Show Folder Tree in Windows 7 Explorer

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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.Windows7-Explorer

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. Windows7-FolderOptions

Switch both of them on and viola I get my beloved tree view back.

Windows7-Explorer-Expanded 

PS- Most of my UW colleagues use other explorers and didn’t have to feel this pain.

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  • Greg

    Great. My thanks also. Why MS changes the default is puzzling, to put it VERY euphemistically.

  • Howard M

    Useful tip, thanks. You also need Organize, Layout, Navigation Pane to see the tree.

    I run a dual boot Windows 98 & NT m/c at home on an ancient AMD with 512Mb RAM. Amazing how fast NT starts up & how little memory it uses compared to Windows 7 at work. Being a developer I find all the “idiot friendly” stuff intensely annoying. I suspect M$ lost the plot as regards usability testing years ago. You only have to use a browser like firefox with AdBlock & FlashBlock to realise IE is seriously deficient.

  • Bryan

    MY HERO! Thank you for this!

  • Gracias amigo

    I too thank you for resolving yet another quirk that was driving me nuts in my transition to Win7 ~ THANKS!!

  • Sylvia

    Carolyn King :I am distressed to say that I’ve just been “upgraded???? ” to win 7 because can’t seem to get a retrofit to xp and the lack of windows explorer (most intelligent user’s basic feature) is horrible. Don’t call the mess taht they have in win 7 “windows explorer”. I think after 20 years of defending the PC, I’ve met my match. Here I come Mac!

    Ditto… XP worked fine for me but I got talked into “upgrading” to Win7 and I hate it! Seems to me it’s just Vista re-packaged after they fixed a the worst of it’s “issues”

    Likewise I’ve been defending the PC all these years but, after seeing what they’ve done Vista and Win7, I’m thinking maybe I should just buy a Mac and load it up with the MS Office suite.

    But for now I’m back to google to see if anyone has figured out how to display that “up one folder” icon and pin the Explorer shortcut to the start menu…. if that’s even possible.

  • Sylvia

    Yay… I got my UP button back!

    If you want all those start menu and explorer features that you loved and lost when you “upgraded” to Win7 you can download the “Classic Shell” application for free at this URL >>>> http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

    OMG it’s like putting on a pair of comfy old shoes after you’ve been limping around in new ones that look nice but just don’t fit right.

  • Theok

    Thanks… great tip. Stupid explorer!!! :)

  • nenpenthes

    nice tips!

  • Deb

    @KS
    You are my new hero. Why oh why is it necessary to alter these basic functions. I just helped a co-worker that had already spent an hour on his own trying to figure out how to get his signature turned back on in Outlook.

  • http://www.artshed.com Kurt

    Oh man this post made my day. Thankyou for sharing to help all of us frustrated newbie win 7 users. God Bless You.

  • Rob Mackley

    And relax… Thank you so much… Over 12 months I’ve lived without knowing this :)

  • http://www.leapgroup.com Martha

    It’s always nice to find the perfect solution as the first hit on a google search for what i need. Thank you, worked like a charm.

  • pavelk

    Thanks

    It was an easy answer to my need.

    Anyway I think Windows 7 is a top system for now and will slowly replace Win XP to be classic.

  • kerry

    Totally awesome, thanks.

  • Pingback: Windows 7: Fixing File Explorer tree to show the folder hierarchy | Pirate Gaspard

  • Dermo

    Cheers buddy, the frustration levels were getting outta control.

  • S

    Thanks, was frustrated previously.

  • Herb

    I set my machine up like this when I first got it. It didn’t change a thing. Any other ideas?

  • Pingback: Upgrading M4400 -> How to backup/get my favorite folders from XP to Win7

  • FOSS Guy

    Thanks a bunch. Probably a great feature for some, really irritating for me.

  • http://none RichH

    This is a big help. I call it changing Explorer to adult mode.

  • Speed

    Got to add My Thanks Too!

    Sick of software companies justifying their existence by shuffling deckchairs on the titanic

  • imkdd

    Thanks! Just one little check mark stood between me and happiness :-)

  • EriPro

    Your solution works miracles on local disks but, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work on network drives.

