to the user's experience. I'd argue that it is a major inconvenience because you are forced to continually move the folder back to where you are working.
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Anonymous

2009-10-30T04:46:21+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.
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