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The Explorer file browser interface for Windows 7 is really driving me nuts. I'm used to using the left TreeView pane together with the right ListView pane. I often open a folder in the right pane and I expect the left pane to synchronise with it (open the same folder) - exactly what it did from Windows 95 to Windows XP.

I've enabled the "Automatically expand to current folder" option, so it sort of does that, but the entire pane seems to reload and it scrolls, ie. the relative position of folders on the screen changes even when it doesn't need to. This makes me lose track of where I am in the tree (which is what the left pane is really useful for). It sounds like a minor thing, but it's annoying as hell!

Is there a way to get Windows XP explorer behaviour (potentially with a third-party application) in Windows 7?

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Try Q-Dir, it can be configured to use only one window if you wish, or up to four.

http://q-dir.en.softonic.com/

Yes they destroyed Windows Explorer in W7. When navigating in the left pane, you now have to hit the enter key to show what is in the folder, how stupid is that. In XP I used the arrow keys while in the left pane to browse folder contents, but noooooo, you cannot do that in W7.

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  • The biggest mistake in W7 to me was the (visual) selection of both the explorer folders and files at the same time. It's hard to tell which one is selected. Then, when you hit delete on the keyboard, which is going to be deleted, the file or the folder? If you hit enter too quick suddenly you have removed an entire folder. And with Flash drives not being able to go to recycle bin it's gone forever. No recycle bin for networked and flash drives is another one of those big mistakes (but that's in all versions of Windows). Sep 6, 2015 at 20:38
  • Yeah I don't know how many folders I accidentally deleted due to that "feature".
    – Moab
    Sep 7, 2015 at 14:05

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