Recent Group By annoyance after MS updates

pseudonym · Mar 8, 2026

Win11 Pro 25H2.

In some recent monthly update, I noticed all my file open/save dialogs have Group By turned back on. It's also back on for all folders I spot checked.

The twist this time is I can only turn it off one folder at a time and have that "stick". If I use Folder Options -> apply view to all (similar) folders, Group By is turned back on for all affected folders.

Has anyone else seen this?

I am familiar with Les Ferch's WinSetView, I plan to try it again, just wanted to ask here about this first.

Kind regards.

LesFerch · Mar 11, 2026

pseudonym said:
In some recent monthly update, I noticed all my file open/save dialogs have Group By turned back on. It's also back on for all folders I spot checked.

The twist this time is I can only turn it off one folder at a time and have that "stick". If I use Folder Options -> apply view to all (similar) folders, Group By is turned back on for all affected folders.

Some updates (typically major updates) reset some user registry keys causing default views, such as grouping in the Downloads folder, to return. This also affects WinSetView. That is, the FolderTypes key it creates in HKCU gets deleted by some updates, so you have to run WinSetView again to reapply your preferences (i.e. just open WinSetView and click Submit).

The "Apply to Folders" button in Explorer only updates the views that you see via an Explorer window. Open/Save dialog views, for folders where the view was already cached, will not get updated with that new view. WinSetView takes care of that by completely clearing out the saved views, so new views are created from your preferences.

pseudonym · Mar 11, 2026

Thanks Les, I did try the current (of a few days ago) version of WinSetView. It does not resolve the issue. I tried using WSV to reset everything to windows defaults, then one by one played with various options. The result is the same. If I turn off grouping in an individual dialog, using File Explorer, it 'sticks'. As soon as I use File Explorer or WinSetView and make the change to all of same type, the group by is turned back on.

Although I am not having the problem with individual folders, when WinSetView finishes it opens File Explorer, and the view shown there also has its group by turned back on (even though it was turned off before I started).

There must be some bug introduced in File Explorer (whether that be code, registry keys, etc.) is all I can think of. It is an odd and annoying problem.

I've had no anomalies applying updates as far as I can tell, all went on smoothly. So at a loss how any sort of 'glitch' could have happened to just me.

LesFerch · Mar 11, 2026

That should not happen. For a sanity check, I recommend creating a new local user account, login with that account, open the Downloads folder, change Group by to (None), and then go to Folder Options and click Apply to Folders.

Then create a subfolder in Downloads and verify that group by is still off in that folder. Then run Notepad and verify that group by is off in the open/save dialog view for Downloads.

If all of that is correct, we can circle back and figure out what's going on with your original account.

pseudonym · Mar 12, 2026

LesFerch said:
If all of that is correct, we can circle back and figure out what's going on with your original account.

Sorry for delay in reply. The test account worked fine! Thank you. Please let me know what else I can do.

LesFerch · Mar 12, 2026

pseudonym said:
Sorry for delay in reply. The test account worked fine! Thank you. Please let me know what else I can do.

You could migrate your files to the new account (ensure it is an "administrator") and abandon the old account. But since we like to get to the bottom of things here, we can dig deeper to try to fix your old account.

The first thing I would like to see is your WinSetView configuration. That's all stored in the file Win10.ini (even for Windows 11). If you're using WinSetView as a portable app, that will be located in the AppData folder within the WinSetView folder. If you did the exe install of WinSetView, that file will be located in %localappdata%\WinSetView.

To attach that file here, either zip it or make a copy and rename the .ini extension to .txt. and then use the Attach files button here. I've attached mine to this message as an example.

pseudonym · Mar 12, 2026

I can get that config to you, but I played around with all sorts of settings and I have no idea the last state it was in. Would it be possible for you to tell me what I should try, then if that doesn't work I can send the config to you?

LesFerch · Mar 12, 2026

You could try it with the default settings. Just delete your current Win10.ini file to go back to the defaults.

pseudonym · Mar 12, 2026

Perfect. I deleted the win10.ini, then ran WSV and marked the box 'reset views to windows defaults' and submit. All messages in the powershell window were completed succesfully messages. Attached is the new config file.

The explorer window that opened at finish has group by turned on, same as before. Also, I went to notepad++ and tried both open and save as, and the dialogs have group by turned on.

LesFerch · Mar 12, 2026

That's exactly as expected since you checked "Reset views to Windows defaults" (assuming the folder you're in is the Downloads folder).

Try it again with that box not checked, so you get the WSV defaults.

pseudonym · Mar 12, 2026

I wasn't sure if you wanted file explorer defaults first, before applying WSV defaults.

WSV defaults done now and new config attached. Group by is off for Downloads folder, also notepad++ open and save as to same.

Next I set group by on downloads folder manually with file explorer. Then I applied that view to all (similar) folders. I'm not sure what other folders that is, I could not find others with group by now turned on. (Subfolders of downloads folder, as example, don't have group by turned on.) Notepad++ with open and save as dialogs to downloads folder, still have no group by even though downloads folder does. Not sure if the dialogs should have gotten group by from this action.

If that's not expected behavior I'm happy to continue trying to find out what could be corrupted in my settings, or we can call it day since resetting to windows defaults followed by WSV defaults seems to have set group by off everywhere, which is what I want.

LesFerch · Mar 12, 2026

pseudonym said:
I wasn't sure if you wanted file explorer defaults first, before applying WSV defaults.

WSV defaults done now and new config attached. Group by is off for Downloads folder, also notepad++ open and save as to same.

Next I set group by on downloads folder manually with file explorer. Then I applied that view to all (similar) folders. I'm not sure what other folders that is, I could not find others with group by now turned on. (Subfolders of downloads folder, as example, don't have group by turned on.) Notepad++ with open and save as dialogs to downloads folder, still have no group by even though downloads folder does. Not sure if the dialogs should have gotten group by from this action.

If that's not expected behavior I'm happy to continue trying to find out what could be corrupted in my settings, or we can call it day since resetting to windows defaults followed by WSV defaults seems to have set group by off everywhere, which is what I want.

I would expect a subfolder of Downloads to once again be grouped (when viewed via Explorer) if you enabled grouping for the root Downloads folder and clicked "Apply to Folders", but the open/save dialog view, as previously mentioned, does not get updated by "Apply to Folders".

Anyhow, if your goal is to NOT have grouping enabled in Downloads, it sounds like you're good to go.

pseudonym · Mar 12, 2026

I expected sub folders to be grouped as well, like you, but they were not. So there is still something odd here.

Once tax season is done (!) and I get some available time, I am planning on doing a format and reinstall Win11 Pro from scratch anyway. That should take care of whatever corruption may be lingering.

And, my goal is no group by anywhere, I should be able to achieve that with WSV.

Thank you for your help here and your utility. Why Microsoft makes it so hard to change some of these options is beyond me. Have a nice rest of your day.

LesFerch · Mar 12, 2026

pseudonym said:
Once tax season is done (!) and I get some available time, I am planning on doing a format and reinstall Win11 Pro from scratch anyway. That should take care of whatever corruption may be lingering.

Another option is to move your data to that new user account.

pseudonym · Mar 13, 2026

Yes, that's an option. But I've got some other things not behaving quite right after recent updates that I haven't been able to fully clear up either. I look forward to a fresh canvas. Thanks again for the assist.

Recent Group By annoyance after MS updates

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