Customization :: How To Customize Windows Explorer Left Panel
Feb 10, 2016
I use 3 cloud services: OneDrive, Dropbox and MEGA. After installing sync client, Dropbox create a icon on Windows Explorer left panel, just like OneDrive is by default on Windows. But MEGA does NOT do it. How do I create a icon for MEGA on Windows Explorer left panel so I will have easy access to my 3 cloud services? note that I do NOT want to pin a folder on "Quick Access". I want to create a new left panel menu, just like OneDrive and "This PC" and Network appears on Windows Explorer for Windows 10.
When I open File Explorer there are a number of items listed in the left pane. Is there a way to remove some of them that I do not use like Videos and Music? Also at the bottom, after Network is Homegroup. I do not use Homegroup. Can I delete it from this list? I have other computers that do not list Homegroup so why does this one list it?
I wanted to add some programs to the top of the left side of the start menu (free space on the screenshoot). I have read about the "Pin to Start List" if you rightclick while holding shift. But this seems not to be working anymore!?!?! Is there another possibility to customize this list or to re-add the function? I don't want to use "recently added apps" or something like that ...
I have a large number of research articles on my laptop (via dropbox). One thing I loved about Windows 7 was that I could just hit the Start button, type a keyword into the search box and a results window would pop up that listed every matching document on my computer. I was also able to customize this so that it always came up in "Details" view.
I can't seem to get that same thing with Windows 10. When I type something into the search field on the task bar, I have to first select that I want it to search my stuff and not the web. After I do that it will only bring up a limited amount of results. I have to click again to see the whole set of hits--and then if I hit "Folder Explorer" at the bottom of the menu, it brings up the results in "Tile" view.
First, I can't figure out how to set the Folder Explorer default view to "Details".
Also, is there a way I search directly into Folder Explorer via the task bar search box?
Next, I don't mind that the taskbar offers me the option of websearch
I just installed Windows 10. Not sure if I like it, but I'm trying hard.
Problem: When I go to File Explorer, in the left panel, when I click on a folder name, the contents of that folder (both sub-folders and files) show in the right panel.
In the left panel, when I click on ">" beside a folder name, it will expand in the left panel showing the sub-folders, but not "loose files".
I could have sworn that in earlier versions of Windows the files also showed.
Is there a option setting somewhere to change this behavior and to show the files also in the left panel?
Can "Search the web and Windows" be set to search only Windows locally? I've read that this can be done via a policy editor, but I work in Windows 10 Home, and that option isn't directly available.
I've added folders to my libraries (like music, pictures etc.) but in the explorer they don't appear there, on the left. Instead I (gather that) I see folders with the same names as the libraries (which is quite confusing)...
For example, in the "music" library I have added a big fat folder with mp3s (other than the "iTunes" you see in the pic), which does not appear when I click on music, here. Apparently, this is not the library but some other folder of the same name.
I'd like to see the libraries there, instead of these folders. Is that possible?
When i open file explorer to view any drive or "my computer " etc , the folders , quick access panel , all are aligned to the right , and "minimize , maximize control" is shifted to top left , instead of top right , by default it is other way around , this is problematic , as i am habitual of using quick access panel in right , and maximize /minimize control in top right , it has changed unintentionlly , and now i can not correct it , i have tried many properties menu, but i can't find the setting related to this .
After installing visual basics dlls.. After some minutes my windows Explorer started showing error.. This file does not have a program association with it for performing this action. Please install a program or l, if one is already installed, create an association in the default program control panel.. . This error pop ups whenever i tries to open Explorer directly from Taskbar. ..
I just upgraded from W8.1 to W10 and it looks like the icons got smaller by default in the "details" view in the File Explorer.
My problem is that now the overlay icons which are used by TortoiseSVN do not seem to show anymore in the "details" view (when they did use to show in all previous versions of Windows). By overlay icons, I mean things like a green arrow or a red exclamation mark which show up on the icon to indicate that the file is up to date in SVN or has been modified (see screenshots below).not good alternative: the overlay icons do appear in the "Medium icons" or bigger view; (but not for "Small icons"), as well as in the "Content" view.
But none of these is satisfactory to me as I much prefer the "details" view for the things I do -- I like to be able to see both the SVN status at the same time as the details of files, in a reasonable presentation (I don't like the "Content" view, it wastes too much space when you have a lot of files to go through).
I suspect that if there is a way to change the size of the icons in the "details" view, the overlay icons would show up again. The reason I believe this is that the overlay icons do appear in the "details" view when I use the 125% setting in the SYSTEM | Display "Customize your display" setting (which was used by default on my high resolution (1920 x 1080) but small (11.6") laptop screen). See screenshots below:
normal (100%) setting for "details" view in File explorer:vs. 125% setting -- notice that now we can see the green arrow overlay icon for the folder temp_SKH_code:
Question: Is it possible to change the size of the icons appearing in the "details" view of the File Explorer (through a registry hack, or anything)? I am also open to any other alternative which would enable me to see the overlay icons of TortoiseSVN in the "details" view at 100% display setting.
