{"id":9397,"date":"2019-05-19T11:01:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T05:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=9397"},"modified":"2025-01-30T12:04:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T06:34:33","slug":"desktop-or-folders-not-refreshing-automatically-in-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/desktop-or-folders-not-refreshing-automatically-in-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Folders not refreshing automatically in Windows 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

In File Explorer or on the desktop, when you create, delete, rename, or move a file or folder, the folder view does not refresh automatically to reflect the action. To see the changes, the user must press the F5<\/kbd> button on the keyboard, or right-click on the desktop or folder background and choose Refresh.<\/p>\n

Let’s see how to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Fix: Explorer or Desktop not refreshing automatically in Windows 10<\/h2>\n

Restart Explorer<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Open Task Manager<\/li>\n
  2. In the Processes tab, right-click on the Windows Explorer<\/strong> process and click Restart
    \n\"cleanly
    \nThis restarts the Taskbar, Start menu and your desktop (collectively known as the Explorer Shell).<\/li>\n
  3. If there are more than one explorer.exe<\/code> instances, repeat the Restart<\/strong> command on the other explorer.exe<\/code> process. One of these two processes is causing the problem where the folder contents don’t refresh automatically.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    RELATED: <\/strong>How to Restart Explorer Cleanly in Windows 10<\/a><\/div>\n

    Unpin Network share\/folders or Reset Quick access<\/h3>\n

    If you have a network folder or FTP links (e.g., project folders located on another computer on the office network, accessed via a mapped network drive, or FTP links pinned to the Quick access list.) pinned to the Quick access, File Explorer may fail to refresh the folder automatically. This is especially true if the network\/Samba file share is not present or currently inaccessible. For instance, if using the office laptop at your home, your office network resources may be inaccessible from your home network.<\/p>\n

    Unpinning the shared folder from Quick Access would resolve the issue. Alternately, you can reset Quick access<\/a> items.<\/p>\n

    \"folder<\/p>\n

    Remove the Quick access items that point to network shares or samba shares to folders or network printer. Also, if you have FTP links pinned on to the Quick access, try unpinning them.<\/p>\n

    Not able to unpin or remove an item from Quick access?<\/strong> Check out the articles Fix Quick access Pinned Shortcuts Stuck or Not Working Correctly<\/a>\u00a0and Cannot Unpin FTP Links from Quick access in Windows 10<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Reset folder views<\/h3>\n

    Folders may not update correctly due to corrupted saved view settings. In that case, the problem may not be seen in newly created folders. Resetting the saved folder views resolves the issue in some cases.\u00a0To do so:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Open a folder window<\/li>\n
    2. From the File menu, select Folder and Search Options<\/strong><\/li>\n
    3. Select the View<\/strong> tab of the Folder Options dialog.<\/li>\n
    4. Click the Reset Folders button.<\/li>\n
    5. Close File Explorer.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      You may also use the folder view reset script as mentioned in the article How to Reset Folder Views in Windows 10 and Earlier<\/a> to clear saved folder views including the saved views for the Desktop.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Reset Search settings<\/h3>\n
        \n
      1. In the Folder Options dialog, click the Search tab<\/li>\n
      2. Check or uncheck any option in that tab, and click\u00a0Apply.<\/li>\n
      3. Revert to your original setting and click OK.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Launch folders in a separate process<\/h3>\n
          \n
        1. In the Folder Options dialog, click the View tab.<\/li>\n
        2. Enable Launch folder windows in a separate process<\/strong><\/li>\n
        3. Click OK.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          The above setting, when enabled launches new folder windows in a separate process. You’ll see additional explorer.exe<\/strong> instances<\/a> in Task Manager.<\/p>\n

          Create the DontUseDesktopChangeRouter registry value<\/h3>\n
            \n
          1. Start the Registry Editor and go to the following branch:\n
            HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\App Paths\\EXPLORER.EXE<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
          2. Create a DWORD (32-bit) value named DontUseDesktopChangeRouter<\/code><\/li>\n
          3. Set its data to 1<\/li>\n
          4. Exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            The above registry did the trick for many users.<\/p>\n
            As per Microsoft:<\/p>\n
            DontUseDesktopChangeRouter<\/em><\/code> is mandatory for debugger applications to avoid file dialog deadlocks when debugging the Windows Explorer process. Setting the DontUseDesktopChangeRouter entry produces slightly less efficient handling of the change notifications, however. The entry is of the REG_DWORD type and the value is 0x1<\/code><\/em>.<\/p>\n
            Disable 3rd party shell extensions<\/h3>\n
            Shell extensions load into explorer.exe<\/code> process. If a third-party shell extension is faulty, it can cause weird problems<\/a> like the issue we’re dealing with. Use ShellExView<\/a> or Autoruns to disable third-party shell extensions and restart Windows. See section Disable 3rd Party Shell Extensions<\/strong> in the article Clean Boot Windows Using Autoruns<\/a><\/p>\n
            \"Desktop<\/p>\n
            I hope one of the above methods resolved the folder contents refresh issue in Windows 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
            In File Explorer or on the desktop, when you create, delete, rename, or move a file or folder, the folder view does not refresh automatically to reflect the action. To see the changes, the user must press the F5 button on the keyboard, or right-click on the desktop or folder background and choose Refresh. Let’s … 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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4931,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/restart-explorer-gracefully-shortcut-command\/","url_meta":{"origin":9397,"position":0},"title":"How to Restart Explorer Cleanly Using Shortcut or Command-line","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When you make changes to the Windows registry using the Registry Editor, script or any other automation tool, you may have to logoff and login back for the changes to take effect. That's especially true if you're altering the UI element metrics or changing the shell namespace folder icons etc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"restart explorer gracefully","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":984,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-desktop-icons-layout-not-saved-restart\/","url_meta":{"origin":9397,"position":1},"title":"Fix for Desktop Icons Layout Not Getting Saved Upon Restarting Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows saves the desktop icon layout when the user logs off, and the setting is read during logon. 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