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The Windows Explorer in Windows 7 has got to be one of the worst ones yet, I think only superseded in annoyances by the one in Windows Vista.

Typical sequence of events:

  1. Win+R to open the Run dialog.
  2. Type in let's say W: and hit Enter.
  3. Explorer opens there, and I start typing a folder name, let's say Music.
  4. Once it's selected I hit Enter, except the default selection is the column header, so the first Enter only re-sorts my view by Name.
  5. I hit Enter again, and this time, finally, it enters my folder.
  6. I start typing something, let's say Stratovarius, but I mistype it, get the ding sound, and end up at let's say Santana.
  7. I immediately want to start retyping Stratovarius, but I can't. Ever since Windows 7 they've increased the delay it takes to be able to retype something to kingdom come. I have to either idle for a few seconds waiting for it to reset, or use the mouse, or figure out where in the window I am relative to what I wanted and try to use the arrow keys. Either of those are really quite annoying when before W7 it used to be so easy, you could immediately retype something from scratch.

Anyone know of any solutions for this? I'd gladly trade the Vista and 7 Windows Explorers back for the one in XP if I could. :(

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    You do know if you just hit Win and start typing it searches your start menu right? Your sequence of events was reduced to two steps in Windows 7.
    – Ramhound
    Feb 3, 2012 at 14:36
  • You make a good point, I haven't really used that.. I got annoyed with the Indexing Service at some point and turned it off because it kept me from being able to disconnect my external hard-drives. Still, if my sequence of events would work as well as it did in Windows XP, I'd have no reason to switch, I'm a really fast typer, and by the time the Start Menu thing would be done showing me my options, I'd already be where I wanted to be my way. I'll have to consider switching to it though.
    – Johnny Doe
    Feb 3, 2012 at 15:10
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    You are on a long list of people who want some of the XP explorer features back. Windows 8 is even worse.
    – Moab
    Feb 3, 2012 at 15:36
  • But don't stuck on XP. Windows 7's pluses are more than minuses, and one of that pluses is in Ramhound's comment.
    – Jet
    Mar 7, 2014 at 18:50

1 Answer 1

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If you mistype just press Escape. It will reset that timer.

You might also want to try something like Listary for better searching-by-typing.

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