File Explorer wont expand to folder

GDay All,

I have a modified File Explorer shortcut on the taskbar that points to my downloads folder and this worked perfectly until a recent Windows update.

Now, when I open File Explorer it will display the contents of my downloads folder (right pane), but the folder tree (left pane), does not expand to the H:\Downloads folder and I must navigate to it manually.

I have checked and followed the tutorial here: Turn On or Off Expand Folder in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11 Tutorial

But that does not help at all. Modifying the registry entries manually or via .bat file does nothing.

If I open File Explorer and right click on a blank space under Network, then deselect and re-select expand to folder, it will expand to the H:\Downloads folder, but you must do this every time you open File Explorer, which is a PITA.

I have run SFC /scannow, but that did not correct the issue.

Anyone have any ideas why this is happening and what I can do to correct it?

Any help would be appreciated.

I don't have the new file explorer yet to test this, but I did read that Microsoft revamped it in the latest update and folks over in the feedback hub are not happy with it. There are more things about the new file explorer that is upsetting users as well. Other thread here pertaining to this.


All I can suggest at this time is to wait and see if there is a solution for it. If there is, Brink will eventually put out a new tutorial for it.. Or you can check out one of the file explorer alternatives for now to see if they will work for you, some free, some paid, some portable.. I use Explorer++ a lot. It's free and portable but it may not expand like you want..

I have this issue, I nearly posted about it last night. I’ve tried everything. It’s frustrating the hell out of me.

MS obviously broke something, otherwise why have the option to check if it isn’t going to work? I expect a fix in an update. Or they’ll remove the option. Whatever is easiest for them I would assume.

@trumpy81 I am surprised you can’t hear me in Brisbane swearing from the Gold Coast.

@glasskuter Thanks for the reply

At least now I know that I am not alone. Google provided lots of tutorials etc. but none of them helped and none of them showed any other folks with this issue and thanks for the additional info, I will check out alternatives.

I already have Directory Opus (had it since my Amiga days) but I always found it a little clunky and certainly not easy to configure, but it is extremely powerful.

I guess I will just have to cross my fingers and hope Microsoft fix it ... lol

@antspants Thanks for the reply

I share your frustration. I wish Microsoft would stop messing with Explorer, there was nothing wrong with the original Explorer, although it did lack tabs, but tabs without being able to save them is just as useless as no tabs at all IMHO.

Let's hope Microsoft come to their senses and fix this ... soon! ... lol

We had another thread similar to this just recently, and I did a bit of testing with my setup.


Are you synchronizing the Download folder to OneDrive? If not, have you tried pinning the folder to Explorer to see if it opens correctly to all folders? And I'm assuming you used the Windows change special folder location to make it the default Download folder for your user profile, or else assigned it a drive letter, right?

@johnlgalt Thanks for the reply

I have uninstalled OneDrive, I do not use it any longer.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by pinning? If you mean pinned to Quick Access, then I have Home (Quick Access) disabled in the folder tree.

In any case, that would not help, as clicking on the the pinned link does not 'expand to folder', it simply adds yet another downloads link in the folder tree (left pane) with the contents of the folder in the right pane.

I need File Explorer to 'expand to folder' when File Explorer opens, which it currently does not do.

Yes, I used the Location > Move function to alter the location of the default Downloads folder.

Moving User folder doesn't affect this. Any pinned (Users) folder like Document, Pictures, etc or subfolder in any of them won't Expand to current folder.

Explorer does expand to current folder for User folders, if you browse from parent folder, though.. or if you open that folder from search...
But not if you directly open User folder, or subfolder.

Like double blind path for that folders

@AndreTen Thanks for the reply

This is how File Explorer used to open, notice H:\ drive is expanded and so too is the downloads folder:


This is how it opens now, notice how nothing is expanded in the folder tree:

Click Docs (H:) drive icon on the left panel. That should give you the view you had previously.

He wants it automatically doing that.

