Solved windows explorer windows size - how to retain for new windows

surio · Oct 18, 2024

Like it says in title, I have been unable to make windows explorer remember the size of my explorer window. Even after I set up ideal sizr through gragging the corners, and close the explorer window with Ctrl or Shift new windows don't remember the original size.

Thanks for all the help.

glasskuter · Oct 18, 2024

I resize my windows that exact same way and Windows always remembers and opens them that same size EXCEPT when I use the snap feature. When I do that, if I do not double click at the top of each of the snapped windows before I close it to put it back to the way I resized it in the first place, the next time that window opens it will open to the size it was when I had it snapped, not the way I had it was previously re-sized. So if you use snap, that may be what's coming into play here.

dacrone · Oct 18, 2024

every now and then explorer hiccups for me and it wont retain which monitor it was closed on, nor the sizing. to get it to do so, i open it, maximize it and then CTRL close it. relaunch it and it will be maximized... unmaximize it, then resize it and CTRL close it and see if it sticks. works for me when that happens

surio · Oct 18, 2024

Hi both,
Thanks for the reply and suggestions...

that exact same way and Windows always remembers and opens them that same size EXCEPT when I use the snap feature.

So, I have never used the SNAP feature at all so far, and no unlike you it never remembers the size I had resized to when I
Win + E

@dacrone said:

i open it, maximize it and then CTRL close it. relaunch it and it will be maximized... unmaximize it, then resize it and CTRL close it and see if it sticks.

I tried this one too. Exactly as you explained. Still won't work :-(

glasskuter · Oct 18, 2024

dacrone said:
CTRL close it. relaunch it and it will be maximized

This is not referring to maximized windows, but resized ones. I don't ever maximize.

surio · Oct 18, 2024

glasskuter said:
This is not referring to maximized windows, but resized ones. I don't ever maximize.

I don't either. Even @dacrone doesn't maximise it. Eventually he brings it to a window size. The maximising part is like a midpoint step. But like I said, that wouldn't work either...

Explorer always opens in a crummy "default" size for me. What a tremendous pain!

EDIT: Sorry, first part was yours and second part was dacrone's post. I have edited my first reply for clarity now.

dacrone · Oct 18, 2024

glasskuter said:
This is not referring to maximized windows, but resized ones. I don't ever maximize.

glasskuter · Oct 18, 2024

For grins and giggles, try this. Let's use File Explorer. Right click on File Explorer shortcut shortcut on your taskbar. In the context menu, right click on File Explorer in the list, select properties. Make sure it's set to open normal and not mazimized. Open file explorer and resize. Hit F5 on keyboard. Close and reopen the window. Did it keep it's new size?

surio · Oct 18, 2024

Did it keep it's new size?

You know, the whole thing sounded like a magic ritual... I was so hopeful...

But no. Windows 11 has persistently annoyed me with this one (and so many other quibbles) for months on end now!

dacrone · Oct 18, 2024

it could be related to your view settings being maxed out...

the default remembered folder view settings is for 5000 folders. once that gets reached, it stops remembering view settings. i've had to clear that once before, but you dont have clear it.. you can actually increase it to 10000 instead. (this may reset some of your views (ie - tiles, details, etc.... so you may have to re-customize those after this)

Open regedit:

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

New > DWORD (32-bit) Value >

Code:

BagMRU Size

Change key value to: Decimal and set it to

Code:

reboot

surio · Oct 18, 2024

> the default remembered folder view settings is for 5000 folders. once that gets reached, it stops remembering view settings.

Well that one is sure interesting to know. How did I end up reaching this number? due to repeated trial of setting/resetting?

I never thought this could be an issue, but won't all of us reach this limit as part of opening explorer? With my limited knowledge on what I just read, soundd like an arbitrarily small number, right?

Should I try to reset it too like you did? Where does one "reset" this, rather than increase like you recommended?

Thanks in advance.

dacrone · Oct 18, 2024

to reset it, delete these two registry entries:

Code:

HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU
HKCU:\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags

LesFerch · Oct 18, 2024

surio said:
Like it says in title, I have been unable to make windows explorer remember the size of my explorer window. Even after I set up ideal size through grabbing the corners, and close the explorer window with Ctrl or Shift new windows don't remember the original size.

Are you using a mod, such as Winaero Tweaker, to enable the Windows 10 style Explorer (aka Explorer Ribbon UI)? If so, you may be missing the registry setting that allows the old Explorer to remember its window size and position.

If not, do you have a Gigabyte motherboard with the program Smart Backup installed? If so, that's your culprit. Uninstall that software.

surio · Oct 19, 2024

Good thing I filled out my PC specs recently, eh!

LesFerch said:
do you have a Gigabyte motherboard with the program Smart Backup installed?

Accurate and prescient! Yes.

LesFerch said:
Are you using a mod, such as Winaero Tweaker, to enable the Windows 10 style Explorer (aka Explorer Ribbon UI)?

After my debacle with valinet explorer patcher (to the point I now reinstalled win11, finding other problems, and discovering other tools like start11 are also not working well), I don't think I will be installing anything like those in a hurry....

