ExplViewFix v1.0

(download is currently unavailable due to some minor bugs in the program)

Description

This utility makes the status bars in Explorer's windows more usable. It's indented for Win95/98; later Windows versions have fixed this bug, so there's no point in running it there (although it works).

I wrote this because I still have Win98 running on an old machine, and it was very irritating to have to work with small Explorer windows in 800x600. The next two snapshots illustrate the problem where the middle field (size) disappears in Win95/98:

An Explorer status bar in Win98 - where's the size field?!?

The same thing in WinXP - much better!

Usage

When running, ExplViewFix will monitor all Explorer windows and will adjust their status bars. It will also put an icon in the system tray. Right click this icon to get a menu of commands. The submenu named "Mode" has two options to select from. They correspond to the field layouts of the status bars. Normally, the "Pretty" option is selected, which provides the layout found in WinME through WinXP. There's also an "Ugly" option to enforce the Win95/98 layout; so, in case you're running a newer Windows version, you can check out how it used to be in the old days... ;) You can also toggle this option by double-clicking on the tray icon.