Win10 Folder Dementia

Win10 Folder Dementia: a reader asks…

My Windows 10 computer is having a problem with File Explorer. When I change the view options for a particular folder and then shut it down, the next time I open it Windows doesn’t remember those view settings. I looked online and found some registry changes, tried them and they didn’t work. Can you help? Any suggestions will be appreciated!

After a few exchanges I found out you’re using ESET for computer security. Turns out that’s the culprit. Apparently an earlier build of ESET for Windows 10 had some bad code that made some changes to the Windows Registry (database of information that Windows uses) and really messed things up for the user. Even uninstalling ESET didn’t fix the problem. After a lot of hollering back and forth, ESET support folks finally issued a fix. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Uninstall your existing ESET security software. Click Start and type “remove program” and click on the top highlighted entry “Change or remove a program (Control Panel)”. Find the ESET entry, click on it once and click the Uninstall/change link that appears at the top of the list. Follow the on-screen instructions.
2. Download and install the latest version of ESET Smart Security from https://www.eset.com/us/home/smart-security/download/

There is an extensive discussion about this issue at – trust me, you don’t want to plow through it! But it does outline that a lot of people have talked about this problem from August-November 2015. My guess is that you had a Windows 7 computer and took the free upgrade to Windows 10 sometime in the last 2 years, and you’ve never upgraded your ESET program. I think it’s wrong of software developers who make security software for consumers to neglect having a solid upgrade/update notification system so that users don’t get lulled into thinking they’re protected when they aren’t.

The fact is that consumer security programs can and are reverse-engineered on a regular basis by hackers. So for any security program you use, you should be getting a new version at least once a year. Almost all of these types of programs are sold on a subscription basis, so as long as your subscription is valid and active, you shouldn’t have to pay an upgrade fee to get the latest version of their program.

If you’d like my recommendation, I’d get the latest version of ESET in order to fix your view saving problem, and then give consideration to replacing it with a top-tier security program like Bitdefender Internet Security (usually on sale online for $40/year or so to protect up to three computers, up to $90 for 10 computers). Or use the built-in Windows Defender and bolster that with Malwarebytes 3.0 ($40/year direct from Malwarebytes.org, protects one computer, up to $130 for 10 computers).

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