IE8 messes up system settings.

[Eric the Grey]

Not certain if this should go here or elsewhere. It's more of a piece of advice for anyone upgrading to IE8 than anything else. I do not know if this affects XP computers or not. The solution here is Vista specific, but may work under XP as well.

My Vista box installed IE8 the other day, along with a couple of other updates, and changed the behavior of Windows Explorer (not the web browser, but what you see when you click on "My Computer" and the folders therein).

Instead of opening everything in the same window, I was now faced with a new window for each and every folder I clicked on. Doing this, I could easily end up with a dozen open windows. Not exactly what I want to see, although I know some people do prefer it that way.

IF this happens to you, changing the settings does not work, because the user-accessible settings have not changed. Changing to the opposite and back does no good either.

The Solution for Vista: Launch IE8 as the system administrator. To do this hold the shift button down, and right-click on the IE icon and choose "Run as Administrator" and click the appropriate prompts to allow it to start up. Once IE launches, shut it down (I would not suggest browsing with it running this way, and besides, you DO have Firefox installed, don't you?) and the problem is fixed.


Eric the Grey

[Ironclad Alibi]

Instead of opening everything in the same window, I was now faced with a new window for each and every folder I clicked on. Doing this, I could easily end up with a dozen open windows. Not exactly what I want to see, although I know some people do prefer it that way.

Thanks for the tip to solve this problem. I just installed IE8.

The main problem I have with new versions like this is it resets everything to default settings, and then I have to try to put everything back to the way I liked it. It is such a pain.

I'm not sure yet if I like some of the new features or not.

[Naaman]

Since I never use IEanything, and never update it barring the Security Fixes....

Another potential fix is Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Folder Options

In the General Tab under the Browse Folders section there's an option between "Open Folder in the Same Window and "Open each Folder in its own Window", setting it to same should revert the change

XP is Control Panel > Folder Options > See above

[Eric the Grey]

Since I never use IEanything, and never update it barring the Security Fixes....

Another potential fix is Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Folder Options

In the General Tab under the Browse Folders section there's an option between "Open Folder in the Same Window and "Open each Folder in its own Window", setting it to same should revert the change

XP is Control Panel > Folder Options > See above

In this case, the setting is already set, but doesn't work properly. I had mine set that way, and tried several times to make it do what I had it set to, but it doesn't work.


Eric the Grey

[Ironclad Alibi]

Regarding IE8 and the folder opening in Windows Explorer, I had to use the above method to get mine to work correctly. But when I installed it on my wife's computer, it worked correctly from the start. We have identical systems, and I did her installation within an hour of doing mine. Go figure.