Navigation Pane in Vista Windows Explorer

AvatarOfTheShip · Feb 4, 2008

What I'd like to do is turn off the 'Folder' (Tree) pane :rolleyes:

Brink · Feb 4, 2008

Hi AvatarOfTheShip,

Welcome to Vista Forums. :party:

Well, turning of the Navigation Pane would certainely turn off the Folder tree.

If you do not want to turn the Navigation Pane off, then you could move the mouse pointer over the live between Favorite Links and Folders until it turns into a double pointed arrow. Just press and hold the left mouse button to drag the Folders pane line down to the bottom to hide it. This will leave just the Favorite Links part.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

AvatarOfTheShip · Feb 5, 2008

Hi Brink, thanks - and yes, you're right, that would sort of hit the spot. It's just that it seems as if Microsoft had a really nice idea to redesign Explorer, and right at the end someone's jumped up out of their seat and cried in a loud and piercing voice: "They'll never buy not having a tree view!" Soon the room was in panic and the tree view was clumsily and inelegantly welded and bolted back on. Does anyone else think this or am I alone wise in my generation? :zip:

Brink · Feb 5, 2008

LOL, that sounds very plausible. :D

Well, at least we can adjust the size or hide the Favorite Links and Folders tree, or just turn the whole thing off.

AvatarOfTheShip · Feb 7, 2008

yes, I do like the Favorites pane

cosmin2007 · Feb 29, 2008

AvatarOfTheShip said:
yes, I do like the Favorites pane

You can try some useful things to extend its use

twistedvincent · Aug 9, 2008

Simple fix.....but frustrating the hell out of me because I didn't know what I was looking for!

Thanx!

Brink · Aug 9, 2008

Your welcome Vincent, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shanw

Siffy · Aug 14, 2008

Is there any way to completely turn off or remove the Navigation Pane? I would be ok with removing it as an option from the registry or deleting system files, if I knew exactly which could be removed safely, as I never use it.

I've turned the annoying thing off numerous times, and it stays off if I navigate to the folder either through opening Computer or typing the path directly into the Start:Run prompt. But if I get to the folder from an application's "Show In Explorer" command, the Navigation Pane is automatically turned on again.

There's something else strange about that method as well that leads me to believe IE is being asked to perform the open or is at least involved. I was getting an error every time I opened a new IE window. I got the same error when opening folders in that method. After fixing the error in IE, both went away.

Brink · Aug 14, 2008

Hi Siffy, and welcome to Vista Forums.

The Navigation Pane is tied to each folder template type in a Windows Explorer window. If you turn it off in say the All Items (details) template, it will still be on in the Pictures and Videos template. You just will need to repeat it once in each template type. For the "File -> Open" or "File -> Save As -> Browse" type windows, you will need to turn off the Navigation Pane in it, then close the window to have it not be on the next time you open it in each individual application.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Siffy · Aug 14, 2008

Brink said:
Hi Siffy, and welcome to Vista Forums.

The Navigation Pane is tied to each folder template type in a Windows Explorer window. If you turn it off in say the All Items (details) template, it will still be on in the Pictures and Videos template. You just will need to repeat it once in each template type. For the "File -> Open" or "File -> Save As -> Browse" type windows, you will need to turn off the Navigation Pane in it, then close the window to have it not be on the next time you open it in each individual application.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thank you for the welcome. Well, I tried turning off auto template discovery to see if that would help, by following your tutorial through step 20.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/70819-windows-explorer-folder-view-settings.html
That didn't make the pane go away either. I can open the folder, turn off the pane, close the folder, then open it again and the pane will reappear by itself. Is there no way to completely remove the Navigation Pane and/or Templates? I really have no use for either feature, as I find both more of a hindrance than helpful.

Brink · Aug 14, 2008

Siffy,

There is no way to completely remove the Navigation Pane the way you are wanting. The only option is turning it on or off.

Do all of Method Two (download or manual) in that Folder Views tutorial link. Afterwards, turn off the Navigation Pane for that Windows Explorer window and close it. It should remain turned off when you open it next time.

Siffy · Aug 14, 2008

Brink said:
Siffy,

There is no way to completely remove the Navigation Pane the way you are wanting. The only option is turning it on or off.

Do all of Method Two (download or manual) in that Folder Views tutorial link. Afterwards, turn off the Navigation Pane for that Windows Explorer window and close it. It should remain turned off when you open it next time.

Just noticed I wasn't specific. Method 2 is what I have already done. I skipped the part "Increase Folder View Cache Memory" but completed the rest. The Nav Pane still turns itself back on.

Brink · Aug 14, 2008

Siffy,

That's strange. I must admit that I'm not sure why it keeps turning on for you in that same Windows Explorer folder template type if you have turned it off in the same type of window and closed it. I do not seem to be having a problem with it staying off or on as selected. Is it just for that particular folder, or all of them?

In the mean time, you might also run a sfc /scannow command to see if it can find and fix any bad system files that may be contributing to this.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

AF4K · Feb 22, 2009

I have tried all of this and it STILL doesn't work the way I want it to.
It ONLY works if you use EXPLORE rather than open.

And the tree is now gone. (navigation pane...) Wrong result!
What I want is to click pen a folder on my desktop, then click a subfolder
open and have it open in a seperate window.
Is that too much to ask? XP can do this... why can't Vista?

Just clicking on a folder on my desktop forces the new sub-folder to
re-use the same window again not starting in a new, seperate one like
I need it to. Anyone have ANY suggestions?

TIA

Brink · Feb 22, 2009

Hello AF4K,

Not sure what this has to do with turning the Navigation Pane on or off, but you should be able to right click on the folder or subfolder than click on Open in new window for it to. You might also see if this can helps as well.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91587-open-folder-same-separate-new-window.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

AF4K · Feb 22, 2009

Thanks but no that doesn't work. There is no option for "open in another window" when you right click on a sub-folder icon.

I got this resolved by implementing a number of tweaks I found on other sites.
It seems like very few Vista users know how to resolve this and it is quite
a common problem.

Brink · Feb 22, 2009

AF4K,

Can you PM me the links to the tweaks you used to resolve this. I would be happy to see what I can do to write something up to help others with this same problem.

Thank you,
Shawn

edgordil · Sep 17, 2009

Hi Brink,

I would like to know how to put the navigation pane over the menu bar. Actually I got several 3rd party application that are menu bars in explorer, but I want the navigation pane to go to the top of the window. Something like the image

This:

To look like this:

In the image the black pane with tumbenails is an app that works like a menu bar.

Since I'm using WindowsBlinds for skinning vista, any change in the aero.msstyles with a HEX editor is not applied, but any change in the shellstyle.dll is efective. If the changes are in the regitry that could work to.

Thanks for your help!!!!

Navigation Pane in Vista Windows Explorer

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