I’m writing this article specifically for Windows 7, because the FullRowSelect registry value that you used in Windows Vista, doesn’t work in Windows 7. (REF: Enable or Disable Full Row Select feature in Explorer in Windows Vista). After some of our readers reported that setting FullRowSelect to 0 doesn’t do anything in Windows 7, I decided to have a look at this issue. Playing with different bitmask values, I finally got what I wanted – to disable full row select feature in Windows Explorer (Details mode) in Windows 7, but with a minor side-effect which is explained in the later part of the article.
MSDN article on FOLDERFLAGS Enumerated Type tells that when the FWF_FULLROWSELECT 0×00200000 (Windows Vista and later) bit is set, when an item is selected, the item and all its sub-items are highlighted. However, in my Windows 7 system, the FWF_FULLROWSELECT wasn’t set, yet the full row select feature is still enabled. It appears that Windows 7 doesn’t honor the 0×00200000 bit. Perhaps Raymond Chen or someone from the MS Shell team can provide an expert insight on this?
Workaround
I could disable the full row select feature by adding the 0×02000000 bit (FWF_EXTENDEDTILES) and applying the setting for Generic folders. Yes! It was just a fluke. Here are the detailed instructions (accompanied by a REG file to automate) if you want to try it out:
Before proceeding, first set the FullRowSelect registry value to 0. Refer to our earlier article for more information on the registry edit.
1. Start Regedit.exe and navigate to the following location:
2. Create a subkey named AllFolders
3. Under AllFolders, create a key named Shell
4. Under Shell, create a key named {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}
5. Select {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}, and create a DWORD value named FFlags
6. Double-click FFlags and set its value data to 43000001 (hex)
7. Create another DWORD value named Mode and set 4 as its data
8. Go back to the Bags key, export the branch to a REG file.
9. Delete every Bag# under the Bags key. Do NOT delete the AllFolders key. Caution: You lose existing folder views/customizations by doing this. You need to redo them again.
10. Open My Computer, customize the window and then close it.
11. Exit the Registry Editor.
12. Logoff and login back. (Alternately, you could terminate the shell cleanly and restart it. REF: Terminate and Restart Explorer.exe Process Cleanly in Windows 7 & Windows Vista).
Other Folder Types
The above example applies to generic folders, with the Folder Type GUID {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}. You can adapt the above instructions for other folder types. Here are the GUIDs:
| Folder Template | GUID |
| Generic | {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7} |
| Documents | {7D49D726-3C21-4F05-99AA-FDC2C9474656} |
| Music | {94D6DDCC-4A68-4175-A374-BD584A510B78} |
| Pictures | {B3690E58-E961-423B-B687-386EBFD83239} |
| Videos | {5FA96407-7E77-483C-AC93-691D05850DE8} |
For other GUIDs, check out the following Folder Types registry key here, just in case you want to test the above hack for Libraries and other special folders.
Registry Fix
If you need a REG file to carry out the above task, download w7-fullrowsel.zip, unzip and apply the REG file. There is an undo REG file attached if you want to reverse this hack. Caution: You lose existing folder views/customizations by running the Undo file. You need to redo the customizations again.
Screenshots
With full row select feature enabled (default)
With full row select feature disabled.
Minor Side-Effect
The above hack also causes a little glitch which you can notice only if you enable the Preview pane in Explorer. When you double-click on a text file (or any text based file which has the Text Preview handler enabled), it simply goes into the rename mode. That is, if you want to open a text file, you must first select the file by single clicking on it, and then double-clicking the file to open it. Three clicks, totally. Again, this is observed only for .txt files and only if the Preview pane is enabled in Windows Explorer.
(Update: Feb 22 2010 – Additional note added below)
Other Interesting Observations of this Magical Registry Hack
Our vigilant reader Anon reported some interesting observations after running the above edit. This edit seems to force Windows 7 to use the standard list view control used in Windows Vista, instead of DirectUIHWND. Therefore, there are also other UI changes (as in the following screenshots) after running this edit.
#1: Blue-colored column header is back!
