Reset Folder View For All Folders in Windows 10

All Windows versions allow you to customize a specific folder's view to make it more suitable for the content in that folder. View changes are remembered by File Explorer/Windows Explorer or, all folders can be set globally to the same view via Folder Options. Sometimes, folder views get messed up in which case you might want to reset those customizations to clear out all the changes you made. In this article, we will see how to reset the folder view using Registry Editor for all folders at once in Windows 10.

When you change the view of a folder, File Explorer remembers your preferences and the changes you made.

👉 Tip: You can change the number of folder views to remember in Windows 10.

These include sorting, grouping, and the selected view mode. If some day you decide to revert everything to defaults and get the folder view as it was originally in File Explorer, you can apply a Registry tweak.

Reset the folder view for all folders in Windows 10

Step 1: Open Registry editor.

Step 2: Go to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

Tip: How to jump to the desired Registry key with one click.

Step 3: Right-click the Bags subkey under Shell and select Delete in the context menu.

Step 4: Now, delete the subkey named BagMRU.

Step 5: Restart Explorer.

You are done! All folders in File Explorer will get their default view.

There is a way to save your time and avoid Registry editing. You can create a special batch file to reset the folder view with just one click. As a bonus, we will make the batch file export the current value of the Bags and BagsMRU keys, so you will be able to restore the folder view any time.

Reset the folder view with a batch file

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following text to a new document:

   @echo off
   echo This batch file will reset folder view settings for all folders and restart Explorer automatically. 
   echo Folder view settings will be backed up to the Desktop before being deleted.
   set /p "answer=Press [y] to continue"
   IF /I NOT %answer%==y IF /I NOT %answer%==Y GOTO cancel
   set BAGS="HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags"
   set BAGMRU="HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU"
   set FILENAME="%date:~10,4%-%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%-%time::=_%.reg"	
   rem Backup of current views 
   reg export %BAGS% "%userprofile%\Desktop\bags-%FILENAME%"
   reg export %BAGMRU% "%userprofile%\Desktop\bagmru-%FILENAME%"
   timeout /t 2 /nobreak > NUL
   reg delete %BAGS% /f
   reg delete %BAGMRU% /f
   taskkill /im explorer.exe /f
   timeout /t 2 /nobreak > NUL
   start "" explorer.exe
   echo Done
   goto end
   :cancel
   echo The operation was canceled by the user
   :end
   pause

3. Save the document as a *.cmd file. Alternatively, you can download it here:

Download the batch file

Unpack it and double-click the file. You will be prompted to confirm the folder view reset operation. Type "y" on your keyboard and you are done.

The batch file will create a backup of your current view preferences in a reg file on your Desktop for the Bags and BagMRU keys. The file names are bags-currentdate-currenttime.reg and bagmru-currentdate-currenttime.reg. To restore the previous folder view options, double-click on the files and confirm the Registry merge operation.

This method also works in Windows 8 and Windows 7.