By default, Windows XP will remember the view settings for the 400 most recently used folders. After that, XP will begin overwriting the data of the oldest folder, and its view setting will be lost. The information is stored in the registry by two keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoamThese keys can be modified to make XP remember more folder settings. There are three different ways available to make this change:
- Manually change the registry entries.
- Open Windows Explorer and go to Tools--Folder Options--View--Advanced Settings. Ensure that "Remember each folder's view settings" is checked.
- Open Regedit and go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell. Right-click on "Shell", then follow to New--Key--DWORD Value. Name this item "BagMRU Size" (without quotation marks, but with a space between BagMRU and Size). Double-click BagMRU Size, give it a Decimal value of 2000, then click OK.
- Now go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam. Create another BagMRU Size DWORD Value for "ShellNoRoam". Again, give it a Decimal value of 2000, then click OK.
- You will have two "BagMRU Size" values equal to 0x000007d0 (2000).
- Close the registry and reboot. Windows XP will now remember 2000 folder view settings instead of 400.
- Download and install TweakUI 2.0 for Windows XP (found here), then go to Explorer-->Customizations and set the value accordingly.
- Go to Kellys Korner, scroll down to the Folder Views - Keep Settings (Pete) section, download and execute the reg file provided.
9/04Service Pack 2 adds the necessary DWORD values to the keys referenced above. Thaks to Fat City
for confirming this in a
Microsoft Help forum thread.