With Windows Vista, there was a little change in Explorer which has remained the same in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 or Windows 8: it shows the same icon for open and closed folders.
In earlier releases of Windows before Vista, when a folder was expanded in the navigation pane of Explorer, it used to show a different icon. This change makes it more difficult to see which folder you are viewing by just looking at the icons. This change also affects the tree view in Registry Editor and in the Windows 7 Start Menu All Programs view.
If you preferred having distinct icons for open and closed folder states in Explorer, then there's good news for you - it can be done. I will show you how to set the folder icon for a closed folder in Explorer of Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Vista. The method is the same for all these operating systems.
