One of the frustrating settings in Windows Vista that doesn’t work correctly as it did in XP is the ability to apply folder view settings of the current folder to all folders. You can still set this option the same way you would in XP, but it just doesn’t seem to work. Well, there is a fix available here.

Just follow the instructions:

1. Copy the reg file to desktop and and merge it to the registry.
2. Close all windows before merging
3. Open folder options and apply the view settings to all like you do in XP.

Of course the usual disclaimer about the registry applies: if you are not comfortable making this change, do not do it. I did apply this on my work machine and it works as expected.

Whenever you have a large number of folders, inevitably some will be more important than others such that you want them to stand out in the list. Typically, you accomplish this by using special characters, caps or punctuation in the folder name. An alternate way to do this would be to change the color and/or icon of the folder. A free tool to make this process simple is Folder Marker.

Folder icons can be customized using the standard Windows method, but with Folder Marker Free you can do this on the fly from the right-click menu of a folder. So there is no need to go through additional dialogs or run Folder Marker Free itself! Simply select the folder you want to mark, right-click on its icon and select a color-coded icon from the drop-down menu. The icon will be assigned to the folder at once.

This tool makes the required folder changes a simple one or two click process. A tool like this is a quick way to organize all your folders.

When you have a folder full of pictures, using the preview/thumbnail view of Windows Explorer is really useful for finding a specific picture or just browsing. If you have ever wanted to change the size of these thumbnails, here is how.

This simple walk-through shows you how to use Tweak UI to make the change as well as what the results look like. Making the pictures larger or smaller (depending on your eyesight and/or taste) is a simple way to make your browsing more efficient.

Windows Vista ships with a really nice feature built into Windows Explorer which is folder breadcrumbs. By simply clicking on a folder in the navigation path, you are instantly jumped back to this location. To add this functionality to older versions of Windows, try the free Explorer Breadcrumbs tool.

Not much to explain here as the usage is really self explanatory and there is an image available on their page which illustrates exactly how the tool works.

While this program is free to install and use, the author asks that you donate a small amount to encourage the development of the program. So if you find it useful, help them out.

Every Windows user is familar with the open and save dialog boxes which are used by virtually every Windows application out there. While this dialog box has some handy navigation functions such as the ability to add new folders and navigate up, back and forward, for even more functionality in these dialogs check out the open source utility FileBox eXtender.

FileBox eXtender adds 2 new buttons to the upper right corner (a screenshot of the before and after is on their web site) of the standard Windows open and save dialog box which allows you to access a customized favorite locations as well as a button to access your most recently used locations. For obvious reasons, these buttons are very useful.

On top of this functionality, FileBox eXtender also adds a push-pin button which, when pressed, keeps that window on top and another roll-up button which hides all of the window except for the title bar. This functionality can certainly be handy as well.

If you make extensive use of Windows Explorer to move, copy and reorganize files of any type you probably find yourself either having 2 explorer windows open or jumping back and forth between folders on the tree view. If this is the case, try the free tool, Folder Box (about 2/3 of the way down the screen).

Folder Box allows you to create a second pane inside of Windows Explorer which has tab access to predefined custom folder locations. This way you can view 2 locations at one time without having to jump back and forth between windows. There is a demo available which shows you exactly how the tool works.

For power users or system admins, I can see this tool being useful for keeping quick shortcuts to common locations such as your backup folders, system32 directory and inetpub folders while standard users my keep shortcuts to your My Documents, pictures and music directories.

Another useful tool on this page is the bxNewFolder tool (3rd from the bottom). Simply put, this adds a button to your Windows Explorer toolbar for creating a new folder. Simple and useful.