Windows XP forgets my folder view settings. Is there a fix?

How to delete a zero byte file that cannot be deleted in windows.

The bad news

"temporary internet files" often contains a zero byte file that cannot be deleted.

Not sure if these files cannot be deleted because they are zero bytes in length or because they have illegal characters in their name.

They are often put in the "temporary internet files" by some program and when trying to delete an old user profile it prevents the deletion.

Typical file name is "search[1]"

The good news

They can be deleted using DOS prompt and wild card "*'

Typical zero byte file.

Launch the "command prompt" from start \ all programs \ accessories.

use cd (change directory) to point to the folder (directory) containing the bad file.

Optionally you can use dir (directory), with the wild card replacing the possible illegal characters "[1]" ie: dir search*, to verify the file is there.

then use del (delete) with the wild card replacing the possible illegal characters "[1]" ie: del search*

close the comand prompt and now you can delete the directory the file was in using Windows.

Windows XP forgets my folder view settings. Is there a fix?

How to fix this annoying problem:

By default, Windows XP will remember the view settings for the 400 most recently used folders. After that, XP will begin overwriting the data of the oldest folder, and its view setting will be lost. The information is stored in the registry by two keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam


These keys can be modified to make XP remember more folder settings.

Open Windows Explorer and go to Tools--Folder Options--View--Advanced Settings. Ensure that "Remember each folder's view settings" is checked.


Open Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell. Right-click on "Shell", then follow to New--Key--DWORD Value. Name this item "BagMRU Size" (without quotation marks, but with a space between BagMRU and Size). Double-click BagMRU Size, give it a Decimal value of 2000, then click OK.

Now go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam. Create another BagMRU Size DWORD Value for "ShellNoRoam". Again, give it a Decimal value of 2000, then click OK.


You will have two "BagMRU Size" values equal to 0x000007d0 (2000).


Close the registry and reboot.
Windows XP will now remember 2000 folder view settings instead of 400

You could also try higher values if you are a power user, I use 8000 instead of 2000.