How do you stop the whole line from being highlighted in Windows 7?

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Limp Gawd
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Sep 12, 2008
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See how the entire line is highlighted in the circled section. I want to be able to right click in that area and not be right clicking on the folder/file. Pretty much just like in Windows XP.
 
In the top right, the first icon under the search, is how you can change your folder arrangement. Cycle through till you fin something you like. The "List" setting is probably what you're going to want.
 
I think that is annoying also. It makes it hard to paste something when the folder is full of folders because you cant right click anywhere
 
In the top right, the first icon under the search, is how you can change your folder arrangement. Cycle through till you fin something you like. The "List" setting is probably what you're going to want.

even when XP is set to "Details," just like his ss of Win7, you can still right-click on a blank spot and not select the line.

OP, have you checked around in Folder Options?
I can definitely see that being a huge annoyance.
 
even when XP is set to "Details," just like his ss of Win7, you can still right-click on a blank spot and not select the line.

OP, have you checked around in Folder Options?
I can definitely see that being a huge annoyance.

Yeah I looked around in the setting, but I didn't see anything that will fix that.
Ill try the list view when I get home.
 
I think your only option is to change the viewing properties to "list view" from "details view". Maybe in the next version of Windows they will remove this, but I doubt it. I can see the advantages and disadvantages of having it this way. "List view" in Vista was the same way and it was annoying as hell. I absolutely hated the fact that when in "list view" it would select the whole line and there were no advantages to it. Luckily, they changed this with Win7.

 
I just tried list view. It does what I want it to do, however I do like seeing all the information shown in detailed view...in fact I would rather keep the annoying selection box across the screen and see the details.

If anyone knows of a way to get rid of it while keeping it in detailed view, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
See how the entire line is highlighted in the circled section. I want to be able to right click in that area and not be right clicking on the folder/file. Pretty much just like in Windows XP.
You can. Right-click in the whitespace without left-clicking on it first. I get a context menu for the folder, not the file.
 
Yeeeah the moment I saw that view I went right to "List" view as default.
 
I had the same problem, or so I thought. It's actually very simple. Just right click in the white space, making sure your cursor is not over ANY text, whether that be file name or any kind of details. As long as you click in the WHITE space, you will get the context menu for the folder, not the file.
 
the behavior still is not the same as XP ;)
in XP, if you highlight a file, #1 it does not highlight the whole line. #2 if you highlight a file, you can right-click next to the filename, and it will remove the file selection and bring up the generic right-click context menu.
 
the behavior still is not the same as XP ;)
in XP, if you highlight a file, #1 it does not highlight the whole line. #2 if you highlight a file, you can right-click next to the filename, and it will remove the file selection and bring up the generic right-click context menu.
That's because.....7 isn't XP?
 
I think that is annoying also. It makes it hard to paste something when the folder is full of folders because you cant right click anywhere

I'm one of the biggest Vista fan on this forum, but that's the one thing I hated the most about the OS - when you copy/paste or drag/drop files from folders to folder, you have to make sure you're dropping or pasting it waaaayyy off to the sides or it'll get dropped into a folder and you might have to find where you dropped it into :-P
 
Wow, I thought I was the only one who noticed this. My coworker always makes fun of me for using the List view instead of Details... but theres a good reason for it. I havent paid as much attention on my Win7 machine at home, ill have to play with it tonight.
 
I agree that there should have an option to turn this on or off, I know in some programs this is an option, why can't Windows? I've actually started to like it, sometimes it comes in handy, other times it can be annoying. I'm getting used to right clicking in the white space on the sides of the detail list view:



If you're dragging and dropping something, you can just drop something anywhere on the window that isn't file/folder and it will move/copy it to the current directory.

What I don't like about the new explorer is the folder view on the left doesn't give you a scroll bar when you have a lot of folders expanded and you have to rely on pausing over each folder and waiting for the popup to find what you're looking for.
 
In the RC you could run the old explorer though MS said it will break stuff. I have not tried in the release trying to give it a fair try.
 
I agree that there should have an option to turn this on or off, I know in some programs this is an option, why can't Windows?
Because features aren't free. Each option means twice as much code to maintain, twice as many test cases, and a lot less time to work on new features and other, more important stuff.
 
If you right click on empty space it will right click the folder background, not the file you're selecting.
 
If you right click on empty space it will right click the folder background, not the file you're selecting.

x2

(like jimnms said) the area to the right is fine for dragging/dropping or right clicking. Once you get used to it, it's not bad
 
SOLUTION

I use a Windows Explorer add-on called QTTabBar. I know it works on Vista... I don't have Windows 7 to test.

I feel the same way about this problem that all of you do. I use XP at home... but I use my girlfriend's Vista laptop on the road. I HATE the whole line highlight.

QTTabBar does many things... such as creating tabs for browsing multiple folders in one Explorer window.

But the amazing thing is... you can turn OFF full row selection! <----- LIFESAVER

Not sure if it works win Windows 7... but it works in Vista!

http://qttabbar.wikidot.com/

14lq99g.jpg
 
Uh, you can right click anywhere here

I just grabbed that screen shot from the first thing that opened in the explorer window. The point is that if you are in a directory that has a lot of files in it and fills that up, you're only left with the sides.

Here's XP's explorer as a comparison, you can right click and drag/drop files anywhere in yellow:
xpexplorer.jpg


In Windows 7's explorer, you can only right click in the yellow and drag/drop in the green:
7explorer.jpg


It would be nice to turn off the full row select, but I can get used to it. My biggest complaint is that the Windows 7 explorer doesn't give you the horizontal scroll bar in the folder tree view, so your only option is to wait for the filename to pop up if you have a lot of folders open that extend way past the right border.
 
I just grabbed that screen shot from the first thing that opened in the explorer window. The point is that if you are in a directory that has a lot of files in it and fills that up, you're only left with the sides.

Here's XP's explorer as a comparison, you can right click and drag/drop files anywhere in yellow:


In Windows 7's explorer, you can only right click in the yellow and drag/drop in the green:


It would be nice to turn off the full row select, but I can get used to it. My biggest complaint is that the Windows 7 explorer doesn't give you the horizontal scroll bar in the folder tree view, so your only option is to wait for the filename to pop up if you have a lot of folders open that extend way past the right border.
Well, you said "right click here" - I was showing that any of the highlighted area can be right clicked for a paste operation. Yes, you have to drag to window title or footer (though I would usually just use the left side "windows" folder for your example, not bothering with the right).
 
In Windows 7's explorer, you can only right click in the yellow and drag/drop in the green:
7explorer.jpg

If I understand what you want, your right-click highlighting that is incorrect. You can right-click anywhere in a row that's a folder without selecting that folder as long as 1) there is no text there and B) that row is not currently selected.

win7folder.jpg


This was a quick edit, and those are music files and not folders, but you can right-click in the yellow without selecting the folder that is in that row.

In most of my other folders I just made each column in the details view wider than it needs to be so I have more blank space in which to right-click to select that folder. :)
 
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