Desktop Folder Attributes change for some reason

[MowGreen]

Windows XP Pro SP3
Running behind ZoneAlarm Software Firewall and Router Hardware Firewall
All MS updates current
No Virii, Trojans of other Malware found (Norton AV& Malwarebytes)
Registry shows to be healthy (Registry Mechanic& TuneUp Utilities)

My desktop contains 9 folders. When opened, each folder is of a specific
size, located at a specific area of the desktop and the contents of each
folder are notated by Icons. This has been this way for the two years I
have had this specific desktop computer. A month ago, something happened.
All Desktop Folder sizes and locations change and each folder's contents
which were noted as Icons are now changed to Tiles. I change the attributes
back to what they were originally and they stay that way for a few days and
then just change again. I have watched this over the past month trying to
see if this unwanted change is attributed to the running of a specific
program. It is not! There seems to be no pattern taken which causes this
to occur.

I have given up on finding why this is happening but want to know if there
is a registry edit I can make to lock the attributes of my desktop folders
so nothing can change them.

Thanks in advance,
TR

It 'sounds' like your User Profile has become corrupted due to the
presence of Zone Alarm, Norton, and Registry Mechanic & TuneUp
Utilities. If they've all been installed for the past 2 years then I'm
very surprised that XP has survived this long.

Using the router's hardware firewall in conjunction with the native XP
firewall will provide more than sufficient protection for the system.

If you insist on keeping all of those 'programs' then make sure that you
backup all of your personal data regularly and see -

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile in
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151




MowGreen
================
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
================

"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked

 

[TR]

Windows XP Pro SP3
Running behind ZoneAlarm Software Firewall and Router Hardware Firewall
All MS updates current
No Virii, Trojans of other Malware found (Norton AV & Malwarebytes)
Registry shows to be healthy (Registry Mechanic & TuneUp Utilities)

My desktop contains 9 folders. When opened, each folder is of a specific
size, located at a specific area of the desktop and the contents of each
folder are notated by Icons. This has been this way for the two years I
have had this specific desktop computer. A month ago, something happened.
All Desktop Folder sizes and locations change and each folder's contents
which were noted as Icons are now changed to Tiles. I change the attributes
back to what they were originally and they stay that way for a few days and
then just change again. I have watched this over the past month trying to
see if this unwanted change is attributed to the running of a specific
program. It is not! There seems to be no pattern taken which causes this
to occur.

I have given up on finding why this is happening but want to know if there
is a registry edit I can make to lock the attributes of my desktop folders
so nothing can change them.

Thanks in advance,
TR

 

[Peter Foldes]

Windows XP Pro SP3
Running behind ZoneAlarm Software Firewall and Router Hardware Firewall
All MS updates current
No Virii, Trojans of other Malware found (Norton AV & Malwarebytes)
Registry shows to be healthy (Registry Mechanic & TuneUp Utilities)

My desktop contains 9 folders. When opened, each folder is of a specific size,
located at a specific area of the desktop and the contents of each folder are
notated by Icons. This has been this way for the two years I have had this
specific desktop computer. A month ago, something happened. All Desktop Folder
sizes and locations change and each folder's contents which were noted as Icons
are now changed to Tiles. I change the attributes back to what they were
originally and they stay that way for a few days and then just change again. I
have watched this over the past month trying to see if this unwanted change is
attributed to the running of a specific program. It is not! There seems to be no
pattern taken which causes this to occur.

I have given up on finding why this is happening but want to know if there is a
registry edit I can make to lock the attributes of my desktop folders so nothing
can change them.

TR

3 things come to mind concerning your issue.
(1) Zone Alarm
(2) Norton
(3) Registry Mechanic

Uninstall all of the above and then try a Repair install. When done,then install
something like AVG Free and do NOT install or use Zone Alarm and especially do not
even think about using Registry Mechanic or any other Registry tool. They are all
snake oil remedies and do more harm than good

--
Peter
Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Tim Meddick]

I don't know how anyone can answer your query with anything like any
definitive authority, without having more information to go on than that
provided?

For starters, I would want to know; what do you mean [exactly] by the term
"Changed locations" and what did you mean by "their attributes changed"?

