Windows 7 has incorporated a lot of changes as compared to earlier versions of Windows. There have been lot improvements made in the several features in the windows. The explorer in Windows 7 can be a bit annoying for some. Though I don’t share the view but many whom I have talked to liked the explorer in the previous versions of Windows. Specifically the navigation bar in the explorer window is considered as tough to use. Here is a quick tip to make the navigation bar in the explorer more manageable and easier to use.

Adjusting Navigation Pane

In  navigation bar of Windows 7 explorer , there are 5 locations shown by default. These locations are Favorites, Libraries, Computer, Network, and Homegroup. One can click on one of these locations to go directly to the location but it can be quite tough and annoying when one is working with lot of files and directories.image


For someone moving through to Windows 7 directly from Windows XP, he would be used to traversing using the list of folders and subfolders shown in the the navigation pane. He may find the reaching to the location through the heirarchy of folders and drives in navigation bar in Windows 7.

There is a simple trick to avoid this situation.

1. With the explorer kept open , click on Organize-> Folder and Search options

2. Under the General tab and the Navigation pane, check Show all folders and Automatically expand to current folder, then Apply and Ok.

3. The impact of doing the steps makes the list of folders easier to access almost everything while going through tons of files and organizing files.

Automatically expanding to the current folder makes navigation faster and easier.

Your setting for the navigation pane would be saved and would be retained every time you turn on the system. The process for changing back is almost the same but in opposite action stream.

This adjustment trick would help those who like to navigate with all the files and folders listed in navigation pane as in XP and it helps them save time during navigation.