6

The Bad

The Good

This is Windows 7. In System properties -> Performance options -> Adjust for best performance

It makes what I want only for the Desktop if I go into folder and try to select the files the selection rectangle is like in the first image.

How to make it everywhere?

3
  • this is in windows 7? It uses the dotted selection in my 3rd party file manager, so it must be the explorer shell itself ?, and the new interface for it. It even uses that in the "classic" themes.
    – Psycogeek
    Jan 20, 2012 at 1:46
  • 1
    I have always had show translucent selection rectangle off, and I just noticed this! Confirmed.
    – iglvzx
    Jan 20, 2012 at 6:14
  • 2
    @iglvzx it seems that it is normal behaviour for the Windows 7. According to malektips.com/… and other sources
    – bakytn
    Jan 20, 2012 at 8:42

1 Answer 1

3
+300

As far as I can find out, show translucent selection rectangle off used to work in Vista for both the desktop and Windows Explorer.

However, since Windows 7 the Windows Explorer ignores this setting and always uses the filled selection rectangle, no matter its setting. This is no doubt a new bug introduced in Windows 7.

Sorry to be negative, but in my opinion the most one can do is file a bug report with Microsoft as regarding this issue.

Unfortunately, there's no submit a bug report option directly. The way one does it is to call Microsoft Support and open a support request (can also be done online). If they can reproduce your issue and verify that it's actually a bug they will file a bug report.

[EDIT]

I found a way of forcing Explorer to honor the Translucent Selection Rectangle setting that is found in the registry in the key :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
You should set the value of ListviewAlphaSelect to zero (0) to disable the Translucent Selection Rectangle.

Unfortunately this change is ignored by the list-view control of Windows 7 (DirectUIHWND). One must therefore force Windows 7 to use the old list-view control from Windows Vista.

The following article contains a registry hack which (incidentally) will accomplish this:
How to Disable Full Row Select in Explorer in Windows 7.

It links to a zip file that contains two .reg files : One effects the change and the other undoes it. I tried it inside a vanilla virtual machine and it worked for me.

I would still suggest to create a system restore point before using this hack.

8
  • yes that's fun. Windows 7 was released 2.5 years ago. Still hope to fix this. Even thinking about using custom Windows Explorer
    – bakytn
    Jan 22, 2012 at 10:31
  • One can still hope for Windows 8 ;) . However, Microsoft has a history of not caring about small bugs.
    – harrymc
    Jan 22, 2012 at 11:05
  • Semi official statement was that this is a bug. And since Windows 7 is in maintenance mode (it only accepts security/crash patches) so possibly this issue will never be fixed for Windows 7. WIll wait until bounty ends and will accept this answer
    – bakytn
    Jan 23, 2012 at 1:10
  • Read my edit above.
    – harrymc
    Jan 23, 2012 at 19:31
  • 1
    The 3rd party product might still be using the old Vista list-view activex control.
    – harrymc
    Jan 24, 2012 at 13:27

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