Disable group by in Downloads folder (Windows 10 1903)

Anonymous
2019-06-18T09:01:17+00:00

Hi, since I updated to the new Windows 1903 version the files in some folders like "Downloads" are always grouped by the date. I was able to disable this in the File Explorer itself by choosing "Group by = none". But in all kind of "Save as" dialogs from any application the group by date still appears and in those special explorer windows there is no option to disable file grouping in them. So how can I disable this globally?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2019-06-19T03:25:57+00:00

Hi Chap Sistine,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

The Group by option in normal folders and in Save as window are different, so if you change the Group by to type in Downloads folder, it will not change in Save as window. Then, if you change the Group by in Save as window, it will not change in normal folders.

You can refer the below example.

Change the Group by as size in Downloads folder - Change the Group by as size in Save as window.

Change the Group by as type in Downloads folder - (Check) Group by as size in Save as window (it will not change until you right-click in Save as window and change it to type or anything else).

Also, the Group by option is specific to folders and once you change Group by for a particular folder, the changes will not be applied to all the folders. You need to change the Group by for every folder by opening that particular folder > Press the Alt and V > Click on G > Select the Group by settings or click on Choose columns for more options.

So, once you change the Group by in Save as window, it will remain the same regardless of whichever application you open the Save as window from.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-01-17T23:04:08+00:00

    I should apologize for being cranky.  That does indeed work on my other PC, just not the one I use every day.  However, the fact that this thread is still generating interest after the same solution has been posted many times, suggests that there are others for whom it doesn't work.  Let's see if we can figure out what's going on.

    Total number of saved views: 5000

    IDs of FolderTypes with custom templates:

    {885A186E-A440-4ADA-812B-DB871B942259}

    {7D49D726-3C21-4F05-99AA-FDC2C9474656}

    {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}

    You have templates created for Generic, Documents, and Downloads FolderTypes. I'm willing to bet what's screwing you up is that 5000. That's the max # of views that can be saved. When you hit that, Windows has to delete a previously saved view every time it tries to save a new one. Have you noticed folders on the Desktop not remembering their view settings?

    The best thing to do is delete all saved views by deleting the registry keys:

    HKCU:\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags

    and

    HKCU:\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU

    Make sure all Explorer windows are closed before you delete the keys. Sign out & sign back in before launching Explorer again.

    You can export these for backup before deleting, but I wouldn't bother. You will lose all saved folder views. The next time a folder is opened, it will use the views saved by Apply to Folders if one exists. If not, it will use the machine-wide defaults found under:

    HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes

    But with the understanding that Apply to Folders works on a per-Foldertype basis, you can open each of the folders under This PC and set your preferred default view for each corresponding FolderType (Desktop uses Generic), and then use Apply to Folders to create the template for that FolderType. And remember, the source for all this confusion & consternation: Downloads now has its own FolderTYpe (even though it doesn't appear in the Customize tab), it no longer uses Generic.

    Another good thing about this "clean slate" approach is that your custom view will be used by the dialogs if created before the dialog is launched for the first time. So, set all default view preferences for all FolderTypes in Explorer and use Apply to Folders before launching any dialogs!

    I'm curious to know how the Downloads folder will open for you the first time. That will tell us if the Apply to Folders template was created correctly or whether views being maxed out interfered with its proper creation.

    Keith

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-17T23:36:56+00:00

    That did it.  

    Downloads came up initially grouped by age, so apparently the existing customizations prevented the Apply to Folders from working.

    I'm surprised I had that many folders with customized views.  Possibly because the default for photo folders was not to show thumbnails, so I frequently changed photo folders to show thumbnails.  As a nice side effect of clearing the custom views, I get thumbnails by default for photo folders.

    Thanks, Keith!

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-17T23:58:51+00:00

    You're welcome! Nice to get a success story out of this thread!

    The saved views can accumulate. SearchResult views are saved for unique top-level paths. Libraries save multiple views. The views are indexed by Namespace path so the Documents folder (and the rest under This PC) has seperate views saved for:

    • This PC > Documents
    • UserName > Documents
    • This PC > C:\Users<UserName>\Documents

    and probably a lot of folders that were deleted some time ago.

    Keith

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-01-18T07:36:20+00:00

    You have templates created for Generic, Documents, and Downloads FolderTypes. I'm willing to bet what's screwing you up is that 5000. That's the max # of views that can be saved. When you hit that, Windows has to delete a previously saved view every time it tries to save a new one.

    This limit can indeed confuse the user and it is another example of too much automation and magic built into windows.

    Why is there no notification informing the user about this background action?

    If I try to delete something too large for the recycle bin, I get a warning.

    So there should also be a warning or at least a tray notification that previously saved folder views have been deleted.

    And there should be hints telling the user what to do to avoid the problem.

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