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John Wunderlich]

Windows XP Pro SP3
Running behind ZoneAlarm Software Firewall and Router Hardware
Firewall All MS updates current
No Virii, Trojans of other Malware found (Norton AV &
Malwarebytes) Registry shows to be healthy (Registry Mechanic &
TuneUp Utilities)

My desktop contains 9 folders. When opened, each folder is of a
specific size, located at a specific area of the desktop and the
contents of each folder are notated by Icons. This has been this
way for the two years I have had this specific desktop computer.
A month ago, something happened. All Desktop Folder sizes and
locations change and each folder's contents which were noted as
Icons are now changed to Tiles. I change the attributes back to
what they were originally and they stay that way for a few days
and then just change again. I have watched this over the past
month trying to see if this unwanted change is attributed to the
running of a specific program. It is not! There seems to be no
pattern taken which causes this to occur.

I have given up on finding why this is happening but want to know
if there is a registry edit I can make to lock the attributes of
my desktop folders so nothing can change them.

Thanks in advance,
TR

"My view settings or customizations for a folder are lost or incorrect"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813711>

HTH,
John

 

[VanguardLH]

Windows XP Pro SP3
Running behind ZoneAlarm Software Firewall and Router Hardware Firewall
All MS updates current
No Virii, Trojans of other Malware found (Norton AV & Malwarebytes)
Registry shows to be healthy (Registry Mechanic & TuneUp Utilities)

My desktop contains 9 folders. When opened, each folder is of a specific
size, located at a specific area of the desktop and the contents of each
folder are notated by Icons. This has been this way for the two years I
have had this specific desktop computer. A month ago, something happened.
All Desktop Folder sizes and locations change and each folder's contents
which were noted as Icons are now changed to Tiles. I change the attributes
back to what they were originally and they stay that way for a few days and
then just change again. I have watched this over the past month trying to
see if this unwanted change is attributed to the running of a specific
program. It is not! There seems to be no pattern taken which causes this
to occur.

I have given up on finding why this is happening but want to know if there
is a registry edit I can make to lock the attributes of my desktop folders
so nothing can change them.

Thanks in advance,
TR

A couple of ideas spring to mind:

- Do you have Windows Explorer configured to SHOW system files? If so,
that means the desktop.ini use to save the config for a folder is
exposed. That means, for example, if you select all files (Ctrl+A) or
use the mouse to drag around some to select them that you may also be
selecting the desktop.ini file. Well, if you delete it then you lose
all that folder's config settings that were stored in this file.

- It's possible that you have so many folders that their view settings
cannot be cached. The oldest gets pushed out to store the settings for
the newest or most recently opened folders. See Microsoft's KB article
812003. You can do the registry edit or get the TweakUI powertoy and
use it to up the customizations value for Windows Explorer. I upped
mine from the default of 500 to 10,000.

 

[TR]

VanguardLH Shared:

It's possible that you have so many folders that their
view settings cannot be cached.
See Microsoft's KB article 812003.
I upped mine from the default of 500 to 10,000.

That did it. THANKS! Being a Photographer, Even though my desktop only has
9 folders showing on it, I have a second 2TB drive that has who knows how
many folders on it. Drive C: isn't that bad but the 2TB drive has a folder
for each shoot of which there are probably close to a 1000 shoots on there.

Anyone else having this problem, here are the instructions I followed:

*******************************************
To work around this problem, create a BagMRU Size DWORD value in both of the
following registry keys, and then set the value data for both values to the
number of folders that you want Windows to remember the settings for. For
example, for Windows to remember the settings for 5,000 local folders and
5,000 network folders, set both values to 5000.

You must create the new value for the following registry keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam

Important You may have to adjust the BagMRU Size values for your specific
situation. If you increase the BagMRU Size values, the information that is
stored in the registry increases. When you use roaming user profiles,
registry information is copied to a server when you log off and copied to
your local computer when you log on. Therefore, you may have performance
issues if you increase the BagMRU Size values for roaming user profiles.

Follow these steps, and then quit Registry Editor:
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

Type BagMRU Size, and then press ENTER.

On the Edit menu, click Modify.

Type 5000, and then click OK.

Follow these steps:
Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam

On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

Type BagMRU Size, and then press ENTER.

On the Edit menu, click Modify.

Type 5000, and then click OK.