An extremely irritating thing that Windows does to me

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Does anyone else get this?

I go into a folder with a bunch of music in it and find that the folder has been redefined as pictures or documents, so there isn't a handly little "play selection" button. And, half the time, the details that Windows is keeping are stuff like date picture taken and not track number, so I have to re-choose what details I want it to display, so I can sort the tunes in the right order first. And vice versa. And the other way round, too. When I open a folder, I never know what kind of thing it's going to open as.

Is there a way to stop this happening? It's a total pain in the arse

Oh, I'm running Windows XP.

MG

[AllenLowe]

I don't, but it reminds me of a joke:

"If Bill Gates had a nickel for every time Windows crashed -

wait - he does!"

[hepcat1950]

Does anyone else get this?

I go into a folder with a bunch of music in it and find that the folder has been redefined as pictures or documents, so there isn't a handly little "play selection" button. And, half the time, the details that Windows is keeping are stuff like date picture taken and not track number, so I have to re-choose what details I want it to display, so I can sort the tunes in the right order first. And vice versa. And the other way round, too. When I open a folder, I never know what kind of thing it's going to open as.

Is there a way to stop this happening? It's a total pain in the arse

Oh, I'm running Windows XP.

MG

How do you change the details you want to display? Do you right-click on the header of the frame displaying the details of do you use the menu?

I've the German version installed, hence I'm not sure about the wording. If you chose the last menu item before ? (Help) which is "Extras" in German you can chose something like "Directory options" (Ordneroptionen) and then get a window with four tabs. Chose the second tab which should read like "Views" (Ansicht) which provides you with an extended list of options.

Maybe that works.

I run Vista on my desktop and XP on my laptop which I don't use extensively, hence I'm no longer this familiar with XP.

Edited October 19, 2009 by hepcat1950

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I use the menu - shortcut is

Alt v; i; k - this sorts items into track order. But if trak isn't one of the items selected for display, it doesn't work. In the menu below where the i is called, there's an option for choosing the details, which provides a drop down menu for everything under the sun, and you pick as many of those as you need (I expect there's a limit).

At present, my external hard drive is defined as pictures but it's displaying music details like track number. My C: drive - the main system disk in the computer - is defined as a music folder and this CAN'T be changed. Except it does, from time to time.

I don't understand it. I mean, it's not a problem, just a pain in the arse, y'know?

MG

[Shawn]

Create a master music folder. Move all your other music folders into it.

In windows explorer, right click on the master folder and select properties.

Go to the customize tab, change folder type to music...

...put a checkmark in the box labeled "also apply this type to all subfolders".

That way the change becomes global to all the music folders inside.

Good luck

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Just tried that. Never thought of doing it via the properties menu before.

I have all the music in one main folder. So I did it and then checked. All the categories were OK - music. So were all the Mbalax artists; and the folders for the individual albums. But when I went into the first album folder, that was defined as pictures. So I tried the next artist in that folder, and that was all right on the first bottom level folder. Then, when I tried to go into the next one -

"Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and has to close" GRRR!!! Send message to MS as ever.

"Dr Watson debugger has encountered a problem".

OBO110X!!!!

MG

[Shawn]

Just tried that. Never thought of doing it via the properties menu before.

I have all the music in one main folder. So I did it and then checked. All the categories were OK - music. So were all the Mbalax artists; and the folders for the individual albums. But when I went into the first album folder, that was defined as pictures. So I tried the next artist in that folder, and that was all right on the first bottom level folder. Then, when I tried to go into the next one -

"Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and has to close" GRRR!!! Send message to MS as ever.

"Dr Watson debugger has encountered a problem".

OBO110X!!!!

MG

Well, that "should" work, but sounds like Explorer has some issues. You might want to check and see if there are any available Windows Updates.

...if that doesn't work, buy a Mac.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Just tried that. Never thought of doing it via the properties menu before.

I have all the music in one main folder. So I did it and then checked. All the categories were OK - music. So were all the Mbalax artists; and the folders for the individual albums. But when I went into the first album folder, that was defined as pictures. So I tried the next artist in that folder, and that was all right on the first bottom level folder. Then, when I tried to go into the next one -

"Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and has to close" GRRR!!! Send message to MS as ever.

"Dr Watson debugger has encountered a problem".

