How do I open a folder on the Desktop only?

M

MinPins

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 30, 2007
Messages
368
I just recently switched to Win 7 Pro 64bit after many, many years of running XP.

One huge irritant of this new OS seems to be (to me anyway) the inability to create a folder on the desktop and then open that folder on the Desktop without opening Windows Explorer.

I usually leave 3-4 folders (containing Docs, photos, Xcel sheets, etc) for current projects I am working on tucked into the corner of the desktop. In XP if I double-clicked on one of them it would simply open that folder on the desktop. Now using Win 7 it opens up Windows Explorer which I do not want it to do.

Can this be done? How?

Thanks.
 
I think you are confusing windows explorer and the folder. The folder has a preview on the left side making it appear to be explorer. You can get rid of the left side by right clicking. What's the difference anyways?
 
I guess I must not have been clear enough.

Here is a folder on my desktop:

x12oQ


When I double click on it (or any desktop folder) it opens up Windows Explorer:

bMZyN


I hate this behavior. To me it is a big friggin' annoyance. Mostly because all of the Explorer folders display, I collapsed them all for this screen capture. Normally you would see all of my network computers, all of my hard drives, and all of my NAS folders in this Explorer window. Not what I desire to have happen.

I want only the folder I double-clicked on to open, not Explorer.

This bugs the living sh!t out of me.

What do I need to do to have just that one folder open up on the Desktop exactly like XP always did?
 
@munkle = that sorta worked

This worked well for the desktop folder.
Unfortunately when I then actually want to open Explorer all of those things remain hidden.

In XP I could open each desktop folder as an individual folder, yet when I clicked on the quick launch icon I had for Windows Explorer it would open Explorer and show everything (computers, HDDs, NAS folders, Network, etc). I guess this is no longer possible?
 
The 5th byte of the PageSpaceControlSizer DWORD under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Modules\GlobalSettings\Sizer controls the visibility of the navigation pane, but good luck implementing an automatic way of changing its visibility depending the location of the folder. It'd probably require a fair amount of batch/PowerShell scripting and registry editing.

Or.. you could get used to it? That seems easier. Just select the option to not automatically 'expand to current folder.'
 
like everyone said its all windows explorer, XP had that bar there it just had other stuff in it.

can't imagine why having an easy way to jump to other folder would annoy the shit out of you, but to each their own.
 
In XP when you opened a folder it gave you a blue box on the left that still had options like My Computer in it. You could adjust the performance of the desktop to 'performance' mode, but that caused you to lose all of the extra's of Explorer. It then gave you a basic box.
 
I'm aware that it is all Explorer, I strongly prefer to just see the contents of only that single folder I double-clicked on. To me that seems more efficient and organized than having the entire layout of all of my user/shared folders, libraries, homegroups, drives, computers, and network resources displayed with the one folder I actually wanted to view tucked in at the very bottom of the list in full Windows Explorer.
I could also open several folders and have their contents displayed on the desktop in individual windows with only the specific folders contents displayed. Now each folder I open opens up a complete Windows Explorer display with that specific folder highlighted. Boggles up the way I prefer to work and wish I could still have that XP feature.
 
MinPins said:
I'm aware that it is all Explorer, I strongly prefer to just see the contents of only that single folder I double-clicked on. To me that seems more efficient and organized than having the entire layout of all of my user/shared folders, libraries, homegroups, drives, computers, and network resources displayed with the one folder I actually wanted to view tucked in at the very bottom of the list in full Windows Explorer.
I could also open several folders and have their contents displayed on the desktop in individual windows with only the specific folders contents displayed. Now each folder I open opens up a complete Windows Explorer display with that specific folder highlighted. Boggles up the way I prefer to work and wish I could still have that XP feature.
Click to expand...

Hi, MinPins,

Try starting by opening Windows Explorer, click "Organize", select "Layout" and leave only "Details Pane" selected, click "Organize" -> "Folder and search options", set the options you want in the "General" and "View" tabs that will cause each floder to spawn a new window. See if that meets your needs.

Hope this helps.

Chucklr
 
I think this guy seeks some third party file manager, seems he doesn't like explorer(which is the folder browser).Total commander is great example.
Btw windows explorer does support opening each folder in new separate window, go to folder options>View>Launch folder windows in separate process
Totalcmd.jpg
 
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