feat: disable explorer automatic folder discovery

[madkarmaa]

Type of Change

• New feature
• Bug fix
• Documentation update
• Refactoring
• Hotfix
• Security patch
• UI/UX improvement

Description

Windows Explorer automatically tries to guess the type of the folder based on its contents, slowing down the browsing experience, especially on folders with large amounts of media (photos, videos). This simple tweak sets all the folders' type to NotSpecified, stopping explorer from (for example) loading media thumbnails.

Video reference (by Enderman)

Testing

The %USERPROFILE%\Pictures folder (for example) no longer shows large icons with previews.

Impact

Media thumbnails are no longer loaded and displayed.

Issue related to PR

Closes #3236

Additional Information

None

Checklist

• My code adheres to the coding and style guidelines of the project.
• I have performed a self-review of my own code.
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas.
• I have made corresponding changes to the documentation.
• My changes generate no errors/warnings/merge conflicts.

[Kingproone]

This will resolve #3236 that I opened, same thing. Thank you for making this! <3

[zoicware]

you should only need to add this reg key the rest isnt necessary

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell]
"FolderType"="NotSpecified"

[madkarmaa]

@zoicware every resource online says to delete the two keys beforehand, but never explains why. I can guess it's because otherwise Windows will use the previously detected folder types instead of the wildcard. Either way, deleting the two keys doesn't break anything and they'll be restored with no issues in case of an undo of the tweak

[zoicware]

@zoicware every resource online says to delete the two keys beforehand, but never explains why. I can guess it's because otherwise Windows will use the previously detected folder types instead of the wildcard. Either way, deleting the two keys doesn't break anything and they'll be restored with no issues in case of an undo of the tweak

nope you only need to apply that one reg key as you can see ive applied it and fe. pictures is "general items"

[madkarmaa]

@zoicware understood. I'll keep that in mind if changes are requested 👍