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Old_Geezer | 15:17 Fri 01st Mar 2024 | Computers
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I don't hold out a lot of hope but: does anyone know how to stop the default coming up with useless columns such as 'artist', and 'track' and instead having sensible columns such as 'creation date', and 'modification date' ?

 

It's been an irritation for a long long time; and yet another example of why I despair of the human race.

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My File Explorer does not look as you describe.  Hovering over a track I get a pop up telling me the date it was created and the size.

What version on Windows are you using? 

Right click where the titles are and you should get a window with checkboxes.  Uncheck the ones you dont want.

Also if you click on a title and hold the click you can drag it to change the order.

Hope that helps.

When displaying a directory:

View > Choose details

then tick or untick the appropriate details. You can also change the order.

Question Author

How can I hover over a track ? The track column is meaningless.

 

Windows 10.

 

I'm going to have to get back to this one as the experience I had yet again earlier today isn't being repeated now that I check !!! I need to work out what is different because this most certainly happens regularly.

Question Author

Hmmm... I can't say it is always the case but: this morning I had a mobile plugged in as I wanted to print out a downloaded image from that. So I try plugging it back on, looking at it via File Explorer, and  lo & behold, 'track number', 'Artist', 'Album', 'Year', & 'Duration' columns (although I feel certain I've had this issue on the past without mobile involvement).

One reason I'm unconvinced it's a purely mobile issue is that although I can delete useless columns, in this case one has no option to add a date one. So this can not be the only circumstance it occurs.

 

I hate things that are intermittent and annoying.

 

Question Author

Hmm my mistake. No there is no date column to be added as it's funnier to code the menu with 'modified' and 'created' instead and have folk guess that'll be dates.

 

The same issue exists though. But I think it boils down to the default columns having to be set every time one enters the directory for the first time. May account for why I've had a period without encountering the bug.

I only see track in my music directories

You might see the relevant music or photo headings if Widows detects you're looking at those.

Have a read of

https://www.guidingtech.com/add-columns-folders-windows-10-file-explorer/

Question Author

Cheers  but they can't detect that as it will occur in an empty directory.

I'll experiment with my work pc on Monday.

Question Author

Cheers. It's not a big issue but I've just been wanting to correct it for ages. I suspect once it has been changed from the default it must stay that way, which would explain why I've not had the issue reappear for some while.

On mine:-

Click view on top line. Click Add Columns, then muddle through from there.

 

Question Author

Aye, thanks, I can change things. My issue was to stop it defaulting to a nonsense selection of never used columns each time, and adding the vital missing ones instead.

Old_Geezer, have you tried using View > Options [> Change folder and search options]? First set your preferred column headings and then open the 'Folder Options' window. Select the 'View' tab and then in the 'Folder views' panel click 'Apply to Folders'

Question Author

I'll give it a try next time, thanks. Does this set the default ? Not really understanding why it used to happen often, then not for a while, then suddenly once again.

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