Fix Vista Unable or Fail to Remember or Save Folder Types/Views Setting Error by Increasing BagMRU Cache Memory Size

All customizations and changes that has been done on folders types and folders views are saved and remembered by Windows Vista in system registry. By default, Vista is configured to have cache memory storage space with size of 5000 folders to store the folder settings, a value for the ‘Bag’ that has also been increased in Windows XP SP2 compared to just 400 in Windows XP SP1 or earlier.

Theoretically, amount of 5000 should be more than enough for most Vista users. Hardly anybody has so many nested folders more than 5000. However, there is reported problems that Vista sometimes simply does not want to remember, save and store the changes to folder types and folder views after users customize them. Instead, the view and/or type of folders revert back to previous settings and configurations when the window is re-opened.

The ‘forgotten’ folder views and types settings problem is likely to be caused by abnormal behavior of Vista on folders customization. Users can try to reset Vista folder types and views to clean factory state to solve most illogical and weird folders behavior, including the the view or type set on a folder been reverted and changed back to last settings even after been customized by user. For example, the folder template that users setup such as specifying a folder to be a documents folder with details view, Vista will overwrite and override the setting, then switching the folder type to pictures with icons view.

There is also occasional case where deleting Bag registry key entries to reset folders state fixs the problem on the computer. However, after a while, the problematic symptom starts happening again, and any changes on folder types and folder views again fail to be recorded and saved by Vista system. In this case, it’s possibly due to not enough space in memory space allocated in registry.

To avoid the cache memory for folder customization settings run out of space, users can increase the memory cache space allocated in the registry for the folder settings, which is assigned in registry as BagMRU Size.

One important note is that, even though you don’t have any problem with always changing back folder settings in Vista, it’s also recommended to set the BagMRU value as per registry tweak below, as in fresh install of Vista, the value for BagMRU Size is set at the wrong location for Vista. The BagMRU Size of new Vista installation is located at:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam]

Above location is the exact same location where Windows XP stores BagMRU Size value date. However, Vista looks for BagMRU Size at the following location, which actually has not this registry key set, as explained in this forum thread:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]

It is not known what value Vista is assuming or assigning to BagMRU when the actual value is not set in the registry. If you have problem where your personal preferences for folder types and views something just simply change without notice, this probably due the the BagMRU value which is not found in Vista registry been set at a low number, at least comparatively lower than default 5000 folders which supposed to set in Vista.

Whatever the reason, here’s the steps to increase the Folder Type and Folder View settings BagMRU cache memory for changes to Windows Vista Explorer view and type settings, and ensure that Vista less likely to forget the settings.

1. Run Registry Editor (regedit).
2. Navigate to the following registry key:

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

3. If you can see BagMRU Size value in the right pane, skip this step. If BagMRU Size is not found, right click on a blank space in the right pane, then select New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value. Then, type BagMRU Size as the value name.
4. Double click on BagMRU Size key just created, and then enter 10000 (in decimal base) or 2710 (in hexadecimal base) as its value data.

   Note that 5000 is the supposedly default settings for BagMRU Size in Vista. You can set any other value you like, taking into account the number of folders you have.

Here’s what the registry should looks like after editing/adding BagMRU:

Note that in Windows Vista 64-bit (x64) editions, there is another registry key that are virtually linked to the registry key above to set BagMRU Size:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]

However, any changes on either branch will automatically reflect and duplicate over to another registry branch. So only one changes is enough.

If you prefer not to edit the registry yourself, download reset-vista-folders.reg in zip format from the forum. It’s a 3-in-1 registry file that will reset all saved folder customizations on types and views, disable auto template type discovery for folders and then set folder settings memory size to 10000 (which describe in this post). You can edit the registry file in Notepad to remove the function that you don’t want to perform or change the BagMRU Size. To apply it, double click on the registry file and restart the computer.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 3:47 am and is filed under Windows Vista. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.