“Unspecified” at the top of Windows Explorer

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This isn’t a problem, I just don’t know why it’s there. At the top of Windows Explorer, when looking at a list of folders and files, I sometimes see “Unspecified” and a number. The number corresponds to the number of items in the folder. It doesn’t appear in all of the folders but frequently throughout the folder structure. Where it does appear, it shows up every time I view that folder.

Does anyone have an explanation about what that is or why it’s there?

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I have never seen this. Could you post a screen shot? Hit CTRL-PrtScn to capture just the current window (Explorer showing this phenomenon), and post that.

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I have never seen this. Could you post a screen shot? Hit CTRL-PrtScn to capture just the current window (Explorer showing this phenomenon), and post that.

I’ve attached a couple of screen shots that include the address of the folder. One is the root directory, others drill down a little. You will see “unspecified” at the top of some but not all. The number is the number of items in the folder. These are just windows explorer screen shots, not a search result or anything like that. It also doesn’t matter what view I’m using on a folder (large, list, details, etc.).

Thanks,
Jan

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Sorry, I missed this last night and I’m at work now. This is on my home computer. I’ll get you a couple of shots of what I mean as soon as I get home.

Thanks!
Jan

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Peter, hello.

>>> Hit CTRL-PrtScn to capture just the current window

On my KB, it is Shift-PrtScn. What make KB are you using ?

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Peter, hello.

>>> Hit CTRL-PrtScn to capture just the current window

On my KB, it is Shift-PrtScn. What make KB are you using ?

Oops, typo, should have written ALT+PrtScn.

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This isn’t a problem, I just don’t know why it’s there. At the top of Windows Explorer, when looking at a list of folders and files, I sometimes see “Unspecified” and a number. The number corresponds to the number of items in the folder. It doesn’t appear in all of the folders but frequently throughout the folder structure. Where it does appear, it shows up every time I view that folder.

Does anyone have an explanation about what that is or why it’s there?

when did this start?

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when did this start?

I bought the computer (win 7 -64 bit) in February and truthfully didn’t notice this until earlier this summer. I was having a problem and did some screen shots that included that “Unspecified ##” at the top and the person I was working with at the time mentioned it. That’s when I got curious. I’ll send screen shots about 3:30 PM Eastern Time (when I get home from work).

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I bought the computer (win 7 -64 bit) in February and truthfully didn’t notice this until earlier this summer. I was having a problem and did some screen shots that included that “Unspecified ##” at the top and the person I was working with at the time mentioned it. That’s when I got curious. I’ll send screen shots about 3:30 PM Eastern Time (when I get home from work).

can you add a belarc audit result along with the screenshots thanks.

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You have chosen to arrange the contents of the folder within some kind of grouping (most likely ‘by tag’), and for these items the ‘group’ has not been indicated. This is governed by the ‘Arrange by’ link at the top-right corner of the Explorer window. Or it could be via the ‘Group By’ entry in the View menu.

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You have chosen to arrange the contents of the folder within some kind of grouping (most likely ‘by tag’), and for these items the ‘group’ has not been indicated. This is governed by the ‘Arrange by’ link at the top-right corner of the Explorer window. Or it could be via the ‘Group By’ entry in the View menu.

Gosh, that’s an interesting explanation. I have never see or used either of those features the way you describe them. I can’t find the “Arrange by” link you mentioned.

I do see the Group By but have never used it from a menu like this. Could Win 7 be trying to help me out by assigning something based on the content of the folders? Or, if I put the folder in detail mode and click on Date or Filetype to reorder it, perhaps that is the source of the issue?

Obviously this isn’t earth-shattering. I’m just trying to understand what is going on.

Thanks for your response!
Jan

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The “Arrange By” is in the right-hand pane:

Though it appears that “Arrange By” is only used within libraries. I suspect the “Group by” is what you want to experiment with.

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The ‘Group by’ approach just worked for me. Click on ‘none’ and ‘Unspecified’
goes away.

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Thanks for this information. I too haved been wondering how it got there. It only started to appear a few months ago and was no more than a minor nuisance and source of wonder. Obviously some kind software guru at MS decided it was of some value to somebody, or other. But now I can delete it I am happy again.

I have used MS Windows since its inception and get a bit used to well-meaning but pointless (to me) changes.

Thanks again.

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Peter, hello.

>>> On my KB, it is Shift-PrtScn. What make KB are you using ?

>>Oops, typo, should have written ALT+PrtScn.

Learn everyday, the Alt PrnScn also works. Thanks,

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