LesFerch said:
that's your culprit. Uninstall that software.

I'm doing that pronto. Also, "Gigabye control centre" installed a lot of software. There's something called "realtek dragon" on my desktop icon. And I don't even know what the rest of them were.

Would you or anyone else be kind enough to tell me what might be the list of software I can safely uninstall like the smart backup?

Thanks a lot.
surio.

surio · Oct 19, 2024

dacrone said:
to reset it, delete these two registry entries:

Code:

HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU HKCU:\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags

Thank you dacrone.
I do have tons of gigabyte control centre installed software that I now need to figure out what they are, and uninstall now.

Do you happen to know where I can find that list and safely clean out my PC?

appreciate it.
surio

surio · Oct 19, 2024

Happy to report, this long pending issue is now resolved. Windows explorer windows remember their resized settings. And to think it was Gigabyte smart backup causing this! Ridiculous!

My thanks to everyone for the helpful and thoughtful suggestions. Learnt a few new things.

hdmi · Oct 19, 2024

surio said:
After my debacle with valinet explorer patcher (to the point I now reinstalled win11, finding other problems, and discovering other tools like start11 are also not working well), I don't think I will be installing anything like those in a hurry....

What debacle? The latest pre-release (22621.3880.66.7) of ExplorerPatcher works fine for me on 24H2. Only the Simple Window Switcher (SWS) feature is still broken for now. If you also use Open-Shell, there's a few minor quirks affecting Open-Shell's abilities to customize the taskbar (i.e., taskbar text color, taskbar texture, and the Search icon disappearing although this happens only if the taskbar's background is made to look brighter than a certain threshold, but the transparent taskbar option with opacity level works perfect). Aside from this, the major features all work. Flawlessly, on 24H2. With the previous version, 22621.3880.66.6, the Win+X no longer worked on 24H2, and the Weather feature was still missing if you had enabled the "Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher)" taskbar style choice. (The "Windows 10" taskbar style is not supported on 24H2 due to Microsoft having removed the legacy code that this specific taskbar style choice uses.)

dacrone · Oct 19, 2024

surio said:
Thank you dacrone.
I do have tons of gigabyte control centre installed software that I now need to figure out what they are, and uninstall now.
Do you happen to know where I can find that list and safely clean out my PC?

appreciate it.
surio

Use RevoUninstaller portable to remove it. It’ll scan for reg keys and leftovers to remove too

surio · Oct 19, 2024

hdmi said:
What debacle? The latest pre-release (22621.3880.66.7) of ExplorerPatcher works fine for me on 24H2. Only the Simple Window Switcher (SWS) feature is still broken for now. If you also use Open-Shell, there's a few minor quirks affecting Open-Shell's abilities to customize the taskbar (i.e., taskbar text color, taskbar texture, and the Search icon disappearing although this happens only if the taskbar's background is made to look brighter than a certain threshold, but the transparent taskbar option with opacity level works perfect). Aside from this, the major features all work. Flawlessly, on 24H2. With the previous version, 22621.3880.66.6, the Win+X no longer worked on 24H2, and the Weather feature was still missing if you had enabled the "Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher)" taskbar style choice. (The "Windows 10" taskbar style is not supported on 24H2 due to Microsoft having removed the legacy code that this specific taskbar style choice uses.)

Thanks for chiming in. While it is offtopic I should address this as this is a case of "YMMV", with this particular tool. In fact, I also congratulate you that a) your 24H2 update went well (I saw many posts here that said their 24H2 upgrade went badly) and b) this tool works (actually, it's still broken, but you are aware and okay with it for now) for you while it didn't for me.

To clarify, I said it was "my debacle" with the tool and not the "tool is a debacle".

I am on Windows 11 v23H2 - Build 22631.4317 and I have recently gone through a very painful wipe/reinstall of the OS as I have been struggling for months with valinet vs microsoft fight crippling my display driver over every update from each of them - OS, valinet tool, AMD display, etc. I didn't discover the main issue (OS vs. Valinet) until the OS/performance deteriorated to the point I had to do a clean install (see below).

After that clean install, and while I installed explorer patcher over it, windows flagged the "Detected: HackTool:Win64/ExplorerPatcher!MTB" and corrupted display driver again. I couldn't revert the registry settings from the app again, and I had to reinstall OS fresh again.

Even in this very thread, my windows explorer problems were down to motherboard OEM tool interfering with OS, or OS fighting a tool and punishing the user by hobbling his UX for making the "mistake" of installing a tool and not telling him how to fix it.

I (and I suspect there are many like me that) simply don't have the bandwidth, nor patience to chase up and do all this R&D and fiddling/juggling over what are essentially QoL simple utilities. I would rather not use them in first place so my OS runs without disrupting my regular usage without this incessant fiddling and falling over and tripping me.

thanks,
surio

surio · Oct 19, 2024

dacrone said:
Use RevoUninstaller portable to remove it. It’ll scan for reg keys and leftovers to remove too

Hey, thanks!
I just downloaded a portable version of this tool. I hope this is okay?

Are there any known suspects from gigabyte like the "Realtek dragon" (and anything else) that I can clean up while I am at it?

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