#2: Extended Tiles view option is added instead of Tiles (some may find this annoying)
#3: Selecting a file when in list view highlights the entire length (of the longest file name in that row)
#4: Auto arrange menu option is back. Atlast, you can disable Auto arrange option when in "icons" view. This wasn’t possible in Windows 7 earlier.
Related Posts
- How to Disable Auto Arrange in Folders in Windows 7?
- Enable or Disable Full Row Select Feature in Explorer in Windows Vista
- FIX: Cannot Select Multiple Files in Explorer in Windows Vista
- Taskbar Displays Full Path of Open Folders Instead of the Actual Folder Name
- How to Disable the Zoom Level Option in Internet Explorer
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Does anyone know how to restore Tiles instead of Extended Tiles?
Thank you, thank you. I have wanted this feature since the RC. I have since found that you can also modify the ColInfo field to specify your preferred column layouts. Your registry file has 4 fields, with the name field e.g. being 272 pixels wide. I wanted 5 fields, in the order Name, Size, Type, date Modified, and Attributes, with widths 340, 105, 340, 125, 85. Here is my ColInfo field:
“ColInfo”=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,fd,df,df,fd,10,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,18,00,00,00,30,f1,25,b7,ef,47,\ 1a,10,a5,f1,02,60,8c,9e,eb,ac,0a,00,00,00,54,01,00,00,30,f1,25,b7,ef,47,1a,\
10,a5,f1,02,60,8c,9e,eb,ac,0c,00,00,00,69,00,00,00,30,f1,25,b7,ef,47,1a,10,\
a5,f1,02,60,8c,9e,eb,ac,04,00,00,00,54,01,00,00,30,f1,25,b7,ef,47,1a,10,a5,\
f1,02,60,8c,9e,eb,ac,0e,00,00,00,7D,00,00,00,30,f1,25,b7,ef,47,1a,10,a5,f1,\
02,60,8c,9e,eb,ac,0d,00,00,00,55,00,00,00
The 05 on the second row is the number of columns, the column IDs are prefixed by 30, f1,25,b7,ef,47,1a,10,a5,f1,02,60,8c,9e,3b,ac – each column has an ID e.g. Name=0a, Size=0c, and the widths are in hex after the 00,00,00 that appears after the column ID e.g. 54,01 = 340pixels. I can now automatically preset my folders the way I want them, thanks to you and some spelunking. Thanks again!!!
I’ve got it to work with the “disablefullrowselect.reg” dated 3/12/10 8:50 AM. I tried an earlier version and it didn’t work.
Another side effect, explorer windows will unexpectedly go away, they all close.
I’ve recently upgraded (by our IT team) to Windows 7 Professional (Version 6.1 (Build 7600). I’m going through this registry change (and I did the first part from the previous change article). My path for Step 1 for the change doesn’t have “Bags” is has BagMRU… HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Classes \ Local Settings \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Shell \ BagMRU — Now, I did a search and there is a “Bags” entry… but under this path…
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Shell \ Bags
I haven’t changed anything yet. What should I do?
@LeeWhittington
I tried your fix but it didn’t seem to fix the ‘My Computer’ view. That view does not have the ‘Tiles’ view visible.
Anything else I need to change to get that back?
Thanks!
Awesome. There may be some quirks, but this also fixes the ‘View – Hide file names’ function…. it would only hide media file names, while after this fix it hides all file names.
Thank you, Lee,
it was so simple and it solved my problem!
To GrannyWeatherwax:
You can goto
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell
Create a new string value named
FolderType
Leave the Value blank. This will Switch My Computer and User Documents from Extended Tiles to Tiles, Select Tiles and you will get the Drive Icon with the Progressbar back
(@Ramesh: corrected mail address!)
After some months I noticed a sideeffect of your patch in Explorer:
Normally it it possible to shrink the different columns to a minimium in the Explorer filelist pane by doubleclicking the line between the column headers. (Like in Excel…)
Now after applying your patch the column does not shrink anymore. Instead the column grows a little bit!
Tested in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate installation. Could anybody confirm this problem?
Thorsten
Madhits,
Yes, that makes sense… I really wish Microsoft just provide an option to turn on or off the auto refreshing folder. Maybe someone can create an extension or hack to that will disable it.