FIX: Icons Always Show Up in List Mode in Windows 10

After installing certain updates to their Windows 10 computers, many users see that the icons in one or more of the folders they have on their computer show up in List Mode even though they had configured them to show up in a different manner prior to the update. It seems that certain updates mess up with the way in which the icons in one or more of the folders on some Windows 10 users’ computers show up and cause them to show up in List Mode, completely ignoring the preferences that the user had configured before the update.

There’s no telling exactly which updates give rise to this problem as Windows 10 users have reported this problem occurring after installing a variety of different updates to their computers. While this may not be a problem for a Windows 10 user who doesn’t mind the icons in one or more of their folders showing up in List Mode, most users who don’t really like List Mode or prefer to have their computer adhere strictly to their preferences would be really bugged by this problem. Unfortunately, all updates to Windows 10 computers are mandatory, so you can’t turn updates for your computer off in order to ensure that your computer doesn’t contract this problem.

Thankfully, this problem can be solved by simply resetting all of your preferences for the folder or folders which is displaying all icons in List Mode instead of the mode that you have configured icons to be displayed in. In order to do so, you need to:

Open the folder that is displaying its icons in List Mode instead of the mode you have set it to display icons in.

Navigate to the View tab of the toolbar near the top of the window.

Click on Options in the View tab to launch Folder Options for this specific folder.

Navigate to the View tab of Folder Options.

Click on Restore Defaults.

Click on Apply.

Click on OK.

All of your preferences for the folder in question will now have been reverted to their default values. You can now go ahead and configure the folder to display icons in your preferred manner, and it should successfully save this preference and display its icons in that exact manner every single time you open it.

Pro Tip: If more than one folder on your computer is exhibiting this behavior, simply repeat the steps listed and described above for all of them.