What Are the Windows Folder Options, and How Do You Enable or Disable Them?

Folder Options are features that help you configure various file and folder settings. Enabling or disabling them can often come in handy—especially if you share your device with others.

For example, if you don’t want others to change your file and folder settings, you can disable the Folder Options. Meanwhile, if some file and folder settings are suddenly missing, you’d need to enable the Folder Options.

As such, let’s explore the Folder Options screen in detail, as well as how to enable or disable them.

What Are the Windows Folder Options and Are They Important?

The Folder Options are important because they contain most of the major file and folder settings. You can use them to customize how File Explorer works, and any changes made to the Folder Options could affect File Explorer’s performance.

You can find the Windows Folder Options by performing the following:

1. Press Win + E to open File Explorer. Alternatively, try the various ways to open File Explorer.
2. Click File in the top-left corner.
3. From there, select Change folder and search options to open the Folder Options window.

The Different Sections of the Windows Folder Options Screen

The Folder Options window has three tabs: General, View, and Search.

The General Tab

Let’s start with the General tab. This is the tab that usually greets you when you open up the Windows Folder Options.

Here are all the options that appear under this tab:

• Open File Explorer to: This is a drop-down menu that allows you to open File Explorer either through the “Quick access” or “This PC” option.
• Browse Folders: This section lets you select whether you want to open each folder in the same or separate window.
• Click items as follows: It allows you to choose whether you want to open items by single-clicking or double-clicking on them.
• Privacy: It lets you choose the files you want to display in Quick Access. The option also allows you to clear your File Explorer History.

If you want to restore the default settings under the General tab, press the Restore Defaults button at the bottom.

The View Tab

The View tab contains most of the Folder Options settings. Here are the options that appear under this tab:

• Advanced settings: This section allows you to configure various settings by checking or unchecking the relevant boxes.
• Folder views: This section has two buttons: the “Apply to Folders” and “Reset Folders” buttons. The “Apply to Folders” button allows you to apply the settings in the “Advanced settings” section to all your folders. Meanwhile, the “Reset Folders” button resets your settings.

To restore the default settings on the View tab, click the Restore Defaults button at the bottom.

The Search Tab

Lastly, the search tab allows you to configure settings for the File Explorer search bar. Here are the options under the Search tab:

• How to search: This option allows you to decide whether you want to index your search results on Windows or not.
• When searching non-indexed locations: This setting allows you to pick the options you want to include or exclude when searching non-indexed locations.

If you want to restore the File Explorer search settings, click the Restore Defaults button at the bottom.

Now, let’s discover how you can enable or disable the Folder Options on Windows.

How to Enable or Disable the Windows Folder Options

You can enable or disable the Folder Options by using either the Local Group Policy Editor (LGPE) or the Registry Editor.

Using the Local Group Policy Editor (LGPE)

This method will only be helpful if you’re using the Windows Pro, Education, and Enterprise Editions.

If you’re using Windows Home, you first need to apply a few tricks to access the LGPE on Windows Home. But if that sounds complicated, you can skip directly to the “Registry Editor” method.

Otherwise, here’s how to enable or disable the Folder Options using the LGPE:

1. Type Edit group policy in the Start menu search bar and select the Best match.
2. Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer.
3. Double-click the Do not allow Folder Options to be opened from the Options button on the View tab of the ribbon option.

Select Enabled to disable the Folder Options. Alternatively, select Not Configured or Disabled to enable the Folders option. Finally, click Apply and then click OK to apply these changes.

To check if these settings have been applied, follow these steps:

1. Press Win + E to open File Explorer.
2. Click File in the top-left corner.
3. Select Change folder and search options from the list. This should pop up an error message that reads, “This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer.”

Using the Registry Editor

The Registry Editor can also help. However, start by backing up your Registry first just in case something goes wrong.

Now, here’s how you can use the Registry Editor to disable or enable the Folder Options:

1. Press Win + R to open the Run command dialog box.
2. Type Regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
3. Copy-paste the following command into the address bar and press Enter:

ComputerHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

Next, follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the Explorer key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
2. Rename the new value as NoFolderOptions.

To disable the Folder Options, double-click on the NoFolderOptions value and set its Value data to 1. Alternatively, set the Value data to 0 (zero) to enable the Folder Options.

Press OK, close the Registry Editor, and then restart your device to save these changes.

Enable or Disable the Folder Options Without a Hassle!

The Windows Folder Options make it easy for you to configure settings on File Explorer. If you want to enable or disable the Folder Options, try any of the methods in this article.

When you finish, you can go ahead and check out some nifty Windows folder tricks.