    When I click on a folder located on \\networkDrive\SharedFolder\Subfolder\SoAndSo the Folder Tree does not follow as it used to do on XP…

    I spend a lot of time switching from one folder to the other from one server to the other and that is a major loss to me.

    If anyone knows a way it will be most welcomed! :)

  • s1

    thanks for the info, just noticed this morning on my new machine that it wasn’t there, and with my job, it’s a huge time saver with the folder structure/tree on the laft pane!!!! Thanks again.

  • Yo

    Great, thanks a lot! I’m so used to the tree view… and then working with the explorer in win7 drove me absolutely crazy. This makes it again the way I’m used to… great!

  • http://inacompleteworld.blogspot.com Jeffie

    Thanks for the tip! This is one of those things that make you wonder: are there really ANY people who actually prefer the default setting? So why is it default then?

  • matt

    Thank you for this. I try to avoid Explorer because of this and other ‘limitations’ and normally use FarManager2 when need to traverse a lot of tree structures. But this helped. At DOS prompt i also make a lot of use of “tree /F” to see what is there.
    Thank you – keep up the good work.

  • Jovy

    @Howard M Thank you Howard.. Actually your comment solved my problem about the navigation pane.. :)

  • Lünzenpeter

    Thanks so much! This was driving me nuts!

  • Dan

    Thanks my friend. Your page was #1 on Google for “folder tree in windows 7″ search

  • http://www.joyofink.com.au Simon Magro

    Merill, you’re the best mate. I’ve been looking on how to fix this issue and your article is the most detailed I’ve found. Thanks again!

  • B

    Perfect!!! Thanks for the tip. This has been annoying me for ages!

  • Cheapdude

    THANK YOU!
    just upgraded to new laptop with Windows 7, did not even realize why I was frustrated in explorer 7 until used old machine to grab some files. Noticed tree was not there on left and had to do additinal clicks. Not anymore. Great!

  • http://stoco.net Juan

    Perfect! This was what I was looking for!

  • Andy R

    It strikes me as amazing that this isn’t the default option. It’s like Microsoft want you to be able to know as little as possible about your machine.

    More dumbing down I suppose, and motre on the way in windows 8

  • Alex R

    Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    After struggling with my explorer for the past 8 hours, I decided google for solution, and here you are!!
    You mentioned UW, do you mean University of Washington?? I’m an UW alumni myself! :)

  • http://www.dmn.cz d.aemon

    Thanks, it drives me nuts too. Who could possibly want such behavior?

  • Santu

    @Sylvia
    In each new version of Microsoft, that could be Ms. Windows or Ms. office, it is becoming worst… Microsoft guys bump off very necesssary options and place unneeded options…

  • dAVo Davies

    For EriPro,
    Your Network may be a different version of Windows (mine was) so go to other retro solutions. Otherwise it may be that the Network environment is controlled, so you have no rights to change such settings… Speak to your Network Admin, buy them a coffee, chocolate, whatever it takes dAVo :D

  • Starbear

    OMG Thank you so much!!!!! I use windows explorer all the time. This so totally frustrated me.

  • Roger

    Much appreciated, thank you for taking the time.

  • Lee

    this did not work for me. I still cannot see the tree. It was visible this morning. I do not know what changed.

  • Ellis

    Thank you so much!

  • with gratitude!

    This is a post all the way back from 2009.. And people still end up here to find the perfect solution for this “small inconveniency”. Well done!

  • Dolly

    THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Bithika Mookherjee

    Thank you. You are an wonderful human being.

  • Sam

    THANK YOU FOR SHARING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Daedalus

    Thanks!

  • Jack

    Had a slight problem doing this. I had several folders pinned to windows explorer in my task bar. I checkmarked both boxes as above, and saved. However for some of my pinned folders it still came up the old way (without the current folder exposed in the navigation pane) even though the two check marks were there under organize. I had to delete the pinned folder and resave it, that seems to have worked for now. There must be something somewhere else that I did not have set right.

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