Windows 11 - how do I set default view for details (other thread solutions don't work or Windows 11)

So your answer is no, there's no proper way to do it in Windows, but here's a third party hack that can do it.

I'd prefer to hack the registry myself, so I guess I'll be hunting for the right keys to modify.

Please see the documentation for details, but as a summary...

Explorer does support the concept of global settings for its folder views via the FolderTypes registry key. That protected key in HKLM contains all of the folder view defaults, but you can make a copy of that key to HKCU and edit the defaults there. The format of the settings, their interactions, and what settings need to be cleared for the new defaults to take effect is quite complicated. If you try to tackle it manually, you're likely to get frustrated and end up with a mess, as can be seen by old discussions online at places such as superuser.com.

Microsoft could have made an interface to let you edit the global defaults, but they chose not to. It's worked the same since Windows 7, so I would not expect that to change. That's why I wrote WinSetView. It fills that gap. It just edits those defaults. If you wish to call that a "hack", that's fine, but you're not going to find any other solution out there.

Please note that many people will claim that you can set the overall defaults via Explorer's "Apply to Folders" button, but that's a half-measure. It doesn't always work and when it does work it only catches the five main folder types. There are MANY hidden folders types it doesn't catch, but most importantly, it does not update your file open/save dialog views.

I was trying to avoid typing all this information yet again (this is the umpteenth time I've explained all this online) and I do have all the same info in the documentation, but there you are.

If you wish to see another place I've explained all this, please see:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/completely-disable-file-grouping-always-everywhere/ec6301fd-623c-412e-b047-e076f053084e

Thank you for that explanation.

Yes, I call it a hack, but I don't mean that in a bad way. And yes, I'm aware it's been around for a long time and it's annoyed me for a long time... Every time you start on a new device it takes time to get everything to your liking.

Microsoft works in mysterious ways. Why won't they cater for experienced/ advanced users as well as average users?

These folder types are probably supposed to be intuitive but they're quite the opposite. And not showing what type Windows thinks your folder is doesn't help.

Anyway, I'll download the tool and see if corporate security will let me run it.

Thanks again!

Thank you for that explanation.

Yes, I call it a hack, but I don't mean that in a bad way. And yes, I'm aware it's been around for a long time and it's annoyed me for a long time... Every time you start on a new device it takes time to get everything to your liking.

Microsoft works in mysterious ways. Why won't they cater for experienced/ advanced users as well as average users?

These folder types are probably supposed to be intuitive but they're quite the opposite. And not showing what type Windows thinks your folder is doesn't help.

Anyway, I'll download the tool and see if corporate security will let me run it.

Thanks again!

I feel your pain. It was motivation to spend hundreds of hours on a free project to try to make things a little better.

I worked at a big company for a long time. It's very unlikely they will let you use WinSetView directly on a production machine, but you can use it on a test machine or VM to capture the settings. See the Command Line Operation section in the manual for details.

there's two possible reasons

1. Microsoft doesn't want you to change the setting
2. Microsoft assumes people are idiots (I'm not referring to anyone here), and in doing so, makes W11 less useable for people who "know what they are doing" (less useable = microsoft creates a whole new settings page to enable or disable features you don't use, and in creating that settings page, makes the entire existing settings page less useable)