Fix Folder View Settings That Keep Resetting in Windows 7/Vista (Historical)

Historical support note: This guide covers Windows 7 and Windows Vista, both of which are no longer supported.

Windows Explorer stores folder-view preferences so folders can remember choices such as icon size, details view, column layout, and folder template. If those settings repeatedly reset, start with the least destructive fixes.

1. Reset the affected folder type

Open Folder Options, go to the View tab, and use Reset Folders for the folder type that is behaving incorrectly. Then set the view again and test.

2. Check whether the problem is profile-specific

Create or use another Windows user account and see whether Explorer remembers views there. If the second profile works correctly, the issue is likely in the original user’s Explorer settings rather than a system-wide fault.

3. Advanced reset of saved folder views

Older Windows versions store saved folder views in registry locations commonly known as Bags and BagMRU. Deleting those values resets Explorer’s remembered views.

Only use this as an advanced last step:

1. Export the affected registry keys first.
2. Reset only the current user’s Explorer view data.
3. Sign out or restart Explorer/Windows.
4. Reconfigure the folder views you want.

The original article also increased BagMRU Size to 5000 or 10000. That tweak was historically used when Windows reached its folder-view cache limit, but it should not be the first response to every folder-view problem.

The old Microsoft Fix it package referenced by the original article is no longer a current support path.

Official reference

• Microsoft Windows lifecycle status: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/updates-lifecycle/what-does-it-mean-if-windows-isn-t-supported