The idea obviously has it’s benefits and it remains grounded in the notion of being helpful to the user – but it’s not without it’s problems. First, it’s confusing to some when switching between folders of different content types and having the file view change with every click. Second, a folder with a photo template view can change the very next day if content is moved in or out of the location. This transitions nicely to the ultimate point – Windows sometimes gets the content completely wrong. It can happen that when browsing your music collection the folder template applied is actually the thumbnail/thumbstrip view – woops!
If you are a user that welcomes consistency in their interfaces you are probably going to want to disable this feature.
Open the Windows Registry Editor.
Traverse to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell.
Right-click on the key named Bags and select Delete. This key contains all the saved folder views for locations access on your computer – if you like one folder displayed in Details and another folder displayed in Icon those preferences are saved here. If you are the cautious type you can also Export this key before deletion within that same right-click.
Stay with me. Even though we deleted the key Bags we still need it recreated, this time empty, for the final step. Close the Registry Editor and open an Explorer window – it will regenerate the Bags key for us.
Back in the Registry Editor, traverse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell.
Set or create the value FolderType to Unspecified by a double-click or right-click, New-> String Value.
This will hard define the General folder view for all subsequent folders in Windows Explorer. Deleting the value FolderType will revert the change should you change your mind.
