How to change the appearance of folders in Windows 10. Configuring folder settings and sharing them

If you go to Windows Explorer, you'll probably notice the folder settings layout for different folders. Some folders have smaller icons and some folders in view mode have larger icons in view mode. In Windows 10/8/7, there are several layouts that are used to change the appearance of folders, and which you can choose for any folder. Windows OS sets the default folder view based on the nature of the files that are in the folder, so if you want, you can customize the default folder view for all your folders. In this article we will figure out how to set and apply the same settings for the current folders, by default, so that all other folders have the same appearance on your PC.

What is a folder template

Before changing the folder view settings, let's take a look at how folder templates work. You've probably already noticed that folders that contain images have a different appearance than those that contain videos or some documents. This is to optimize the technique, which selects one of five templates for any folder based on the content that is stored in it. These templates are:

Public Template – Applies to any folder containing a mixed combination of files and other subfolders.
Documents template – applies to folders that contain documents ( Word files, text files etc.)
Photos Template – refers to folders containing graphic files (.JPG format, .PNG files etc.)
Music template – applies to all folders that contain music files (.MP3, .WAV, etc.)
Video template – applies to any folder that contains only video formats (.MP4, .AVI, etc.)

When you start creating a new folder and place several files in it, Windows tries its best to decide what template to create for that folder based on its contents. If you store a mixed file type in any folder, Windows automatically assigns a public template to that folder. If you want to view all available templates for this folder, right-click on the folder icon and open its properties window. Here you need to go to the Settings tab, where you can see exactly the right template that is optimized for this folder.

How to set the default folder view for all folders

Now that we've cleared up the basics of folder templates, let's continue with the task. You can apply folder settings by only viewing folders that are optimized for the same folder template type. After viewing the layout, if it is generalized for a folder template type (say, music), every time you change the file icon ("large icons" icon sizes), the same will be reflected in other folders, as well as those that are optimized for music template. Now you can follow the following steps to apply the folder view settings to the Template Type folder:

1. Open File Explorer using the Windows key + E key combination and navigate to the folder you want to use as a source to view the customization layout.

2. Go to the View tab on the ribbon at the top and change the settings as you wish. You can change the layout and select the details folder to display, add additional panels, adjust column widths, etc.

3. After making changes, click the Options button to open the Folder Options window.

4. Go to the View tab of the Folder Options window.

5. Click the Apply to folders button.

6. Click on the window that appears to confirm YES.

7. Click OK in the “folder properties” window to save all your settings.

You've just made general browsing settings for a specific folder template type across the entire OS.

Settings for Windows 10 folder properties will allow you to make working on your computer more convenient, add security to the system, or make any other changes to the PC Browser.

General settings

Open Windows Explorer (any directory). In the Explorer toolbar, click on “File” and select “Change settings...” from the context menu. You can also edit directory properties in the control panel, category “Design and Personalization”.

The first step is to examine the contents of the “General” tab. There you can configure the method of opening folders (double or single click), as well as other parameters. There is also a separate item responsible for opening all folders as new explorer .exe processes.

View Tab

All main parameters are located in the “View” section. Here you can turn on and off the display of hidden elements, customize icons, and activate the function of opening folders in new windows. And these are not all the features present in this tab.

Recommendation: do not enable display of system files if you do not need to work with them. The fact is that it is more difficult for virus programs to work with hidden data. Accordingly, the risk of infection of system components is greatly reduced.

One of the innovations in Win 10 folder properties is Sharing Wizard. This is a convenient utility for setting parameters public access. You can also use it to set the elements displayed in the side block of the Windows Browser.

It is worth understanding that initially all settings are applied only to the folder where you are currently located. But there is a special item - Apply to folders. It will save changes for all directories on the computer.

Search

By the name of the tab you can understand that it will allow you to configure the search mode launched from Explorer and the Start menu. Separately, it is worth noting the indexing parameters. The system can be configured so that it checks not only files, but also archives during search queries. You can also exclude system files from search results. This will speed up the procedure.

In all Windows versions up to 95 there are many recognizable elements, but as always happens, the developers took the good old horse and taught it new tricks.

The changes that have occurred in folder properties can hardly be called the biggest innovation in Windows 10, but even here there are many new settings that not every user knows about.

General settings

To configure folder properties in Windows 10, you first need to open Explorer - using the button in the taskbar or through the Start menu. In Explorer, open the File menu and select Change folder and search options.

Or you can go the other way - through the “Appearance and Personalization” section in the Control Panel.

When the Explorer options window opens, first look at the General tab. Here you can specify in which window the folders should open (in a new one or in the same one) and with how many clicks the files will be launched (one-click opening is especially convenient for those who suffer from arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome).

Here you can also turn off the display of recently opened folders in the Explorer sidebar.

View Tab

The most important folder settings are collected on the “View” tab. Here you can find all the usual options: hiding or showing system files, icon settings, the ability to launch separate Explorer windows as processes independent of each other, and much more.

If the task is not to find a specific hidden file for recovery or antivirus scanning, it is not recommended to make system files visible - many viruses look for them when trying to infect an unprotected computer.

New settings coming to Windows 10 include the ability to use the built-in Sharing Wizard and the ability to choose which folders or libraries appear in the Explorer sidebar.

Keep in mind that the selected settings will only be applied to the currently open folder unless you click the Apply to Folders button to apply to all folders.

Search

All the settings on the “Search” tab, as you might guess, control the processing search queries in Explorer itself and in the search bar on the taskbar. Here you can specify how the system responds when searching for non-indexed system files and whether archived contents should be included in search results for non-indexed locations.

If your search consistently produces unsatisfactory results, you can enable the Always search file names and contents option. Then the search will take longer, but if you tend to hide necessary files in unexpected places or have a complex folder structure, this will come in handy.

The Windows 10 developers did a good job of making the necessary changes to the system without, however, changing everything solely for the sake of novelty. Explorer options allow you to successfully customize how files should be displayed, which files should be hidden, and how internal search queries should be handled.

Folder properties allow you to change the basic parameters of both the current directory and all folders in the system. The basic settings are no different in Windows 7 and 10. But launching the settings themselves has some features in each version of the system.

IN Windows 7 you need to open any directory and select the button in the upper left corner Arrange. In the context menu, look for and click on “ folder and search options" You can make it simpler and just press the Alt key.

After this, a panel will appear at the top of the window, where you need to click on Folder Options.

In version 10 systems everything happens a little simpler. Here the menu is not hidden and just go to “ View" and find the button Options.

After clicking on this button, the menu of interest to us will open with folder settings.

How to change properties and basic settings

Let's look at the basic folder options and what they mean. After we have completed the above steps in front of us, a settings window will open.

General section There is no need to describe it specifically. Everything is clear here. It is possible to open each directory in a new window, as well as change the click action. As a standard, you can select an object with one click and launch it with a double click. By changing these settings, you can launch files with a single click.

Next tab " View» allows you to make more detailed settings.