{"id":3355,"date":"2016-08-01T13:26:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T07:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=3355"},"modified":"2026-02-28T23:47:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T18:17:35","slug":"desktop-icons-tiles-view-mode-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/desktop-icons-tiles-view-mode-fix\/","title":{"rendered":"Desktop looks like a regular folder or Changes to Tiles view mode"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If your Desktop has suddenly changed to &#8220;Tiles&#8221; view mode on your Windows computer, you may have accidentally hit a shortcut key that switches the folder view mode. It&#8217;s also possible that the <code>FFlags<\/code> registry value data is incorrect.<\/p>\n<p>This article tells you how to restore the Desktop&#8217;s default view back.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3358\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3358\" style=\"width: 425px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3358 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/desktop-view-mode-0.png\" alt=\"desktop icons view mode\" width=\"435\" height=\"255\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3358\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Desktop icons changed to Tile mode.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This may also occur due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/reset-folder-views-bags-windows\/\">folder view<\/a> corruption in the &#8220;Bags&#8221; registry key. For instance, the desktop will appear like a standard folder if the &#8220;FFlags&#8221; registry value data is incorrect. See &#8220;Option 3&#8221; below to fix this behavior.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32125\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags.png\" alt=\"desktop folder view changed fflags\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags.png 1920w, https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags-1536x864.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Reset the Desktop View Mode to Default<\/h2>\n<p>To reset the desktop view mode to icons, use one of the following methods:<\/p>\n<h3>Option 1: Change the Desktop view mode via the right-click menu<\/h3>\n<p>Right-click Desktop, click View, and select one of the icon views &#8212; Small, Medium, or Large.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3357\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/desktop-view-mode-1.png\" alt=\"desktop icons view mode\" width=\"553\" height=\"96\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Option 2: Change the Desktop view mode using the Keyboard<\/h3>\n<p>Here are the keyboard combinations you can use to change the desktop view. First, click an empty area on the desktop in order to set the focus on the desktop.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>1<\/kbd>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Extra large icons)<\/li>\n<li><kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>2<\/kbd>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Large icons)<\/li>\n<li><kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>3<\/kbd>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Medium icons)<\/li>\n<li><kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>4<\/kbd>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Small icons)<\/li>\n<li><kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>5<\/kbd>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (List)<\/li>\n<li><kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>6<\/kbd>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Details)<\/li>\n<li><kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>7<\/kbd>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Tiles)<\/li>\n<li><kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>7<\/kbd>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Content*)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>*<\/strong> <kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>7<\/kbd> (Content*) mode didn&#8217;t seem to work when I tested it on Windows 10. All it does is set the view mode to Tiles, but icons get shrunk slightly compared to the <kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>7<\/kbd>\u00a0(Tiles) view mode.<\/p>\n<h3>Option 3: Fix Desktop views via the Registry<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Exit the Explorer shell cleanly. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/exit-explorer-restart-windows-10-8\/\">How to Exit Explorer and Restart Explorer<\/a>. Don&#8217;t restart the Explorer shell yet.<\/li>\n<li>Open Task Manager using <kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>Shift<\/kbd> + <kbd>Esc<\/kbd>.<\/li>\n<li>From the Task Manager, click File, Run new task.<\/li>\n<li>Type <code>regedit.exe<\/code> and click OK.<\/li>\n<li>In the Registry Editor, go to the following branch:\n<pre>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Shell\\Bags\\1\\Desktop<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Delete the three values, namely: <code><strong>FFlags<\/strong><\/code>, <code><strong>LogicalViewMode<\/strong><\/code> and <code><strong>Mode<\/strong><\/code><\/li>\n<li>Exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n<li>Create a new <code>explorer.exe<\/code> task from Task Manager.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This restarts the Explorer shell, and the Desktop view mode should be reset to the default settings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> For the desktop folder, the <code><strong>FFlags<\/strong><\/code> value data, if present, must have the data <code><strong>0x40000224<\/strong><\/code> (hex). If it&#8217;s set to anything else, the desktop view will appear like a regular folder\u00a0 (without the toolbar\/ribbon\/navigation pane\/status bar, though.)<\/p>\n<h3>More Information<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/win32\/api\/shobjidl_core\/ne-shobjidl_core-folderlogicalviewmode\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\">LogicalViewMode<\/a> registry value can use one of the following value data.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (DETAILS)<\/li>\n<li>2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (TILES)<\/li>\n<li>3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (ICONS)<\/li>\n<li>4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (LIST)<\/li>\n<li>5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (CONTENT)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/windows\/desktop\/bb762510(v=vs.85).aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mode<\/a> can use one of the following value data.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (ICON)<\/li>\n<li>2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (SMALLICON)<\/li>\n<li>3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (LIST)<\/li>\n<li>4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (DETAILS)<\/li>\n<li>5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (THUMBNAIL)<\/li>\n<li>6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (TILE)<\/li>\n<li>7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (THUMBSTRIP)<\/li>\n<li>8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (CONTENT)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>The Microsoft technical articles <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/win32\/api\/shobjidl_core\/ne-shobjidl_core-folderviewmode\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FOLDERVIEWMODE<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/win32\/api\/shobjidl_core\/ne-shobjidl_core-folderlogicalviewmode\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FOLDERLOGICALVIEWMODE enumeration<\/a> have all the information about the folder view modes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your Desktop has suddenly changed to &#8220;Tiles&#8221; view mode on your Windows computer, you may have accidentally hit a shortcut key that switches the folder view mode. It&#8217;s also possible that the FFlags registry value data is incorrect. This article tells you how to restore the Desktop&#8217;s default view back. &nbsp; This may also &#8230; <a title=\"Desktop looks like a regular folder or Changes to Tiles view mode\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/desktop-icons-tiles-view-mode-fix\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Desktop looks like a regular folder or Changes to Tiles view mode\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,869,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10","category-windows-11","category-windows-8"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1546,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/disable-full-row-select-auto-arrange-folders-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":3355,"position":0},"title":"How to Disable Full Row Select and Auto Arrange in Windows 10?","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The magical registry edits that I provided several years back to disable auto-arrange and full row select features in Windows 7, also work fine in Windows 10 just as they did in Windows 7. 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