General Reset Folder View Settings to Default in Windows 11 File Explorer

Brink · Sep 10, 2021

You can change the folder view settings in Windows 11 to what you want for each separate folder.

Folder view settings include the File Explorer window size, template, columns, column width, Group by, Sort by, and layout view of items in each folder, and the width size of the details, navigation, and preview pane in File Explorer.

If needed or wanted, you can reset view settings back to default for all folders or only all folders of the same template type.

Resetting view settings will restore the default view settings of the template used by each folder.

This tutorial will show you how to reset folder view settings to default for your account in Windows 11.

Contents

Option One: Reset View Settings of All Folders using BAT file
Option Two: Only Reset View Settings of All Folders with Same Template Type as Current Folder

Option One

Reset View Settings of All Folders using BAT file

1 Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below.

Reset_folder_view_settings_of_all_folders_to_default_for_current_user.bat

Download

(Contents of BAT file for reference)

Code:

@echo off

:: Resets folder view settings, window size and position of all folders
Reg Delete "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU" /F
Reg Delete "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags" /F

:: To reset "Apply to Folders" views to default for all folder types
REG Delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Defaults" /F

:: To reset size of details, navigation, preview panes to default for all folders
Reg Delete "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Modules\GlobalSettings\Sizer" /F
Reg Delete "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Modules\NavPane" /F

:: To reset size of Save as amd Open dialogs to default for all folders
Reg Delete "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CIDOpen" /F
Reg Delete "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CIDSave" /F
Reg Delete "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32" /F

:: To kill and restart explorer process
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

2 Save the BAT file to your desktop.

3 Unblock and run the BAT file.

4 You will now notice your screen flicker and a command prompt quickly open and close as the explorer process is restarted to apply the registry changes.

5 When finished, you can delete the downloaded BAT file if you like.

Option Two

Only Reset View Settings of All Folders with Same Template Type as Current Folder

1 Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2 Open a folder using a template (ex: "General items") type you want to reset all folders of the same same type to default view settings.

3 Click/tap on the See more (3 dots) button on the command bar, and click/tap on Options. (see screenshot below)