Explorer Bar in Folder View by Default

[Sam234]

I wish to have the Explorer Bar with Folder View as Default for left pane when opening a explorer window.

I found answers (archived) on this elsewhere here, but the solutions failed for me, the problem:

No folder list in the left pane by default.

I Select Folders from the View - Explorer Bar menu selection and the folder list appears. Select Tools - Folder Options and press the Apply to all folders.
But when I re-open Windows Explorer later I don't get the folders list, just the windows junk in the left pane.



My solution: I found a registry entry

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\ddeexec

set the Default to: [ExploreFolder("%l", %I, %S)]

Worked for me under Win XP SP3



Why does Microsoft make it so hard to get windows do what you want, no what Microsoft thinks you must have!

 

[Sam234]

tried this on another winXP, worked perfect!

If it helps a registry file for this would contain:

[cpp]Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\ddeexec]
@="[ExploreFolder(\"%l\", %I, %S)] "
"NoActivateHandler"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\ddeexec\application]
@="Folders"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\ddeexec\ifexec]
@="[]"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\ddeexec\topic]
@="AppProperties"[/cpp]


PS Whats with the auful autoplay video on these pages & the massive javascript that slows access a ton, are they trying to drive everyone away?