How to Set Default View for All the Folders in Windows

On a fresh install of Microsoft Windows XP, you will know that the default folder view for all the folder items is the Tiles view. Though there are other views available such as the Thumbnail View, Icon view, List View and the Details View, Title view is the default used by windows. If you create new folders they are automatically configured to the Tiles View. That is good feature if you have to deal with lot of images and folders with images in it. But if you prefer other views then you are manually required to configure the views. There are also default ways of arranging the icons in the folders. That is arrange by Date. But the options available for the same are arrange by name, by type, by date, by modification date. Generally details view and the 'by type' arrangement of the folder view is considered to be the best and most efficient view by the normal users.

The reason for it is obvious. Most number of files and folders with much additional information about them are viewable under these settings and they are grouped by the type. So all your Word files go together, and so is the case with Excel or PowerPoint files. But unfortunately that is not the default view and you have to configure the Folder Options for that changes to take effect. And fortunately you can easily configure this as the default view. And the fact is that this option is easily missed due to its position.

To do it first of all, open a folder. Set the view type that you want as a default for all the files and folders. Now also set the "arrange by" options of your taste. You are not required to set the view as the details view. You can set anything and then once you are done with it, follow the steps mentioned below to apply the changes you made to all the files and folders and make it the default option for the view configuration of the new folders created by you.

Go to Control Panel and navigate to Folder Options from Control Panel. Now click on the view option. Now just below the view option, there is a button that says "Apply to all folders". Just click on that option and you will be able to configure the current view to all the files and folders that are present. This rule will also apply to all the folders that will be created after applying this settings so you do have to worry about the later times.