Change Windows Explorer's Defaults

 This is one of those pet peeves for me. Whenever I'm asked to look at someone's pc inevitably the default view mode is large icons. I personally need to have details in order to work. Obviously I set this as the default on my own pc, but I'm not sure that others really know how to change it. Most people I know become accustomed to this or just live with it. It's probably the first thing I always do when asked to work on someone's pc.

Open Windows Explorer. Navigate to your C drive and double-click a folder to open it.

Then from the pull down menu select "Details". I usually select the root directory when I do this.

Once the details mode is displayed, Go to Tools and Folder Options

Once that is open then select the View Tab and select "Apply to All Folders"

Should then see this screen

Just click "Yes" and that's it.

Usually while I'm there I turn on a couple of other features, namely "show hidden files and folders" and "show contents of system folders".

Obviously there are other settings you can play with, but these are my defaults.

Another thing I always set is the default directory it opens to.

Create a new shortcut to Windows Explorer and on that shortcut select Properties. The "Target:" field will be something like:    "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe"

Simply change that to include the desired directory, like this: "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe d:\directory". Now that shortcut will open Windows Explorer directly on "d:\directory".

It's a simple no brainer tip, but I had to list it. Maybe the next time I work on someone's pc it will already be set for me. :)