# Windows Explorer in Vista

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-explorer-in-vista/551354>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 25, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-explorer-in-vista/551354 "2010-08-25T01:42:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-explorer-in-vista/551354/1 "2010-08-25T01:42:04Z")

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I have Windows Vista Home Premium on my laptop.

When I’m in Windows I like to show Details view. That gives me Name, Date Modified, Type, and Size columns for each file.

I move a lot of data between computers on a flash drive. The top folder displays in Details mode.

However, some but not all of the subfolders, even when I click on details, display Name, Date taken, Tags, Size, and Rating columns. (Most of the time, there’s nothing in the Date taken column, although a very few files do show a date. Just having dates throughout would be better than the present nothing.)

How can I get Explorer to display the standard Details view?

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**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-explorer-in-vista/551354/2 "2010-08-25T01:54:02Z")

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If I understand your problem correctly, you should:

1. Right click on the folder in question
2. Select properties
3. Select customize
4. Change the folder optimization to ‘General Items’

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-explorer-in-vista/551354/3 "2010-08-25T02:45:25Z")

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> [@cckerberos](#):
>
> If I understand your problem correctly, you should:
> 
> 1. Right click on the folder in question
> 2. Select properties
> 3. Select customize
> 4. Change the folder optimization to ‘General Items’

This worked, but step 4 had to be changed. In Customize all I saw was “Use this folder type as a template.” Changing the menu choice from “pictures and videos” to “documents” did the trick. There was also an “also apply this template to all subfolders” check box, so I clicked it for my whole F drive. That looks like it applies it across the board.

So thank you very much.