Save Open Dialog box View

[michaeljc70]

Whenever I go to open files (alright, almost always) I like to view the
details and then sort by date modified. I hate that every time I go to
File|Open in an application I have to reselect the view and sort. Is
there any way to make "Details" view permanent? The sort is less
important (it is one click).

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Whenever I go to open files (alright, almost always) I like to view
the details and then sort by date modified. I hate that every time I
go to File|Open in an application I have to reselect the view and
sort. Is there any way to make "Details" view permanent? The sort is
less important (it is one click).

This cannot be done natively in XP.
You can accomplish what you want with a third party program. See the
following link.

File-Ex
http://www.file-ex.com/welcome.html

 

[David Candy]

The Sort part can be done. Close a folder window with the sort you want by Ctrl + the X on titlebar.

It MUST be done in a file folder (not My Computer or other special folders). This sets the system default sort. Nearly everything else but dialogs have their own sort setting that overrides the system default.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

The Sort part can be done. Close a folder window with the sort you
want by Ctrl + the X on titlebar.

It MUST be done in a file folder (not My Computer or other special
folders). This sets the system default sort. Nearly everything else
but dialogs have their own sort setting that overrides the system
default.

Thanks, David

That does work here, is this something new? I thought everything had been
tried?

 

[David Candy]

It been in Explorer since Win 95.

Ctrl + X on the titlebar. It must be a file folder. Dialogs read this once per application (so you must stop and restart programs to see if it took).

Open Notepad, go File Open, set to all files (*.*) - look at the sort, close Notepad.

Open an Folder window (ie not a file open/save dialog - a normal folder window) via My Computer to C:\, sort how you want, Ctrl + X on title bar.

Open Notepad, go File Open - look at the sort, it changed.

Plus if you hold down control and click close while in a file folder it also updates
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Shellstate=

This is mainly setting irrelevent things except it holds the global sort, which all the others override. But File Open dialog boxes only use this setting, so it basically only affects sorting in File Open dialogs. But it seems that sometimes an earlier windows versions setting get written here and other settings then aren't saved. It also stores show extensions, hide hidden files etc.

It seems this is a different structure (it got XP specific settings in it) to older OSs. Some non saving of settings is due to this key and I suspect a Win 95 structure gets written over the XP one.

If your sort doesn't change close Explorer (Start - Shutdown - Ctrl + Alt + Shift + click Close/Cancel), delete ShellState, and restart Explorer as the shell and try again. Shutting the shell down the way I describe saves settings.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

It been in Explorer since Win 95.

Ctrl + X on the titlebar. It must be a file folder. Dialogs read this
once per application (so you must stop and restart programs to see if
it took).

Open Notepad, go File Open, set to all files (*.*) - look at the
sort, close Notepad.

Open an Folder window (ie not a file open/save dialog - a normal
folder window) via My Computer to C:\, sort how you want, Ctrl + X on
title bar.

Open Notepad, go File Open - look at the sort, it changed.

Plus if you hold down control and click close while in a file folder
it also updates
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Shellstate=

This is mainly setting irrelevent things except it holds the global
sort, which all the others override. But File Open dialog boxes only
use this setting, so it basically only affects sorting in File Open
dialogs. But it seems that sometimes an earlier windows versions
setting get written here and other settings then aren't saved. It
also stores show extensions, hide hidden files etc.

It seems this is a different structure (it got XP specific settings
in it) to older OSs. Some non saving of settings is due to this key
and I suspect a Win 95 structure gets written over the XP one.

If your sort doesn't change close Explorer (Start - Shutdown - Ctrl +
Alt + Shift + click Close/Cancel), delete ShellState, and restart
Explorer as the shell and try again. Shutting the shell down the way
I describe saves settings.

Thanks again for the info, much appreciated.