Windows 7 Explorer: Getting the tree view back

Strangely, there’s been a LOT of hoopla about how much Windows 7’s user interface is much improved over both Vista and XP.  My experience has been the exact opposite.  Windows 7’s user interface is seriously dumbed down with many important and critical elements disabled or removed.  One in particular is in Windows 7’s explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer… Windows Explorer is the program you use to browser your hard drives and files).

The major design flaw in Windows 7’s Explorer is that as you’re drilling down into deeper and deeper folders, the tree view under “My Computer” on the left pane does NOT stay synchronized.  This is just crazy and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  It can be fixed though and here’s how:

  1. In Windows Explorer, open the “Organize” menu and choose “Folder and search options”.image
  2. Next, in the Folder Options pane, in the “Navigation pane” group (highlighted in red in my image), make sure that BOTH “Show all folders” and “Automatically expand to current folder” are checked, then click “OK”.image

Now, when you drill down deep into folders or however you get to a folder, your tree view will behave as expected (and as needed):

image

You’re welcome!

Here are some related articles:

  • Get your Quick Launch bar back under Windows 7
  • What’s wrong with Windows 7’s Task Bar (or “Super …
  • Windows 7 Classic Start Menu
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