IT Home Academy: Make Win10 File Explorer's Details Pane Show More Information

When you enable the details pane in Windows Explorer and then select a file (the IT Home editor selected an exe file), you will see some information about this file on the right half of the window, including the modified date, created date, file size, and availability. However, for some users, this information is quite limited and still not detailed enough.

In this article, IT Home will demonstrate how to configure the settings so that File Explorer can display more useful information about the selected file in the details pane.

The method below applies to Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 10. Before you begin, please note that modifying the registry is risky. Although following the steps in this article will not adversely affect your computer's system, mistaken operations may prevent your computer from continuing to work normally. Let's begin.

Search for and open regedit in Microsoft Cortana;

Go to the following path:

\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\

In this directory, you will see many subkeys that start with "." followed by file extensions such as 3gp, docx, and exe.

Here, the IT Home editor wants to make it so that when we select an exe file, the details pane can display more information about this file, so we select the subkey named .exe in the \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ directory.

After selecting it, look to the right half of the window. We will see a string value named (Default), whose data value is exefile.

Remember this word, find it in the \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ directory, and then click to enter that subkey.

Here for the IT Home editor, the full path of the exefile subkey is:

\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile

After selecting it, look to the right half of the window, place the mouse cursor in a blank area, right-click, choose New - String Value, and name the newly created string value:

PreviewDetails

Double-click the string value named PreviewDetails that you just created, and set its value data to the following:

prop:System.ItemNameDisplay;System.ItemTypeText;System.ItemFolderPathDisplay;System.Size;System.DateCreated;System.DateModified;System.FileAttributesSystem.FileOwner;System.FileAttributes;*System.OfflineAvailability;*System.OfflineStatus;*System.SharedWith

Then click the OK button.

At this point, go back to Explorer, with the focus still on the exe file you just selected. Click the refresh button to the right of the address bar, or press F5 on the keyboard, and you will see that the details pane on the right side of the window now displays more useful information.

▲ Before modification

▲ After modification

Just now, we set the value data of the PreviewDetails string value. Now, let's see what this value includes.

• System.ItemNameDisplay — file name;

• System.ItemTypeText — file type;

• System.ItemFolderPathDisplay — the full path of the folder containing this file;

• System.Size — file size;

• System.DateCreated — the file's creation date;

• System.DateModified — the file's last modified date;

• System.FileAttributesSystem.FileOwner — the owner of this file;

• System.FileAttributes — the file's availability.

You can customize which information about the file you want to display in the file's details pane according to your personal preference, and modify the value data of the PreviewDetails string value accordingly.

Of course, the metadata given in the example above is not complete. Microsoft has listed a more complete list of prop: metadata on the MSDN site. This list is very long. If you want to view this list, please click here to visit that page on the MSDN site.

If you want to restore the information items displayed in the details pane to the default values, you can open the registry and delete the string value named PreviewDetails in

\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile

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