XYplorer Beta Club

Just went from Win 10 to 11 via a clean install, and so a new reinstall of XYPlorer and trying to remember all my old settings. To save time and shoulder wear and tear, I typically open the program from an icon for a specific folder, e.g., Documents. What I'm finding now is that the tab from the last opening is still up there too. There's a setting to stop this, have the previous (different) tab close with the program, isn't there? Thanks,

Configuration | General | Startup & Exit | Save Settings | Apply to...
[ ] Tabs

Thanks, but I must not be getting the settings right. In the screenshot below, both of the top two Save Settings items are unchecked, as is tabs. But when I reopen to another folder, the previous two tabs are up there too, and the "Include most-recently..." is rechecked, as is the Tabs box. What am I missing?

You have "Save settings on exit" disabled so when you just close XY without manually saving settings first after doing the changes...

Not sure I get the logic of the text, but it worked. Thanks!

highstream wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 07:44 Not sure I get the logic of the text, but it worked. Thanks!

What is unclear in the wording ?
Save settings on exit
does exactly what the English words say.
If you disable it, there is no automatic save on exit of XY..

What Save settings on exit seems to mean here is *don’t save* the last *condition* on exiting the program. I found the phrase confusing because I don’t recall any program that doesn’t save its existing settings on exit, unless the user clicks on a “Save as default” button to keep the temporary changes they’ve made for the last operation. It would be clearer if the phrasing was something like, “Save the open tabs on closing,” or vice-versa, “Don’t save…” That way the user would know exactly what is being asked.

highstream wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 15:06 What Save settings on exit seems to mean here is *don’t save* the last *condition* on exiting the program. I found the phrase confusing because I don’t recall any program that doesn’t save its existing settings on exit, unless the user clicks on a “Save as default” button to keep the temporary changes they’ve made for the last operation. It would be clearer if the phrasing was something like, “Save the open tabs on closing,” or vice-versa, “Don’t save…” That way the user would know exactly what is being asked.

A very popular file manager does it (Total Commander)
and I like this behavior as I'm using TC and XY.
This prevents unwanted settings to be saved
while you just play with new settings.

Phrasing should make sense on the face of it, telling what the user is choosing. This text doesn't directly do so, or this thread wouldn't exist. My alternative, or something similar, does.

I don't get it. I find the current wording perfectly clear.

highstream wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025 15:06 It would be clearer if the phrasing was something like, “Save the open tabs on closing,” or vice-versa, “Don’t save…” That way the user would know exactly what is being asked.

The problem is that you would need such a phrasing/option not only for the tabs but for other items too.

But you are right that the situation is a little bit tricky.

If I reproduced it correctly, the situation seems to be the following.

1. The users decide if they want to "Save settings on exit" or not (by checking or unchecking the box) under General -> Startup & Exit.

2. If they have unchecked the box (= they don't want to save the settings), whatever they change afterwards somewhere within the settings will not be kept after exit.

This applies also to the option immediately below the "Save settings on exit", namely "Include most-recently-used lists on save" (which is only a common setting like many others in the program).

This means:

If you had originally checked the box ("Include most-recently...") plus the box (e.g.) for "Tabs" (after clicking on "Apply To") -> if you later uncheck the box for "Tabs" -> if you then exit XYplorer -> if you then open it again, tabs will be here again and the box for "Tabs" will be checked again (as mentioned by highstream above). The reason is that the unchecking you had made (for Tabs) was ignored at the restart because you had chosen the option that all changes in the settings are ignored when restarting the program (see 1.)

It's quite tricky, but it seems logical to me, and I have no idea for another phrasing.

But I would like to make a suggestion which could perhaps clarify a little bit the situation:

"Save Settings on exit" is obviously the central option which decides what will happen with all other settings after exiting the program. This central role is not visually clear at the moment in the window "Startup & Exit".

Perhaps the option "Include-most-recently-used lists on save" should be removed from this section and transferred somewhere else to avoid confusion. And renamed there, as the words "save" and "include" also produce confusion.

Yes, the matter with the lists is also a saving procedure but a different one. So perhaps better the option should be named for example in the same way as it happens anyway in the window that opens after clicking "Apply to": "Remember Most-Recently-Used Lists". And with this name the option could be transferred e.g. into the section General -> Refresh, Icons, History (as remembering is close to history). Or it could stay at "Startup & Exit", but not under "Save Settings" but somewhere above, perhaps with the clarification "Remember Most-Recently-Used Lists at startup".