Fix Folder View Settings Not Saving in Windows 10: If your Windows doesn’t remember your Folder View settings then you are at the right place because today we are going to discuss how to fix this issue. In Windows 10 you have complete control of all your files & folder settings, you can easily change your Folder View settings. You have different View options to choose from such as Extra Large Icons, Large icons, Medium icons, Small icons, List, Details, Tiles, and Content. In this way, you could change your preferences about how you want to view the files and folder in File Explorer.
But Sometimes Windows doesn’t remember your preferences, in short, the Folder View Setting was not saved and you would again have the default setting saved. For example, you changed the folder view setting to List view and restarted your PC after some time. But after rebooting you see that Windows doesn’t remember your Settings which you have just configured i.e. the file or folders are not displayed in List view, instead, they are again set to Details view.
The main cause of this issue a Registry bug which can be easily fixed. The problem is that Folder View Settings is only saved for 5000 folder which means if you have over 5000 folders then your Folder View Settings will not be saved. So you just have to increase the registry value to 10,000 in order to Fix Folder View Settings Not Saving in Windows 10 issue. You can do so by following the below-listed troubleshooting guide.
Fix Folder View Settings Not Saving in Windows 10
Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.
Method 1: Reset the Folder Type View Settings
1.Open Windows File Explorer by pressing Windows key + E and then click View >Options.
2.Switch to the View tab and click Reset Folders.
3.Reboot your PC to save changes.
4.Again try to save your preferences and see if this time Windows remembers it.
Method 2: Select Apply to Folders
1.Open File Explorer and go to the drive where you want to apply these settings.
2.At the top of Explorer select View and then in the Layout section select your desired View option.
3.Now while present inside View, click Options on the far right.
4.Switch to the View tab and then click Apply to Folders.
5.Reboot your PC to save settings.
Method 3: Restore your PC to an Earlier Working Time
1.Press Windows Key + R and type”sysdm.cpl” then hit enter.
2.Select System Protection tab and choose System Restore.
3.Click Next and choose the desired System Restore point.
4.Follow on screen instruction to complete system restore.
5.After reboot, you may be able to Fix Folder View Settings Not Saving in Windows 10.
Method 4: Add User’s File Shortcut to Desktop
1.Right-click on the Desktop and select Personalize.
2.Now from the left-hand menu switch to Theme.
3.Click Desktop icon settings under Related Settings.
4.Check mark User’s Files and click Apply followed by OK.
5.Open User’s file from the desktop and navigate to your desired directory.
6.Now try to change the folder view option to your desired preferences.
5.Reboot your PC to save changes.
Method 5: Run commands in elevated command prompt
1.Press Windows Key + X then select Command Prompt (Admin).
2.Type the following command and hit Enter after each one:
REG ADD "HKEY_Current_User\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\policies\explorer" /v "NoSaveSettings" /t REG_SZ /d "0" /f REG ADD "HKEY_Local_Machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\policies\explorer" /v "NoSaveSettings" /t REG_SZ /d "0" /f
3.Reboot your Pc to save changes.
Method 6: Registry Fix
1.Open Notepad file and make sure to copy the below content exactly to your notepad file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags] [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\All Folders\Shell] "FolderType"="NotSpecified" [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell] "BagMRU Size"=dword:00002710
2.Then click File > Save as and make sure “All Files” from Save as type dropdown.
3.Browse to your desired location where you want to save the file and then name the file to Registry_Fix.reg (the extension .reg is very important) and click Save.
4.Reboot your PC to save changes and this would resolve Folder View Settings Not Saving problem.
Method 7: Workaround the Problem
1.Press Windows Key + R then type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.
2.Navigate to the following registry entries:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{42aedc87-2188-41fd-b9a3-0c966feabec1}\InProcServer32\
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{42aedc87-2188-41fd-b9a3-0c966feabec1}\InProcServer32\
3.Double click on (Default) string and change the value from “%SystemRoot%\SysWow64\shell32.dll” to “%SystemRoot%\system32\windows.storage.dll” in above destinations.
4.Reboot your PC to save changes.
Note: If you’re not able to edit these settings because of permission issues then follow this post.
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That’s it you have successfully Fix Folder View Settings Not Saving in Windows 10 but if you still have any questions regarding this post then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.
where is the reg edit for the 500 folder to 10,000 folders??? I don’t see it here on this page.
Hi, I tried the registry fix but it seems doesn’t work for me. How do I revert the changes without using System Restore?
I don’t see how you change 5000 folders to 10000. Also windows folder alone has over 30000 folders. Please, advice.
Guess the author doesn’t respond to questions. It only says to ask the question. It doesn’t say anyone will answer them! How frustrating…
Method 6 was the solution to me, thank you.
None of these worked for me.
Method 6 is the one that increases the number of folders for which to save the settings. It omits the step where you need to merge the file you create and save, though. After saving it, right-click on it and choose Merge.
Registry Fix methode worked ; I couldn’t get rid of the file extensions before this , Windows won’t remember the setting to hide file name extensions.
Solution fix also worked for me, all folders were being displayed as “General Items” and changes to specific ones weren’t being saved, it was really annoying, but that worked, thanks.
Latest update had broken and reset all folder preferences set, windows updates more gives trouble than help…
Btw, you don’t necessarily need to reboot windows, just open the “Task Manager” Kill the “Windows Explorer.exe” and then click “Run new task” or Win + R and type “explorer.exe” and the changes will be applied.
First of all, Aditya, thank you for putting this together. I’m not an expert but I know my way around the Registry and what to touch and what to keep well away from. One thing I always recommend is to take a back-up of the Registry before making ANY changes.
I’ve discovered my 2 Registry Entries in Method 7 are already set to %SystemRoot%\system32\windows.storage.dll and seeing the number of people stating nothing changed for them I am slightly reluctant to go through the steps you’ve kindly provided but may well brave it. It looks like a ‘safe area’ to touch.
You describe how to create a .reg file but not how to execute it. Surely rebooting isn’t going to cause Windows to search the entire system for Registry_Fix.reg? In my experience .reg files have to run for the Registry to be updated. Perhaps the reason for nothing changing for some people?
However, I tend to be cautious when advised to update my Registry and like to know exactly what I’m doing. My Registry already contains the first 2 entries…
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]
…so will these lines set them both to null clearing out thousands of entries below them?
The other 2 lines once executed will result in them being the only entries below the above…
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\All Folders\Shell]
“FolderType”=”NotSpecified”
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]
“BagMRU Size”=dword:00002710
If this is the desired effect I think I can see what you are asking us to do as my Registry seems to show the Explorer data for Folders in this area.
As [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags] currently contains 5000 ‘Bags’ I can this is all making sense.
The value “BagMRU Size”=dword:00002710 only resets the number of folders to 10,000. The Windows folder alone on drive C: has just under 100,000 folders and I estimate 40,000 folders on drive D:
Surely this need to be a far greater (Hex) value? Say, 30d40 for 200,000 folders?
Advice please, if you’re still in touch with your post.
I hope I’ve explained myself well enough.
Many thanks.
BaldRick
Hi Baldrick,
You’re correct, you should always take a backup before making any changes. And, yes after creating the .reg file, you need to double-click on it to execute it. And you first try the above values, if this doesn’t fix then you can manually change the value to 30d40 for BagMRU Size DWORD.
The reason is that Microsoft has not provided any documentation for BagMRU Size, but there are indications that there is an upper limit of 8000 for Windows XP, and 20,000 for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. 20,000 meaning, the last 20,000 folders view settings will be saved by Windows.
method 6 solved my problem thank you.