If you’ve been using Windows 7 long enough and suffer from OCD, or more politely – have a strong attention to detail like myself, you’ve likely noticed a change in behavior concerning Windows Explorer. In previous releases of Windows, Explorer’s window positioning on the screen would be saved between launches. When you opened a particular folder location directly with Explorer, Windows would position that window where it was last left.
Unfortunately this changed in Windows 7 – sure Windows will still store screen locations for applications but in this case every iteration of Explorer references the same coordinates. To be a bit less verbose, if you opened c:\Music and dragged the window to your second monitor, then opened c:\Documents and drag it to your first monitor, close Music, then close Documents, open Music again – it will be in the screen location of the previous Documents window. Before Windows 7, Music would always open on the second screen while Documents would stay on the primary.
If you are not in a multi-monitor setup then you may not quite understand how frustratingly annoying this change can become. Thankfully their exists ShellFolderFix – a light-weight free application that aids in saving and remember individual Explorer windows size and location, just as you were used to in XP.
Once installed, ShellFolderFix sits in the desktop tray and tracks the position of every Explorer window. When that folder location is opened the next time – ShellFolderFix will ensure it’s location is restored to it’s last known spot. Pretty simple but rather effective in it’s goal!
ShellFolderFix includes a few other features and preference options but it’s intended functionality works correctly without any further user customizations necessary.
