Month: August 2009

[Fix] Recycle Bin Icon Does Not Refresh Correctly

Last Updated on: May 3, 2022 by Ramesh

When you use a custom icon (.ico) file to customize the Recycle Bin Empty & Full icons manually or via a desktop theme, the Recycle Bin icon may not update or refresh correctly when emptying the Recycle Bin or when you add items to it. In some cases, the issue may occur even if you’re using the Windows default icons for the Recycle Bin.

There are two variations of the problem:

When using the Windows default icons for the Recycle Bin, Recycle Bin would either be stuck on the empty icon or the full icon, but the icon updates correctly when you press the F5 button on the keyboard.
Another variation is that the Recycle Bin icon does not refresh automatically only when using custom icon files for Recycle Bin (Full) and Recycle Bin (Empty).

This post mentions the solution for the Recycle Bin icon refresh problem for all versions of Windows, including Windows 10/11.Read more

How to Disable Explorer Search Box Suggestions in Windows

Last Updated on: May 31, 2021 by Ramesh

Earlier we saw how to clear the search MRU entries in Windows. Are you one of those who finds the Search Box suggestion pop-ups annoying, and want to turn off the feature? Here is a registry edit which disables the search box suggestions in File Explorer. Disable File Explorer Search Box Suggestions Click Start, type … Read more

Auto Update Sysinternals/NirSoft Apps Using Windows System Control Center

Last Updated on: January 25, 2022 by Ramesh

wscc - launcher and updater for sysinternals and nirsoft tools

Both Windows Sysinternals and Nirsoft offer a fantastic set of tools to tune up and troubleshoot PCs. The combined total of such tiny tools from those two sites certainly exceeds a hundred. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of the tools in the suite don’t have an automatic update feature, which makes managing them slightly tricky. … Read more

How to Remove “Always use the selected program” Option from Open With Dialog

Last Updated on: May 12, 2019 by Ramesh

The Open With dialog in Windows allows you to open a file using different programs. Also, you can create or change the file type association by selecting the “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” checkbox in the Open With dialog. Sometimes, users wrongly associate file types and end up having … Read more

[Fix] Folders Open in New Window Every time

Last Updated on: May 5, 2024 by Ramesh

When you open File Explorer and double-click a folder, it may open a new Explorer window rather than showing the folder contents in the existing window.

This issue may occur even though the “Open each folder in the same window” setting is selected in Control Panel → Folder Options.

Cause

Folders may always open in a new window due to the wrong folder association settings in the registry. For example, the (default) registry value data in the following key may be incorrectly set to “opennewwindow”

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell

Or, an unwanted registry value named LaunchExplorerFlags may be present in the following registry location:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open

If the LaunchExplorerFlags value exists and its data is a non-zero value (i.e., not equal to 0x0), then this value overrides the “Open each folder in the same window” setting. Due to the incorrect registry setting, the default double-click action folders is set to “Open in new window”.

Another possible cause is that the “DelegateExecute” registry value may be missing in the above location.

These incorrect registry settings force Windows to open folders in a new window when you double-click on them. Let’s see how to fix this problem.

The fixes #1 and #2 below apply to all versions of Windows, including Windows 11.Read more