Windows File Explorer is the stock file manager that comes with Windows operating system. It offers a number of customizations like the way the files are displayed (list, small icons, medium icons, large icons, content, tiles, details etc), the file icon sizes, whether to display icons or thumbnails, and more.
But when we customize a folder in Windows 10, we have to customize the folders individually. So if we want to customize fifty different folders, we have to change all the fifty folders one by one. But if we use an open-source PowerShell script WinSetView, then we can change the default fonder views for Windows File Explorer.
WinSetView is a PowerShell script (PS1) that takes only a single parameter – path to the INI file containing all the values for setting the folder view. The parameter can also be path to the REG file if you want to restore the values to the ones in the REG file.
Since WinSetView is a CLI application, the developers have provided an HTML application (HTA) for the graphical user interface. These HTA apps depend on Microsoft Internet Explorer. After launching the HTA app, we can change the views for all the folders. There is a global setting that applies to all the folders globally, there is a setting for the Downloads folder, for General Items folders and more. The HTA app saves your settings in an INI file and then passes them on to the PowerShell script which then does the real work.
The changes take effect immediately. However, the users can also restart Windows File Explorer if they do not see such changes. This can be done easily from Windows Task Manager, selecting Explorer.exe or Windows File Explorer from there and then clicking on Restart button. If you do not like the new changes, WinSetView also offers to restore the default values easily.
You can download WinSetView from https://github.com/LesFerch/WinSetView.