I’m writing this article specifically for Windows 7, because the FullRowSelect registry key that you used in Windows Vista, doesn’t work in Windows 7. (REF: Enable or Disable Full Row Select feature in Explorer in Windows Vista). After some of our readers reported that setting FullRowSelect to 0 doesn’t do anything in Windows 7, I decided to have a look at this issue. Playing with different bitmask values, I finally got what I wanted – to disable full row select feature in Windows Explorer (Details mode) in Windows 7, but with a minor side-effect which is explained in the later part of the article.
MSDN article on FOLDERFLAGS Enumerated Type tells that when the FWF_FULLROWSELECT 0×00200000 (Windows Vista and later) bit is set, when an item is selected, the item and all its sub-items are highlighted. However, in my Windows 7 system, the FWF_FULLROWSELECT wasn’t set, yet the full row select feature is still enabled. It appears that Windows 7 doesn’t honor the 0×00200000 bit. Perhaps Raymond Chen or someone from the MS Shell team can provide an expert insight on this?

Workaround

I could disable the full row select feature by AND’ing the 0×02000000 bit (FWF_EXTENDEDTILES) and applying the setting for Generic folders. Yes! It was just a fluke. Here are the detailed instructions (accompanied by a REG file to automate) if you want to try it out:
1. Start Regedit.exe and navigate to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Classes \ Local Settings \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Shell \ Bags

2. Create a subkey named AllFolders
3. Under AllFolders, create a key named Shell
4. Under Shell, create a key named {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}
5. Select {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}, and create a DWORD value named FFlags
6. Double-click FFlags and set its value data to 43000001 (hex)

7. Create another DWORD value named Mode and set 4 as its data
8. Go back to the Bags key, export the branch to a REG file.
9. Delete every Bag# under the Bags key. Do NOT delete the AllFolders key. Caution: You lose existing folder views/customizations by doing this. You need to redo them again.
10. Open My Computer, customize the window and then close it.
11. Exit the Registry Editor.
12. Logoff and login back. (Alternately, you could terminate the shell cleanly and restart it. REF: Terminate and Restart Explorer.exe Process Cleanly in Windows 7 & Windows Vista).

Other Folder Types

The above example applies to generic folders, with the Folder Type GUID {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}. You can adapt the above instructions for other folder types. Here are the GUIDs:

Folder Template	GUID
Generic	{5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}
Documents	{7D49D726-3C21-4F05-99AA-FDC2C9474656}
Music	{94D6DDCC-4A68-4175-A374-BD584A510B78}
Pictures	{B3690E58-E961-423B-B687-386EBFD83239}
Videos	{5FA96407-7E77-483C-AC93-691D05850DE8}

For other GUIDs, check out the following Folder Types registry key here, just in case you want to test the above hack for Libraries and other special folders.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ FolderTypes


I’m writing this article specifically for Windows 7, because the FullRowSelect registry key that you used in Windows Vista, doesn’t work in Windows 7. (REF: Enable or Disable Full Row Select feature in Explorer in Windows Vista). After some of our readers reported that setting FullRowSelect to 0 doesn’t do anything in Windows 7, I decided to have a look at this issue. Playing with different bitmask values, I finally got what I wanted – to disable full row select feature in Windows Explorer (Details mode) in Windows 7, but with a minor side-effect which is explained in the later part of the article.
MSDN article on FOLDERFLAGS Enumerated Type tells that when the FWF_FULLROWSELECT 0×00200000 (Windows Vista and later) bit is set, when an item is selected, the item and all its sub-items are highlighted. However, in my Windows 7 system, the FWF_FULLROWSELECT wasn’t set, yet the full row select feature is still enabled. It appears that Windows 7 doesn’t honor the 0×00200000 bit. Perhaps Raymond Chen or someone from the MS Shell team can provide an expert insight on this?

Workaround

I could disable the full row select feature by AND’ing the 0×02000000 bit (FWF_EXTENDEDTILES) and applying the setting for Generic folders. Yes! It was just a fluke. Here are the detailed instructions (accompanied by a REG file to automate) if you want to try it out:
1. Start Regedit.exe and navigate to the following location:
2. Create a subkey named AllFolders
3. Under AllFolders, create a key named Shell
4. Under Shell, create a key named {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}
5. Select {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}, and create a DWORD value named FFlags
6. Double-click FFlags and set its value data to 43000001 (hex)

7. Create another DWORD value named Mode and set 4 as its data
8. Go back to the Bags key, export the branch to a REG file.
9. Delete every Bag# under the Bags key. Do NOT delete the AllFolders key. Caution: You lose existing folder views/customizations by doing this. You need to redo them again.
10. Open My Computer, customize the window and then close it.
11. Exit the Registry Editor.
12. Logoff and login back. (Alternately, you could terminate the shell cleanly and restart it. REF: Terminate and Restart Explorer.exe Process Cleanly in Windows 7 & Windows Vista).

Other Folder Types

The above example applies to generic folders, with the Folder Type GUID {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}. You can adapt the above instructions for other folder types. Here are the GUIDs:

Folder Template	GUID
Generic	{5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7}
Documents	{7D49D726-3C21-4F05-99AA-FDC2C9474656}
Music	{94D6DDCC-4A68-4175-A374-BD584A510B78}
Pictures	{B3690E58-E961-423B-B687-386EBFD83239}
Videos	{5FA96407-7E77-483C-AC93-691D05850DE8}

For other GUIDs, check out the following Folder Types registry key here, just in case you want to test the above hack for Libraries and other special folders.

Registry Fix

If you need a REG file to carry out the above task, download w7-fullrowsel.zip, unzip and apply the REG file. There is an undo REG file attached if you want to reverse this hack. Caution: You lose existing folder views/customizations by running the Undo file. You need to redo the customizations again.

Screenshots

With full row select feature enabled (default)


 With full row select feature disabled.

Minor Side-Effect

The above hack also causes a little glitch which you can notice only if you enable the Preview pane in Explorer. When you double-click on a text file (or any text based file which has the Text Preview handler enabled), it simply goes into the rename mode. That is, if you want to open a text file, you must first select the file by single clicking on it, and then double-clicking the file to open it. Three clicks, totally. Again, this is observed only for .txt files and only if the Preview pane is enabled in Windows Explorer.
(Update: Feb 22 2010 – Additional note added below)

Other Interesting Observations of this Magical Registry Hack

Our vigilant reader Anon reported some interesting observations after running the above edit. This edit seems to force Windows 7 to use the standard list view control used in Windows Vista, instead of DirectUIHWND. Therefore, there are also other UI changes (as in the following screenshots) after running this edit.
#1: Blue-colored column header is back!



#4: Auto arrange  menu option is back. Atlast, you can disable Auto arrange option when in "icons" view. This wasn’t possible in Windows 7 earlier.