Comments on: Stop Windows Explorer From Automatically Expanding Folders Trees In XP

By: Tricia

Tricia — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:24:21 +0000

@Tricia: Oops, never mind. It did work, but not until I closed out of all open explorer windows and then re-opened. This is great--it has been driving me nuts for such a long time because I have one particular folder with many subfolders that I use often, and the expanded list is SO long. I almost never need to expand it on the left side like it was doing, so the default behavior was just plain obnoxious. Thanks!

By: Tricia

Tricia — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:13:15 +0000

Is there a way to do this in Vista? I tried both directions, but neither works for me. I used the registry tweak first, which had no effect. Then when I tried the folder options method, it changed my dword value back to 1 in the registry–like a toggle.

By: sharon

sharon — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:25:05 +0000

Hmmm … it didn't work! I checked the registry setting and it's correct. Perhaps I'm looking for the answer to a different problem??

By: sharon

sharon — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:19:00 +0000

I have to agree with Chris – tip of the decade. I too have been looking for a solution to this frustrating issue. Thanks so much!!

By: Bunny

Bunny — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:05:15 +0000

I'm a recent convert from Win2000 to WinXP and this folder expansion one of a number of "helpful" things that XP does that drive me crazy! Thanks for the tip.

"Reg:…\Explorer\Advanced\FriendlyTree". Friendly? Ha ha! Microsoft humour, I take it.

Now, if I can just get the taskbar tooltips to appear *on top* of the taskbar, Task Manager to iconise to the system tray, Internet Explorer not to shift web pages down for the security "information bore" (oop, I meant bar) just because I have ActiveX set to Prompt and said No .. and all the other little things that used to work in Win2000.

By: Shun

Shun — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:22:54 +0000

Thanks! I was also looking for this for years!!!! Stupid standard configuration from Microsoft…..

Now: it's OVER!!!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:35:08 +0000

This has to be the tip of the decade. Spread the word!

By: Emilio Pastrana

Emilio Pastrana — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:07:10 +0000

I've been looking for this solution for a long time too and it is great to learn something new.

Thank you very much for sharing your expertise and good luck!

By: Al

Al — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:08:23 +0000

I've been looking for this for years! It used to be the default in earlier versions of Windows and it's been frustratating me for years. THANKS!!!