Browse dialogs opening in List view.

[Terry Pinnell]

After some housekeeping of my PC my Explorer folders were opening by
default Icon view. That was easily changed to my preferred Detail view,
using Tools > Folder Options.

But when an application opens a File Open browser, it's showing List view
now. How do I also change *that* to Detail view please, and get it to
stick?

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Thanks, appreciate that thorough reply.

http://www.howtogeek.com/?post_type=post&p=844
Freeware solution.

Had forgotten I'd encountered this problem a couple of years ago. This
freeware, OpenWide, was one of the solutions I tried but eventually
dropped. Basically because I have my sizes under control; I just want to
change the view.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/34669-45-save-open-dialog-view
Mentions software ($20 payware) to replace the File Open/SaveAs browse
dialog.

Tried that too, and dropped it, because it's too complex for my needs, and
as you pointed out it's not free.

Also mentions trying to use Ctrl+X(titlebaricon) to save your
settings (doesn't work for me).

Nor for me. It's incredible that MS didn't code in a simple facility like
that.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Windows-MultiEnhancer.shtml
Because it "cracks" (replaces) system critial DLL files, it may not work
after a subsequent Windows update replaces those files (with those from
Microsoft) or if you run the system file checker (sfc.exe). This
utility got renamed to FileOpenPatcher (that's the newer product name at
the author's web site). I'd avoid this one unless you're desparate and
cannot find another more graceful solution.

Installed that on that previous occasion too, and ran it, but can't recall
any details. It changes COMDLG32.DLL. I've just run it and will reboot
shortly to see its effect.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc164009.aspx
While Windows doesn't let you customize the view settings in the File
Open/Save browse dialog, Microsoft provided a means of doing so within
3rd party software hence the above utilities. This is a C++ example but
since it affects attributes of an object then other programming
languages are doable.

That looked promising. Although it was way over my head (I'm not a
programmer or techie, just an experienced end user), there was an EXE to
download, CQA0403.exe. But on running it, as far as I can tell it's
created a set of folders and files, but no executable.

These can only affect the Windows-supplied browse dialog. Many
applications create their own dialog window so these fixer programs
won't change their behavior.
Understood.

I haven't used these utilities. I prefer less software even if I have
to suffer with small nuisances in the UIs present in whatever version of
Windows that I am currently using.

I'm assuming that I *must* have fixed it in a non-intrusive fashion ages
ago. Until this Spring clean I got detail view where I wanted it, and icon
view where I wanted that. Just a matter of re-discovering how I achieved
it ;-)

 

[VanguardLH]

Nor for me. It's incredible that MS didn't code in a simple facility
like that.

Actually my recollection is that in some prior version of Windows there
was some options you could configure to decide on a default view but
these user-configurable options disappeared. Alas, my memory is
getting fuzzy lately.

Installed that on that previous occasion too, and ran it, but can't
recall any details. It changes COMDLG32.DLL. I've just run it and
will reboot shortly to see its effect.

I would take odds on some update or service pack since the original
release of Windows XP replaces the comdlg32.dll file and why this
crack approach would gets undone by a Windows update.

For example, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938635 describes where this
system file gets replaced by a hotfix. My version is newer than
described in that article so some Windows update has already replaced
that file. I don't why the author decided to go this route since this
file seems an obvious target for inclusion in updates.

comdlg32.dll is a Windows Common Dialog library. It contains many
dialogs, not just the browser dialog you asked about. That means this
file would get replaced anytime Microsoft updated or fixed one of their
common dialogs buried in this file. It has dialogs for file open/save,
printer, page setup, find text, font selection, color chooser, and more.
It's a repository of common dialogs. If any of them get updated or
changed, the file gets changed and an update will push the new version
onto your host. So, poof, the cracked old version gets overwritten.

I'm assuming that I *must* have fixed it in a non-intrusive fashion
ages ago. Until this Spring clean I got detail view where I wanted
it, and icon view where I wanted that. Just a matter of
re-discovering how I achieved it ;-)

One other suggestion that I read about (but haven't tried) is setting
the view on the folder that you want to use by default (i.e., open
Windows Explorer and change to the view you want) and then going into
Folder Options, View tab, and click on "Apply to All Folders". I just
can't see that this really applies to attributes of the browser object
used for the File Open/Save dialog but, hey, sometimes the ridiculous
does work.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Actually my recollection is that in some prior version of Windows there
was some options you could configure to decide on a default view but
these user-configurable options disappeared. Alas, my memory is
getting fuzzy lately.


I would take odds on some update or service pack since the original
release of Windows XP replaces the comdlg32.dll file and why this
crack approach would gets undone by a Windows update.

For example, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938635 describes where this
system file gets replaced by a hotfix. My version is newer than
described in that article so some Windows update has already replaced
that file. I don't why the author decided to go this route since this
file seems an obvious target for inclusion in updates.

comdlg32.dll is a Windows Common Dialog library. It contains many
dialogs, not just the browser dialog you asked about. That means this
file would get replaced anytime Microsoft updated or fixed one of their
common dialogs buried in this file. It has dialogs for file open/save,
printer, page setup, find text, font selection, color chooser, and more.
It's a repository of common dialogs. If any of them get updated or
changed, the file gets changed and an update will push the new version
onto your host. So, poof, the cracked old version gets overwritten.


One other suggestion that I read about (but haven't tried) is setting
the view on the folder that you want to use by default (i.e., open
Windows Explorer and change to the view you want) and then going into
Folder Options, View tab, and click on "Apply to All Folders". I just
can't see that this really applies to attributes of the browser object
used for the File Open/Save dialog but, hey, sometimes the ridiculous
does work.

Unfortunately not in this case! That's intuitively one of the first things
to do, but presumably it fails because these browser views are clearly not
folder views.