Windows Explorer refuses to open in a maximized window

OK, Guys and Gals ...

This is driving me nuts! I've just reinstalled XP Pro on my laptop, and I've got a situation I can't seem to resolve.

For some reason, Windows Explorer refuses to open in a maximized window. Even though the shortcuts are set for maximized, I get a "normal" window, instead.

I can't find a thing in policies, services, or the registry that seem to apply, nor have I found anything on the various help sites (MS Knowledge Base, Kelly's Korner, Black Viper, etc.) that would help.

Your thoughts or suggestions are invited.

 

Just so I'm clear here:

- if you maximize the WE window and then close it, it opens at some other setting the next time you run it ('normal')?

- this behavior is only occuring with Windows Explorer and all other windows are behaving fine?

 

Hi Newt,

That's correct. The shortcuts for Windows Explorer are set to open a maximized window, but Explorer opens in a "normal" window. If I maximize it, then close it and reopen it, I get the smaller, "normal" window again.

Other windows behave properly ... if their shortcuts are set to open a maximized window, that's what happens.

 

You have to hold down your clicker and drag the sides to the size you want, then press control as you click off on the red X. I have run into this with WE, too. HTH
Johanna

 

Try this: double click on My Computer . Maximize the open window. Close the window by using File -> Close, not by clicking on the X .
I hope it will work.
Good luck.

 

Thanks, troops. You should know that I already had tried resizing the window by dragging, but it didn't occur to me to try closing the window by any means other than the "close" button (X in XP's Standard view, X in Classic.) Your suggestions (including Christer's) work, but only to a certain extent ... when I reopen a window, it opens almost, but not quite, maximized, and nothing I do, short of re-dragging or re-maximizing, gets it to full size.

During the course of working on this "annoyance" I learned a few interesting things about windows, in general, at least some of which you probably didn't know ...

1) if you drag a window by the edges, so that the little double-headed arrow is either vertical or horizontal, you can drag the sides of the window to the taskbar and the other edges of the visible screen but, if you drag it by the corners, you can drag it past the edges of the screen, but not the taskbar. (Sometimes, but not always, I can drag the bottom of the window behind the taskbar, so that the status bar can't be seen.)

2) there are at least six ways to close a window ...

• a) with the "close" button (X or X), at the right end of the title bar.
  
  b) by clicking on the the File menu and selecting "close ".
  
  c) by clicking on the window icon, at the left end of the title bar, and selecting "close" from the menu.
  
  d) by double-clicking the window icon.
  
  e) by right-clicking anywhere in the title bar, between the window icon on the left and the control buttons on the right, and selecting "close" from the context menu.
  
  f) by right-clicking on the window's taskbar button and selecting "close" from the context menu (this is particularly handy if, for some reason, you can't bring the window to the front).

Again, my thanks to those of you who replied so quickly. If there are any other suggestions, fire away.

 

The infuriating thing is that it's happening only on my laptop ... Explorer windows open maximized on my desktop computer.

I no longer use IE, even as a backup browser, since discovering SlimBrowser. It's based on IE, but doesn't have IE's freakish, frustrating quirks; it's constantly updated, it handles my Mozilla Firebird bookmarks beautifully, and it's free. Give it a try and you may never go back to IE