Select All does not work in Vista

Posted by Glenn

Feb 8

I discovered on unusual bug/feature in Vista.
Most of the times it is not possible to “select all” (CTRL+A, etc etc) the files or folders in some directories. Which makes copying a royal pain in the PEEP.

Some other symptoms are:

Select All option in Edit menu is disabled (greyed-out)
Mouse highlight over and drag does not work.

Of course I searched the internet looking for people that were having the same problem. There were some suggestions to do a Reset on the folders but that didn’t work for me.

Then I found someone that made a modification to the registry which works.

Open Regedit
Navigate to HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\
Delete the Bags & BagMRU keys

Windows Explorer should be its normal self again.

Hope this helps.

Filed under: All, Troubleshoot, Vista

20 comments

Comment by Aashim Soni on 02/16/2007 at 19:56

thanks man, i had the same problem, the first time i reinstall vista, the second time u saved me
Comment by Yaro on 02/26/2007 at 16:20

Thank you, that one really got me startled.
Comment by torpeZno on 03/06/2007 at 21:51

Really wonderfull, thanks! And lotsw shit to Vista (I am still thinking about reinstall my nice Windows XP Professional SP2).
Best regards from Barcelona (Spain)
Comment by Jim Goings on 03/12/2007 at 05:07

Thanks a million man! Was just about to call Microsoft on this annoying issue. Any ideas what causes it?
Comment by Luis Chiang on 03/24/2007 at 06:29

works for me! windows vista (build 6000) thanks!
Comment by nobody on 04/19/2007 at 15:51

It’s works for me.
Windows Vista Home Premium zh-tw.
Thank you so much.
Comment by Abhinov Kumar Gupta on 05/21/2007 at 00:04

Thank you very much it really worked for me. You saved my time
Comment by john on 06/12/2007 at 20:15

worked for me too. thanks. it’s a very curious issue
Comment by Marc on 08/02/2007 at 12:26

f***ing brilliant !

Ik works perfectly

Many Thanx
Comment by Chau Chee Yang on 08/04/2007 at 03:43

The way you propose works. The knowledge base in microsoft also work: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934548

Both the way is not persist forever, the problem will back again.
Comment by Glenn on 08/06/2007 at 20:17

But the reset folder workaround only works for that folder and not for all the folders…so I think this workaround is a bit more effective. But thanks for sharing the official Microsoft KB here…
Comment by mehulzolapura on 10/21/2007 at 19:00

I have got the same problem. can’t select multiple files.. i tried to do the above solution but didn’t worked. i deleted the BAG and BagMRU keys. but as soon as i open explorer, the same problem remains..

Any body have any clue..

regards
mehul
Comment by Dave on 12/21/2007 at 18:41

This worked for me, too. It has saved me a ton of time (of course, much time has been wasted on this little point already!).
Thanks!

Dave
Comment by Roger on 03/24/2008 at 16:32

I have Windows 64 bit Vista (Business), and deleting the BAG and BagMRU keys has not solved the issue of multiple select in WIndows explorer. Please can anyone else give me any other ideas?

I use this machine for Customer demonstrations, and apart from the inconvenience, it is an extremely bad showcase for the WIndows vista product!
Comment by AcidByte on 03/27/2008 at 10:51

THANKS MAN ! You saved my ass …. this bug is one of my top #3 in Vista !!!!!
Comment by Mark Nelson on 05/18/2008 at 16:20

Worked like a charm. Thanks a bunch
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