Windows 7 - Favorites folders in the My Computer window

Question

I'm using Windows 7 Enterprise. When I click on a favorite folder (left hand pane) in a My Computer window, it opens into a new window even though I have the folder options set to "open each folder in the same window". Is there anyway to change this?

Answer 1

Love it when people suggest conflicting things on forums... These things are all claimed to solve your problem!

Suggestion 1:

Have a look at this registry key and check that it says: None

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

Suggestion 2:

My Fix:

open "regedit" (Start/Run...)

go to

"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell" and change the (Default) field to "open" (without the quotes)

Ready!

Suggestion 3:

1- open the registry editor (Winkey+R and type in "regedit")

2- Navigate to HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-3831040691-3390046849-3855596486-1000\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

3- Find the "Explorer" key and delete it, it will be then recreated.

4- Reboot

** Please keep you should always back up your registry before you make registry edits. Also, this is something I found through a Google search and although people have reported it works for them I can't be sure as I haven't tried it.**

Last resort:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/settingssamewindow.reg

or

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/opendefault.reg

Answer 2

The cause of this issue was that the explorer always gets launched with My Computer in the breadcrumb bar. This seems to break all kinds of things including opening each folder in it's own window by single clicking and breaking the breadcrumb bar itself, but the solution is simple (no registry edits required):

1. Right click on 'windows explorer' icon on the taskbar
2. Then right click 'Windows Explorer' item in the jump list again.
3. Then choose properties
4. Then on the shortcut tab change target from:

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

to:

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe c:

That makes explorer start in C: which avoids the whole problem.