Solved Folder View Painter

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Fantastic, Les. Great idea. I don’t suppose you’d like to add an option for it to remember the folder view settings in the first place? It’s been discussed in here before and I for one seem to always have to re-adjust them regardless of trying/using all the correct processes. Win Set View type integration, as you mentioned in the other thread “Sorting Files”

antspants said:

Fantastic, Les. Great idea. I don’t suppose you’d like to add an option for it to remember the folder view settings in the first place? It’s been discussed in here before and I for one seem to always have to re-adjust them regardless of trying/using all the correct processes. Win Set View type integration, as you mentioned in the other thread “Sorting Files”

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If you're talking about backing up and restoring all folder views for a situation like creating a new user account on the same machine where you want it to have all the same views as the old account, you can use WinSetBak.cmd or WinSetBak.ps1 that are included in the Tools folder with WinSetView. There's a similar script in the tutorials here, but it does not include the FolderTypes key.

If you mean an Undo for FolderViewPainter, that's possible, but really difficult to do well and, IMO, unnecessary since you can just export the current view and give it a meaningful name before doing an import.

If you mean something to prevent Windows from forgetting a folder view, I think that's covered as well as it can be with WinSetView. The forgetfulness generally falls into two categories 1) Explorer unable to save any more views due to hitting the 5000 saved views limit or due to some corruption in those registry keys, 2) User looking at the folder via a different namespace and assuming the view was forgotten.

Number 2 is actually much more common. You can get to the same folder path via different routes which all have their own namespace and, therefore, their own saved view in the registry. For example, I have found that there are at least five different namespaces for the Pictures folder. When you change the view for a special folder, such as Pictures, you would have to click the Apply to Folders button to get all the Pictures folder namespaces updated. The problem with that is if you don't want to change the view for all folders of type Pictures, but only want to change the view for that particular subfolder, regardless of how you navigate to it.

The multiple namespace views for special folders in Explorer is a PITA and was by far the biggest challenge with this tool. FolderViewPainter will update all the saved views for a particular folder, but it can't update a view that doesn't exist. So, for example, let's say you've navigated to C:\Users\antspants\Pictures\MyCat via This PC, via your username icon, and via the direct path. You'll probably then have three saved views in the registry for that one location. FolderViewPainter will update all three, but if you then happen to navigate in another way, that creates a fourth or fifth view in the registry, those views will be whatever you have set as your default for Pictures.

It takes a special kind of Microsoft "genius" to think that users would want multiple saved views for the same physical location. Even if that's a handy feature for 0.1%, it just confuses the other 99.9%. Typical Microsoft over-engineering.

LesFerch said:

If you mean something to prevent Windows from forgetting a folder view, I think that's covered as well as it can be with WinSetView.

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I thought I’d push my luck. Regardless, I believe I could benefit from what you have written here, thanks for offering it, it’s very generous of you