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Windows Doesn't Remember Folder Settings

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Many users are complaining that Windows doesn't seem to remember their specific folder settings. After a while, it seems that Windows switches back to the default (of large icons).

By default, Windows is designed to remember 400 different folder settings (200 local folders and 200 network folders, for a total of 400 folders). Windows will start to re-use these stored settings on a 'Most Recently Used' basis, once the folder limit has been exceeded.

To increase the number of folder settings Windows remembers:

  1. Start the Registry Editor
  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Shell \
  3. Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
  4. Name the new value BagMRU Size
  5. Double-click the BagMRU Size value, and set the Base to Decimal
  6. Now in the Value data field enter the number of folders for which Windows should remember the settings (I'd suggest 1,000 or more)
  7. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ ShellNoRoam \
  8. Repeat steps 3-6
  9. Close the registry editor

If you prefer to remove all the settings Windows has saved so far, delete the following registry keys:

  1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Shell \ BagMRU
  2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Shell \ Bags
  3. HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ ShellNoRoam \ BagMRU
  4. HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ ShellNoRoam \ Bags

Restart Windows.

This is fixed in Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, which sets the value for BagMRU Size to 5000.




Last Updated: September 18, 2004