Problems with Windows Explorer changing (shrinking) window sizes

[bobkat2769]

Hi there,

If there is a better forum or sub-forum for me to post this question on please let me know. While I DO need a solution for this problem for my nLite setup, that's not all I need it for. And this seemed to me the best place to find others with deep knowledge of windows internals that might be able to actually help me with this problem.

I have been looking for a solution to this problem for about seven years. From searching the web countless times it appears that many other people have a problem with this bug but I have never been able to find a solution that actually worked 100%.

This is (so far as I can recall) an XP only bug. I don't recall ever having this problem on Windows 2000. Definitely not with NT 4.0 and I'm pretty sure never with win9x.

Here is a quick summary: With Windows Explorer, sooner or later, for no discernable reason, no matter how you have resized and then closed the windows to match what you want them to be certain new window types will revert to a "default" window size when they open.

Please read all the way through as this bug is both a bit difficult to describe and many people really don't seem to understand it at all if they don't read carefully.

What is being changed is the overall window size of Windows Explorer. Everything else stays the same. The views, the individual left and right pane sizes, the column widths, and other settings all remain just as you set them.

For some reason under certain circumstances Windows Explorer will suddenly forget what window size it should be set at and open a new window at a smaller "default" size.

The reason that I say "default" size is that the overall window size is (as near as I can tell) exactly the same size you get the first time you open Windows Explorer in a new user account.

Except for one case, regular Windows Explorer windows will always retain the window size you want them to have once you've set them and closed (all) Windows Explorer once and then opened a new one to check that the settings took properly.

By "regular" I mean any Windows Explorer started either with a shortcut or with the WinKey+E keyboard shortcut. That is, one with a left pane containing a folder tree, and a right pane showing folder contents. I don't know if this also applies to single pane windows explorer windows. It might, but I never use them.

The one exception that I mentioned is the easiest way to see exactly what the problem is. This is the only example that seems to be 100% repeatable.

In order to see it you must have the "Restore previous folder windows at logon" setting checked. This setting is located in the Folder Options dialog | View tab | Advanced settings (near the bottom of the list).

The other prerequisite is that you have changed your default windows explorer size to something larger than the initial default size.

To see it in action here is what you do.

1) Put a CD or DVD in an optical drive.

2) Open a Windows Explorer and navigate to anywhere on the CD or DVD you put in. Preferably an explorer with a folder pane on the left.

3) logout or restart.

4) login.

You will now see that the overall window size of the explorer window for the CD/DVD is now smaller than it was before. If you had any other windows explorer windows open in regular (on hard drives) folders they will not have had their size changed at all.

If this still doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll UL before and after screenshots.

Other circumstances that this bug show up are when you open new Windows Explorer windows of the following types:

Search (both from Start and context menus.)

Map Network Drive (when it automatically opens a new window immediately after you've mapped a drive.)

Explore & "Explore from here" context menus.

These are not always repeatable. I wish I knew why... =o.0=;;

What I would really like to know is:

A) Where is it getting this "default" size from?

B) Is it in the registry or hard coded into the explorer.exe?

C) How can I fix it PERMANENTLY!!!???

Thanks much in advance for any help you may be able to provide,

BobKat