Show Folder Tree in Windows 7 Explorer
Posted by merill | Filed under Uncategorized
I spend a lot of my time switching between folders in Windows explorer and the Windows 7 explorer has been driving me nuts lately.
Win7 (or at least the build I have) by default does not auto expand the tree view when you navigate between folders.
The result being you don’t see the usually tree hierarchy on the left pane. Which makes it quite painful if you want to go up a few levels or see the other parent folders.
Luckily there is a new Folder Option called Navigation Pane to switch them back on again. You need to press Alt + T or Organize –> Folder Search Options in Windows Explorer to get to the dialog. 
Switch both of them on and viola I get my beloved tree view back.
PS- Most of my UW colleagues use other explorers and didn’t have to feel this pain.
May 1st, 2009 at 6:07 am
Me too!
I can’t believe they haven’t included the user’s folder by default. Madness.
Oh well, it’s still a big step up from Vista, no denying that.
laze
May 10th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Explorer has been crap since Vista anyways.
July 7th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
It seems an improvement over the vista explorer – but it is really just restoring functionality lost between xp and vista.
August 9th, 2009 at 3:57 am
I’m VERY disappointed with Windows 7 overall (had the beta running in a VM and installed the RTM starting 2 days ago and finally finished this morning). As much as I disliked Vista, W7 is even worse. The tree view is a no brainer… You just HAVE to have it. All this other junk in the left pane, where the tree view is supposed to be, I have no need for. At least this fix gets rid of all of it, except, unfortunately, for the favorites menu. Search is another mess. Windows 95 search was better than XP. XP search was redesigned to NOT find things, based on their filename extension… You had to manually add specific extensions to be found in the registry. Was a ridiculous change. Then Vista came along and just made it super confusing… no more right-click folder and search. Now you have to drive INTO the folder and use the search entry in the upper left hand corner, which I, do this day, have still not completely figured out (between December 2006 and 8/7/2009). Now Windows 7 is even worse. Search results no longer have column headings, so I now can’t expand the folder column to see the full path and I can’t specify (at least, not that I can find), that I just want to look for file name. Seems I have to START the search going before I can start modifying the criteria (like Vista). This appears to be severely dumbed down.
September 16th, 2009 at 5:42 am
Thanks for the thread. However, I have Vista and I have lost the Navigation Pane on the left that shows the directory tree. Does anyone know how to get that back in Vista?
September 30th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Great tip man!
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:09 am
Thanks I was going crazy without this
October 4th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Been running win7 for a few months now.
I somewhat agree to Mike Quinn’s post, but I would add a MAJOR annoyance:
the folder list on the left hand side keeps scrolling up when I dble-click to expand a folder. So I need to manually center it everytime I open a subfolder. And this is driving me crazy.
Haven’t found a solution for that yet, and I hope this is gonna be fixed (since the options are quite limited…)
@Mark Labaj
If the vista explorer works similar to win7, in the menu organize you can select what is displayed.
October 25th, 2009 at 11:51 am
This was driving me nuts. Thanks!
November 1st, 2009 at 8:27 am
I’ve had Windows 7 up for about 48 hours, and I swear 47 hours have been spent looking for a way to expand the folder tree – automatically.
The funny part is, “Automatically expand to current folder” describes the opposite of what you would think it is describing. So, no wonder it’s so easy to miss. MS really should think about hiring some people who can express themselves in writing.
I can’t thank you enough for this tip.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Quote for Truth: This was driving me nuts. Thanks!
November 11th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Thanks, one of the few frustrations in the now vastly improved Windows OS
November 18th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Thanks for that.
It has been driving me insane navigating project folder structure
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:04 pm
thanks! i thought this was gone. I actually like this better done doing explore in windows xp
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:43 am
Thank you! I was beginning to think Windows7 was abstracting everything to the point of being useless to power users. Who on earth wants the menu to remain invisible and the folder tree hidden? That’s just crazy.
I’m still trying to decide if I like the new way the taskbar groups my applications. I’m going to give it a try for a while.
-tom
January 3rd, 2010 at 5:47 am
Very helpful info, thanks!
January 7th, 2010 at 1:32 am
Thanks! Works in Server 2008 R2. It was driving me nuts. Microsoft really needs some ergonomic talent, to design a UI. It’s like every time you step into your car the controls move around. It shouldn’t be this difficult and such a time waster.
January 8th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Thank you, that detail was driving me carzy.