OBO110X!!!!

MG

Well, that "should" work, but sounds like Explorer has some issues. You might want to check and see if there are any available Windows Updates.

...if that doesn't work, buy a Mac.

Damn machine hung when I tried to close the error reporting box!!!!

And now all my music folders have been redefined as pictures!!!!!

And my photo folders are music folders!!!!!

I do get regular Windows updates.

Anyway, thanks for trying, Shawn.

MG

[seeline]

MG, what Windows OS are you using? I haven't seen any prompts about "Dr. Watson" since I was using Win 98... which was a while ago.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

MG, what Windows OS are you using? I haven't seen any prompts about "Dr. Watson" since I was using Win 98... which was a while ago.

I don't know. How do you find out which version you're on? It's XP.

MG

[Shawn]

"right click" on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties. That window will show you what versions of Windows you are running and which Service Pack you are on (you should be on XP service pack 3).

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

"right click" on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties. That window will show you what versions of Windows you are running and which Service Pack you are on (you should be on XP service pack 3).

I don't have a "my computer" icon - must have deleted it years ago due to lack of use. But I know I'm on XP service pack 3.

MG

[7/4]

"right click" on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties. That window will show you what versions of Windows you are running and which Service Pack you are on (you should be on XP service pack 3).

I don't have a "my computer" icon - must have deleted it years ago due to lack of use. But I know I'm on XP service pack 3.

MG

Look at the menu after pressing the Start button.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

"right click" on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties. That window will show you what versions of Windows you are running and which Service Pack you are on (you should be on XP service pack 3).

I don't have a "my computer" icon - must have deleted it years ago due to lack of use. But I know I'm on XP service pack 3.

MG

Look at the menu after pressing the Start button.

Thanks - it works! Yes it's version 2002 and service pack 3.

MG

[Tom Storer]

This is interesting, I'd never noticed the different possibilities in the properties right-click menu.

I'm also on XP. I tested it for a folder containing MP3 files. I right-clicked the folder, then clicked Properties. In the Properties box that popped up, I went to the Customize tab. Under "what kind of folder do you want?" I have these choices:

Documents (for any file type)

Pictures (best for many files)

Photo album (best for fewer files)

Music (best for audio files and playlists)

Music artist (best for works by one artist)

Music album (best for tracks from one album)

Videos

From what I can see, however, making a choice here simply corresponds to making a choice in the View menu, as follows:

Documents => Tiles (alt v; s)

Pictures => Thumbnails (alt v; h)

Photo album => Filmstrip (alt v; p)

Music => Tiles (alt v; s)

Music artist => Thumbnails (alt v; h)

Music album => Tiles (alt v; s)

Videos => Thumbnails (alt v; h)

Personally, I always view everything in Details view. I want to see a list of filenames, with other details in columns I can read. And that doesn't correspond to any of the "kind of folder" choices.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

This is interesting, I'd never noticed the different possibilities in the properties right-click menu.

I'm also on XP. I tested it for a folder containing MP3 files. I right-clicked the folder, then clicked Properties. In the Properties box that popped up, I went to the Customize tab. Under "what kind of folder do you want?" I have these choices:

Documents (for any file type)

Pictures (best for many files)

Photo album (best for fewer files)

Music (best for audio files and playlists)

Music artist (best for works by one artist)

Music album (best for tracks from one album)

Videos

From what I can see, however, making a choice here simply corresponds to making a choice in the View menu, as follows:

Documents => Tiles (alt v; s)

Pictures => Thumbnails (alt v; h)

Photo album => Filmstrip (alt v; p)

Music => Tiles (alt v; s)

Music artist => Thumbnails (alt v; h)

Music album => Tiles (alt v; s)

Videos => Thumbnails (alt v; h)

Personally, I always view everything in Details view. I want to see a list of filenames, with other details in columns I can read. And that doesn't correspond to any of the "kind of folder" choices.

Yes, I view in details, too. But the details you get in the other columns get changed when the folder gets redefined - well, sometimes, they do. So you have to reselect the details from the view menu (and deselect the details you never wanted in those sorts of files, like date picture taken and dimensions, otherwise you still won't see what you want to, 'cos it'll be off the screen).

I'm dreadfully sorry to see that no one else is plagued with this

MG