As I use the 125% display setting on my laptop, I do not have any problem there. My problem is with the big external monitor (27" 2048 x 1152) that I use for which a 125% display setting would make everything way too big...For more information about the TortoiseSVN overlay icons and potential issues with Windows, see here. I originally thought that this was my problem (see also this post), until I realized that the overlay icons show fine in some of the views of File Explorer, as well as when using the 125% display setting.
How does one go about customizing the icons for file types such as .html, .php, .jpg, .gif, .psd, etc...?
There was an option in win 7 with a "File Type" tab that listed all the file extensions and allowed you to change the icons.
I did try using regedit and change the "Default Icon" key under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT==>.html and gave the path to the .ico I wanted to use and that didn't seem to work.
It used to be very easy in Windows 7 to modify and customize existing Themes. We had four functions at the bottom of the Theme selection page to modify "Desktop Background", "Window Color", "Sounds", and "Screen Saver". Well, it seems that some bone head at M$ has decided that we can't have this something that works anymore! Yes, some of the functionality has come forward to W10 although it now seems to be a total kludge to get to it these days. For example, the only way I've found to get to adjust the Screen Saver functionality is to perform a search on it. It does not seem to be on any menu that I can find. As for "Desktop Background" and "Window Color"; I've yet to find this functionality in W10. So why in the world did M$ eliminate this stuff?
And before somebody exclaims that you can modify the background in W10..how you add a photo to a Theme group these days. For extra credit, tell me what menu you can use to access this functionality from.
Not sure what Microsoft is thinking, but the "most used" list...isn't functioning as you would expect. I want programs I launch often to go there, with the recent file list fly out, that's the most user-friendly feature brought over from Windows 7....
However, what Windows uses to identify "most used". I use one program every single day, it never appears.
A program I used a few times over a month ago is still in the list, when I chose to remove it, no other programs replaced it...why wouldn't the next most used program appear?
How do I set the number of programs to list...the number grows and reduces all on it's own...it's quite bizarre.
This would all be fine if I could CHOOSE to add programs to the start menu (The "real" one, NOT the "modern" one, with it's useless huge icons)..but...you can't!!!
I just re-installed my computer and I can't remember the names of those third-part programs that you could use to change your start menu to look like win 7, the free ones.
I've notice that the windows 10 doesn't have a lot of different types of themes available for us to customize it to fit our taste. I would really like MS to either give us the option to download different types of themes and wallpapersfrom the web and just download it directly into the theme folder directory. Same goes for all the other different folders that's meant for different customization. Mouse and keyboard icon skin should be download it automatically into the mouse Folder etc this would make it a lot less complicated for even the novice users to be able to customize how they want they're desktop or laptop to look like. I love to customize my desktop the way I want it to look and that just brings unique only to me.
I have an Asus X550L and it came with Asus Smart Gesture, which I've been used to for quite a while now. I really liked using the three finger horizontal swypes to navigate webpages since I use strategy guides a lot and move back and forth between pages frequently. I was kind of shocked when my three finger swype performed an [Alt+Tab] instead of [Backspace].
Is there currently any way to disable this feature or override it so I can use Smart Gesture again? Or perhaps there is some way to customize what functions it performs?
Windows 10 Swype also changes the direction of scrolling when I use two finger vertical. I prefer inverted rather than regular, can I change this at the very least, if nothing else?
I was hoping I could change the image on the lock screen, but it still appears not to work - when I select a new image I just get a spinning cursor in the preview screen. Need customizing the Lock Screen image,?
I would like to find out how I can customize the actual images(icons) displayed in the system tray.
This is my current system tray -->
Icons I want to change include BitDefender, Chrome, and OpenVPN to make them better fit the new Windows 10 icon theme. The white icon in the top right corner is one that I was successfully able to change. The program is Vuze Bittorrent client --> The Vuse wiki actually tells the location of the .png image file --> [URL]....
For BitDefener, I found the folder where the .png files are located and I was able to overwrite them to white icons that would match my Windows 10 theme.
However, the icon in the system tray stays the same (ugly red B). I am sure there is something else I need to do seeing as BitDefender is a security application in which I am sure makes it hard to tamper with it's files.
How I can change these icon images? or know of a tool that allows you to change the program's system tray image?
I have disliked this "feature" since windows 7 and I see they still have not restored the ability to manually sort without having to give every file a "tag". Note: I do not want to use windows live essentials as I hate photo gallery, so this is not an option. I used to be able to arrange my photos by dragging and dropping them next to another similar photo and it would snap to grid where I dropped it. This eliminate duplicate pictures. I found this ink for windows 7:
Windows Explorer Auto Arrange - Disable. However it says very clearly at the beginning not to use it for any other OS versions. Does this works for windows 10 as well or if there is a way to do it in windows 10? I would prefer a 3rd party program as oppose to editing my registry if it can work (all the things that need "fixing" for customization in windows 10 seem to always suggest a reg fix, but I am afraid to edit my registry too much).
