can't make file explorer smaller

paulpchou said:

What was in your case? Same issue as mine?

Click to expand...

I believe so. Instead of File Explorer, it was a program called AIDA64 Extreme, which never did this before Windows 11.


You know what I mean when I say the little square full screen icon in the top right?
Normally, that icon has two states. a single little square or a double little square.

When this problem occurs for me... it only has one state, no matter how many times I click on it.
Just a single little square. <--- That's how I know that the problem has occurred.

Well... that and the fact that the little square icon won't change the window size anymore.


When I say the little square full screen icon... I'm talking about this...




Normally, if it's a single square and you click it... it turns into a double square, and visa versa.

When this problem occurs... clicking on it doesn't make it change from one state to the other.
It just stays the same, no matter how many times you click on it.



Ok, I changed all the word "minimize" to "full screen" in my posts.
So instead of saying little square minimize icon.... it now says little square full screen icon, like it should.

I got the terms mixed up, because I never use the full screen icon.

Software conflict in your case, I think.

In my case, it can be a single or a double . But for the single , the screen is not smaller.

Ok, I think I'm coming up with a better explanation....

Every time you click on the full screen icon, it toggles. AND it's supposed to change from a single square to a double.
It's also supposed to change from full screen to windowed.
Another click and it should change from a double to a single square... etc.

When this problem occurs... clicking on it, still toggles it... BUT the icon doesn't change, like it should.

This means that the solution is as follows...

The full screen icon has only two states.. single or double square.
No matter what the icon "looks" like when this problem occurs... you can only grab the title bar of the window (to drag the window to the right a bit), when it's in the proper state.

BUT since during this problem the icon picture doesn't change, you have to try both states.

So try to grab the title bar and drag the window to the right. If you can't... then you have to change states.
So... click the full screen icon again... and now you should be able to drag the window a bit to the right.

WHEN you have the File Explorer windows dragged a bit to the right... then you can hover over the edge of the window (grab the double arrow), and resize the window. Once you resize the window... then the full screen icon will work properly again.

paulpchou said:

In my case, it can be a single or a double . But for the single , the screen is not smaller.

Click to expand...

Yeah... that is the problem. See post #24


Yes... the icon should change from single to double and File Explorer should go from windowed to full screen.
The reverse is also true.

In the explanation I only mention the icon, because that's what you need to use to fix the problem.

Please tell me how you fixed it? Dragging or moving it?

paulpchou said:

What was in your case? Same issue as mine?

Click to expand...

Yeah... for the 3rd time.

For you it happens with File Explorer... for me it happens with a program called AIDA64 Extreme.
It's never happened on any other window... for me.

paulpchou said:

Please tell me how you fixed it? Dragging or moving it?

Click to expand...

Post #24.


You have to resize the File Explorer window to fix it.
The only way you can resize it, when you have this problems, is to hover your mouse over the edge of the window, till the double arrow pops up, and drag the edge of the window... smaller.

The only way to get the double arrow is to move the File Explorer window like in this picture...
Then hover the mouse cursor over the edge of the window. Like in the little YELLOW square in this pic.




And the only way to move the File Explorer window is to try BOTH states on the little square full screen icon.
You'll only be able to move the File Explorer on ONE of the two states... so you need to try both.

I will try it tonight and will post on how it goes

Fixed. I right clicked on the middle button on the upper right corner and dragged file explorer to my liking.

paulpchou said:

Fixed. I right clicked on the middle button on the upper right corner and dragged file explorer to my liking.

Click to expand...

No clue what caused the issue. But there is one other issue though. When I want to delete files in a folder, it won't delete and the top of file explorer is like gone. Have to close it and try again for it to work. Does not happen everytime. Any ideas? Will send a file when this happens again.

paulpchou said:

No clue what caused the issue. But there is one other issue though. When I want to delete files in a folder, it won't delete and the top of file explorer is like gone. Have to close it and try again for it to work. Does not happen everytime. Any ideas? Will send a file when this happens again.

Click to expand...

What I'm getting from that is pressing F11 [or on some Notebooks the Fn + the F11 combination] one gets Full Screen which removes some tool bars from view, literally get more of the program window showing. That is different from Maximized which just fills the screen with the program window.

The issue is back again. I have to manually move it. Why?

paulpchou said:

The issue is back again. I have to manually move it. Why?

Click to expand...

When it happened to my AIDA64 program, it was random.
I moved and resized it a few times and it doesn't seem to happen any more.

You can open an elevated command prompt and run these commands one at a time...

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth


Wait for the 1st command to finish before you run the 2nd command.

Doing it a few times will prevent the issue from coming back? After you did again, issue is gone for good? Trying to think why the issue is back.

paulpchou said:

Doing it a few times will prevent the issue from coming back? After you did again, issue is gone for good? Trying to think why the issue is back.

Click to expand...

I never figured out why it happened.
I just assume it was a plain old... glitch.

We have millions of lines of code, running on processors performing billions of operations per second.
Gotta expect a few burps.

Relatively new OS as well.

You did it a few times. So did I. Twice. Issue should be gone.

paulpchou said:

You did it a few times. So did I. Twice. Issue should be gone.

Click to expand...

Maybe.
Or it might happen again.

This doesn't have the feel of an actual problem. It "feels" more like a glitch.

I've found times with programs where being resized as desired could come back when holding down the Ctrl key when closing, maybe a couple times for Windows to 'remember'. Seems to be working with the browsers on Win10 and Win11.