But overall I am happy with my WIN7, Vista had a very short life on my ThinkPad.
January 8th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Explorer really became unusable since Windows Vista. Even if you can get the folder pane back, when expanding folders to see their subfolders it always scrolls up so you can’t see what you expanded the folder for in the first place. Also, the pane is missing horizontal scrollbars. Line height has been increased to a ridiculous size so that even in classic mode you can see significantly less files at once. Instead of fixing the broken status bar, they stripped it of all functionality and use. The new details pane often fails to give even such basic information as file size, especially if you select multiple files (even *after* clicking to show more info, which very often doesn’t do anything at all).
I know they like to call these things “improvements” or making Explorer sleeker. In fact, it just became impossible to work with. These are not things people miss just because they got used to how they worked before. They are things that people who actually try to *work* with a computer do many times a day, and which may have taken them 1 click in older Explorers, and now take 3 or 5 clicks, or even some weird keyboard workaround if there is one.
After 17 years of using Windows, Windows 7 finally broke the straw of making me go and get a replacement Explorer (I use CubicExplorer now). I can’t believe the ignorance and disrespect of customers’ wishes that Microsoft shows in these regards. Seems like they still don’t understand that their safe monopoly position in the PC OS market is quickly dwindling.
January 11th, 2010 at 7:25 am
I was getting made a windows 7 for not including this feature. I did a simple google search for “windows 7 how explorer folder” and you were the first result. What an easy fix. thanks for posting this!
January 12th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
BIG BIG Thanks!
January 14th, 2010 at 6:07 am
Great info, because of the default “no expansion” I deleted folders that I wanted to keep. If you want a less cluttered explorer untick “show all folders” and tick “Automatically expand to current folder” Only then will the View tab “Hide empty drives in the Computer folder” work. When it is ticked everything shows. In either case the auto expand works. Thanks to Recuva it was easy to recover the lost folders.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:16 am
We are slowly but surely getting back to the functionality of File Manager / Program Manager.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:03 am
Thank goodness! This was driving me insane!
January 26th, 2010 at 2:14 am
It doesn’t work.
Some Windows 7 stills does’nt know what to do with this options.
February 6th, 2010 at 2:37 am
What other Windows Explorers do your friends use? I’m going from XP to Win7 and I don’t think I can make peace with this windows explorer. XP Windows Explorer was prefect, why did they screw that all up!! XP windows Explorer doesn’t run on Win7. Tried that already.
Thanks,
Phil
February 6th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Some of the choices were Directory Opus and Total Commander. Personally I liked xplorer2 and it has a free version as well http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm
Here’s a list of alternatives.
http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/10/11/10-windows-explorer-alternatives-compared-and-reviewed/
February 8th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Etienne Said:
Been running win7 for a few months now.
I somewhat agree to Mike Quinn’s post, but I would add a MAJOR annoyance:
the folder list on the left hand side keeps scrolling up when I dble-click to expand a folder. So I need to manually center it everytime I open a subfolder. And this is driving me crazy.
Haven’t found a solution for that yet, and I hope this is gonna be fixed (since the options are quite limited…)
Anyone found a solution?
Cheers, Michel
February 8th, 2010 at 8:57 am
ok, sorry, its the “Automatically expand to current folder” option in the “folder option” tab
Michel
February 9th, 2010 at 6:06 am
[...] Show Folder Tree in Windows 7 Explorer | merill.net (tags: windows7) [...]
February 12th, 2010 at 6:48 am
Anyone remember XTree Gold? It died when long filenames came along. But Since then I’ve been using ZTreeWin. True, you can’t right click to view properties or set permissions in a networking situation, but I think I’d have gone truly mad without it. Check it out at http://www.ztree.com/html/ztreewin.htm
Phil
February 16th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
“Automatically expand to current folder” is one thing but still you couldn’t see files in folders by just using the page up or down keys to move from one to another folder as in Window XP (you have to click or press Enter to see files in Win7 – too much clicking using Win7!)
Any one know how?
February 25th, 2010 at 3:54 am
Thanks for the posted above that suggested CubicExplorer, I will try it out. And I agree with you that is almost the last straw. Microsoft is arrogant and used to “telling” people how they should use computers and as a result has lost touch with the customer and is rapidly becoming irrelevant.
I’m responsible for my firm’s IT department and this week I am going to recommend a Ubuntu pilot program for all our PCs instead of upgrading to Windows 7. Hopefully we can say goodbye to Windows forever