Baffling Change in Windows Explorer

[DeeDeeCee]

I've had Vista for 5 months now, and have been using Windows Explorer to
organize and manage my folders and files. Just as in past versions, there's a
folder tree on the left-side pane, and the contents of whatever folder that
is selected appear in a pane on the right side. If I want to select more than
one folder or file on the right side (for opening, deleting,
dragging-and-copying), I can do that by using the mouse to click on the
folders and holding down either Control or Shift keys. So far, just like
Windows Explorer has always worked.

But now, suddenly beginning yesterday--I can only select and highlight one
item at a time. If I hold down the Control or Shift key and click on another
item, the one that was first selected stops being selected, and the next one
alone becomes selected. This will make it impossible to do the moving and
organizing that I do, and I have no idea how this suddenly changed. This will
really slow down my work. My only theory is that I somehow changed some
setting somewhere, though I don't recall monkeying about with settings the
last couple of days. Does anybody have any diagnoses?

 

[Keith Miller \(MVP\)]

Sounds like you've got the single-select bug...

There's a flag that tells explorer to only allow one item to be selected at
a time. It's used in the display of the file open/save dialogs. Sometimes
it somehow creeps into folder views and the result is what you describe.

<canned>

I've written a script that helps MOST people with the multi-select problem.
It will remove single-select from saved folder views & saved defaults.
Right-click the link below & select 'Save Target As..."


http://mysite.verizon.net/res18hr7/FixSingleSelect.zip


Then extract the contents of the .zip file & run the script.


</canned>

 

[DeeDeeCee]

Thanks. I'm going to hold this cure in reserve while I watch the program for
a few days. It's back to allowing me to muitiple-select, so I'm going to just
keep an eye on it, and I'll use your cure if it becomes necessary again...

Sounds like you've got the single-select bug...

There's a flag that tells explorer to only allow one item to be selected at
a time. It's used in the display of the file open/save dialogs. Sometimes
it somehow creeps into folder views and the result is what you describe.

<canned>

I've written a script that helps MOST people with the multi-select problem.
It will remove single-select from saved folder views & saved defaults.
Right-click the link below & select 'Save Target As..."


http://mysite.verizon.net/res18hr7/FixSingleSelect.zip


Then extract the contents of the .zip file & run the script.


</canned>

--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]

I've had Vista for 5 months now, and have been using Windows Explorer to
organize and manage my folders and files. Just as in past versions,
there's a
folder tree on the left-side pane, and the contents of whatever folder
that
is selected appear in a pane on the right side. If I want to select more
than
one folder or file on the right side (for opening, deleting,
dragging-and-copying), I can do that by using the mouse to click on the
folders and holding down either Control or Shift keys. So far, just like
Windows Explorer has always worked.

But now, suddenly beginning yesterday--I can only select and highlight one
item at a time. If I hold down the Control or Shift key and click on
another
item, the one that was first selected stops being selected, and the next
one
alone becomes selected. This will make it impossible to do the moving and
organizing that I do, and I have no idea how this suddenly changed. This
will
really slow down my work. My only theory is that I somehow changed some
setting somewhere, though I don't recall monkeying about with settings the
last couple of days. Does anybody have any diagnoses?