Windows Explorer not refreshing after CreateFolder (new folder)

Question

We have built a WebDav Service with your Engine and have a one problem when we create a new Folder or File: The new folder / file is created successfully, but not showing in the Windows Explorer. Only if you press F5, the new folder / file is showing (and the name is already selected to be edited). This behavior is reproducible even with a blank WebDav Solution. We can reproduce this on Windows 7 and Windows 8 (8.1) using WebDav .NET Server 3.8 and the latest 3.9.

Is there a way to get around this “refresh-problem”?

Answer 1

I assume this issue is in Windows Explorer on a single computer. Most likely the WebDAV server-side code is failing with with some exception. Here are some ideas how to detect what is wrong:

1. Unmount network connections executing 'net use * /DELETE' in a command prompt, this will unmount WebDAV connections too and simulate 'clean' environment.

2. Retry reproducing the issue and examine your WebDAV logfile. By default it is located in /App_Data/WebDAV/Logs/ folder. Are there any exceptions in it?

3. Use Fiddler tool or any other debugging proxy to capture and examine HTTP requests. Are there any failed requests?

In case you are creating a folder/file on one computer using Windows Explorer (Microsoft Mini-redirector driver) or IT Hit Ajax File Browser and expect the files list to refresh automatically on another computer this would not work. Mini-redirector does not support any notifications from server and WebDAV does not submit any notifications, you need to refresh the files list manually to see the new items created.

Answer 2

I solved this issue but clicking in the folder explorer at view > options > then i restored to default and everything is back to normal.

Answer 3

I tred a lot of hacks, from scanning the system, to recreating the profile to hacking Registry keys and hives.
Finally what worked for me -

Right click on desktop Select Personalize Click Themes Click Change desktop icons Click Restore default & OK And instantly it began to auto refresh with a new folder, rename, delete, copy, etc.

Answer 4

I found this video on Youtube that explains in very much detail how to fix this problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUiCPsQquqc

It is a bit lengthy, so I'll just quickly sum it up here:

• The reason for these problems are one or more (broken) Shell Extensions that prevent the refresh of the Windows Explorer
• To fix it, open up regedit.exe (requires admin privileges), do a search for the Registry Key "DontRefresh". If it is "1", set it to "0". There might be multiple matches for that Key, so repeat until all Keys have the value "0".
• This might not work immediately, you may have to kill and restart your explorer.exe process (easiest to do with the Task Manager). Or you can simply reboot your computer. In my case, it worked immediately.

According to the video, the Keys should only be located under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID, but in my case I could only find such Keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Classes/Wow6432Node/CLSID.

I figured it makes most sense to simply search the complete Registry, it does not take very long.