@Spunk Thanks for the reply

@johnlgalt is correct, I want File Explorer to open the way it used to with H:\ drive AND the Downloads folder expanded automatically (as shown in the first image I posted above).

Now it opens with nothing expanded (as shown in the second image above).

I can always open things manually, but that takes all the fun out of it ... lol

trumpy81 said:

@Spunk Thanks for the reply

@johnlgalt is correct, I want File Explorer to open the way it used to with H:\ drive AND the Downloads folder expanded automatically (as shown in the first image I posted above).

Now it opens with nothing expanded (as shown in the second image above).

I can always open things manually, but that takes all the fun out of it ... lol

Click to expand...

I tried again to get this working with no joy. I don’t believe it is by design. I believe it’s a bug.

Yeah I have been pulling my hair out over it as well. Nothing I have tried corrects the issue.

I did notice that Win11 in a VM does not have this issue, but in the VM I cannot add my custom File Explorer shortcut without issues either

You may be right about it being a bug, I don't think the programmers intended things to work this way, or at least I hope not.

BTW I heard you, I just didn't know where it was coming from ... lol

trumpy81 said:

Yeah I have been pulling my hair out over it as well. Nothing I have tried corrects the issue.

I did notice that Win11 in a VM does not have this issue, but in the VM I cannot add my custom File Explorer shortcut without issues either

You may be right about it being a bug, I don't think the programmers intended things to work this way, or at least I hope not.

BTW I heard you, I just didn't know where it was coming from ... lol

Click to expand...

Ha! Can you hear me crying also lol

Well the way I see it, unless they are lazy, they would of removed the checkbox for the behaviour if the option was removed to have this work.

trumpy81 said:

I did notice that Win11 in a VM does not have this issue, but in the VM I cannot add my custom File Explorer shortcut without issues either

Click to expand...

Um, why not? As long as the VM can see the drive, it should not be an issue.

Also, I just used the run dialog box to open my folder H:\Storage\Drivers and it sort of opened it the way that you want it to - expanded, but not.

Let me explain. First, the screenshots.



Now, the thing to note is that there are other folders in H:\Storage, and those are NOT showing. But you notice that it fully expanded H:\. So, it is, in fact, a bug, but a really weird one.

The picture in post #15 shows the Drivers folder expanded, not the Storage Folder

Maybe this will help? Turn On or Off Expand Folder in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11 Tutorial

trumpy81 said:

and this worked perfectly until a recent Windows update.

Click to expand...

trumpy81 said:

I have checked and followed the tutorial here: Turn On or Off Expand Folder in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11 Tutorial

Click to expand...

All stated in the first post.

Spunk said:

The picture in post #15 shows the Drivers folder expanded, not the Storage Folder

Click to expand...

And I clearly say that.

johnlgalt said:

Now, the thing to note is that there are other folders in H:\Storage, and those are NOT showing. But you notice that it fully expanded H:\. So, it is, in fact, a bug, but a really weird one.

Click to expand...

@antspants

Like they did with the 'Add/Remove from Quick Access' which is now called Home?

They should have removed File Explorer completely and added a whole new File Explorer instead of patching the existing version. They could have avoided so many issues by doing that, but alas, this is Microsoft now, they are still building on Windows 95.

I am not looking forward to Windows going to the subscription model, I think I will switch to Linux then ... lol

ExplorerPatcher (on GitHub) ➜ go to Properties ➜ File Explorer ➜ Control Interface: Windows 10 Ribbon

@johnlgalt

Opening via the Run box cannot be achieved by clicking on an icon on the taskbar. That kind of defeats the purpose of the taskbar icon, but you are correct in that it will expand to the folder you designate.

Also, the issue with the custom shortcut on the taskbar in the VM, is that when clicking on the icon, it will open a second icon on the taskbar and make the second icon the active icon.

That is not how the default icon operates and it is not how I would like the custom icon to behave either. As I stated, this all worked before the latest batch of Windows updates were installed.

I could possibly uninstall the latest updates, but that is more work and it may remove important changes?

@hdmi

Thanks for the tip.