File Explorer’s Tiny Buttons

By | September 25, 2018
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File Explorer’s Tiny Buttons

First. a big thanks to Ron E. for suggesting this tip.  It’s something that very few people know is there, but it’s something almost everyone will want to use.

Here’s Ron’s tip:

You can change the content look of your folder from lists to icons. In the lower right hand corner of your open folder, there are 2 very small boxes. Click the right one and you get to see the content in icons. Clicking one the left one converts it back to lists. It is a way of breaking up the boredom of searching through lists. ( They are not called icons but I forgot what they are called.)

We don’t know what the official name is either, Ron. When Microsoft uses the word “Dehydration” to describe the process of deleting local copies of files in One Drive, that gives us a lot of latitude. So, our new official name for them is: File Explorer’s tiny buttons.

They’re tiny – almost unnoticeable – but they can change the look of your folder content from List view to Large icon view and back with just a click.

Here, we’ll show you. Open File Explorer (Windows Key + E) and follow along with us.Cloudeight Windows 10 Tips and Tricks

Above… there  they are – File Explorer’s tiny buttons.

Cloudeight Windows 10 Tips and Tricks

Above: Clicking on the tiny button on the left, change the File Explorer view to “List (details)” view.

And below, you can see that clicking on the tiny button on the right changes the File Explorer view to “Large icon” view. See?

Cloudeight Windows 10 Tips and Tricks

Now anytime you’re viewing files and folders in File Explorer, you can use File Explorer’s tiny buttons to switch back and forth between List view and Large Icon view.

We never knew tiny buttons could do such big things.

Thanks Ron. Great tip!

 

7 thoughts on “File Explorer’s Tiny Buttons

  1. Todd Cowman

    You can also use CNTL-SHIFT combinations for those and more viewing options.
    CNTL-SHFT 1 = Extra Large Icons
    CNTL-SHFT 2 = Large Icons
    CNTL-SHFT 3 = Medium Icons
    CNTL-SHFT 4 = Small Icons
    CNTL-SHFT 5 = List
    CNTL-SHFT 6 = Details

    Reply
    1. infoave Post author

      Excellent… A great addition to this tip. Thanks! And you can also use the mouse wheel while holding down the CTRL key to incrementally go from list to extra large icons and everything in between.

      Reply
    1. infoave Post author

      Thumbnails are usually smaller sized images, not buttons. But if Microsoft can use Dehydrate you can call them what you like.

      Reply
    1. infoave Post author

      Maybe on your computer but not on any Windows 10 computer I’ve ever seen.

      Reply

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