In Windows Explorer, when you select "View", "Choose details", you get
a list of column headings that you can select for display.  I am
running two identical Dell Latitude D800 laptops with Win XP sp2 (and
all possible latest upgrades of software etc).  Both laptops are
mirror images of each other in terms of loaded software, firmware,
configuration, etc (so that I have a disaster recovery laptop)  
Initially both laptops had a full list of 37 possible column headings
to choose from. Inexplicably, one of them has reverted to only 8
possible column headings (and these look like the old Win 2000 basic
ones).  Any ideas how to rectify this?

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 26 Sep 2004 09:56 PDT

Hi dogbreath,

Unless you have something else going on with your computer, this should solve it. 

Q: Once Details View has been selected, how do you show more columns
than the default Name, Size, Type, and Date Modified as shown in Fig.
02?
A: Right click in any of the column headings and a drop down list
opens that contains eighteen additional columns that can be added. If
the information you want displayed still isn't available, click
[More...] to open the [Choose Details] (Fig. 03) window and there will
be approximately 31 column choices. The [Choose Details] window can
also be used to rearrange the order of the columns by using the [Move
Up] and [Move Down] buttons.
http://www.theeldergeek.com/applying_detail_view_to_windows.htm

Please let me know how that goes so I can either post this as an
answer or continue to look for a solution.

Thank you,
hummer

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Clarification of Question by dogbreath-ga on 26 Sep 2004 11:33 PDT

Ah yes, this is the crux of the problem.  When I right click on any
heading and seclect "more", I get the same result as "choose details",
i.e. only the 8 basic old column headings appear for selection.  Its
all a bit of a mystery since this was working fine a month or two back
and it is still working fine on my identical disaster recovery machine
on which I have also upgraded to sp2, etc.   Think this is a more in
depth problem.

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 26 Sep 2004 16:11 PDT

dogbreath...

An alternate means of arriving at the 'More' table is to
click on the menubar, selecting View -> Choose Columns.
When doing this, do you still get the reduced # of options?

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by dogbreath-ga on 26 Sep 2004 16:20 PDT

Yes I do, this is the problem.

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Request for Question Clarification by palitoy-ga on 27 Sep 2004 02:39 PDT

Hello dogbreath

The number of items in the details list alters depending on the
current location of the system focus.  For instance if you open up My
Computer on both PC and go immediately to View->Choose details you
should see a small set of details.  Now, try double-clicking on your
C: icon and doing View->Choose details.  There should now be an
increased number of options.

How many options you have to chose from depends on the folder you have open.

Let me know if this solves your problem.

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Clarification of Question by dogbreath-ga on 27 Sep 2004 06:54 PDT

I know what you mean, but I'm afraid this does not solve the problem. 
Yes having the focus on My Computer and choosing "Choose Details" does
show a different set of 6 possible columns to display, but ALL
directories within the C: drive show the same basic 8 possible columns
to display when I do the "choose details".  As I say, it didnt do this
in the past and my other identical PC does correctly show the 37
possible column headings for all C: drive directories.

I think we need to go deeper and find out what template or whatever
provides this list of 37 possible column headings and then I can see
if they are different on my two PCs.  I have already messed around
with "file" "properties" "customise" & trying different "folder types
as template" & tried "restoring defaults".  Any ideas on how to
investigate this strange quirk more deeply?

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Request for Question Clarification by palitoy-ga on 27 Sep 2004 11:57 PDT

Just another quick thought - are the users on both PC's set to the
same level of authorization?  For instance are both users
administrators?

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Clarification of Question by dogbreath-ga on 27 Sep 2004 17:09 PDT

Nice thought, but yes they are both Administrators.  And I think
virtually everything else is identical between the machines (except
that one thing causing this!)

For the record, since 'Caller Id' is one of the more obscure headings,
having to do with folders in which faxes are kept, I did both a registry
search and a search for all files in %SystemRoot%, where explorer.exe
is located, for entries containing the words 'Caller Id'. The registry
search turned up nothing, and the file search turned up only a handful
of files. Many of the files were, understandably, modem .inf files, and
the rest I searched with Metapad - a notepad upgrade - and found nothing
which indicated an association with Windows Explorer. Of course, I also
did a Google search for something which would be of help. The options for
this feature seem to be particularly well hidden.

sublime1-ga

Thanks for the comment, sublime1-ga, what you tried sounded like a
good approach.  Windows explorer is rather well buried in XP by now. 
I did check the version of the program on both my PCs, and this
produces the XP version, rather than a separate WE version.  Both were
the same (MS Windows version 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803.2158
: service pack 2).  I will keep experimenting...    Any more comments
gratefully received.

I had the same problem affecting 1 user on a multi-user XP Pro machine
(like you I am fully patched and SP2).  My problem was related to the
software, WebDrive - if you don't have this installed, you may still
find parts of this reply useful.
Note that this reply requires you to interact with your registry so
the usual cautions apply.

You need to compare HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex on your two computers.
Note that this key appears to be user specific (even though it is not
in the HKCU tree), so make sure you login as a user who is having the
problem on the affected computer.  Under \shellex you should see a
ColumnHandlers key with 4 subkeys.  In my case, for some unknown
reason, the software WebDrive (www.webdrive.com
<http://www.webdrive.com/> ) changed the name of "ColumnHandlers" to
"ColumnHandlersWebDriveSave"  while not changing the subkey values. 
This renaming seems to break the column list functionality.

The only solution I have found to date is to remove the WebDrive
software, though I will be trying to work out a better solution with
their support/dev team.  FYI, I tried renaming the key but WebDrive
named it back; I tried creating a key with the right info, but it was
deleted by the System.

Hope this helps

captainao-ga,  you are brilliant! 
You have got the correct solution exactly.  In my case it was the
program Xdrive (v4.5.139) which renames the key "ColumnHandlers" to
"ColumnHandlersXdriveSave" whenever it is run.  I had installed it on
both my PCs, but had only ever run it on one of them, hence the
difference in the 2 machines.  I can do a temporary fix for now by
renaming the key back to its correct value if I ever use Xdrive, but a
long term solution would be much better.

Looks like it is something more generically wrong in the way programs
such as webdrive and Xdrive assign Windows Explorer pseudo-drive
letters to their Internet website storage areas.  My guess is that
these programs are only programmed to support the 8 basic column
headings, so when they add, say, an X: pseudo-drive to Windows
Explorer, these programs have to disable the unsupported column
headings for all drives equally.  Hope this helps your discussions
with WebDrive.  Please do post any more progress you make on
permanently stopping these programs from making the registry changes. 
or if Webdrive fixes this problem before Xdrive, I will change to
using Webdrive.

I heard back from WebDrive - they have a program option (under
Settings/Advanced) that allow you to disable the shell extensions;
seems to work, too!

I have been experimenting and have found a generic solution which does
not rely on the software vendor (Xdrive has not responded to me!).  
Here is the complete re-statement of the problem and the generic
solution.

Problem:  Windows Explorer - extra column headings like "dimensions"
disappeared   (Win XP SP2): In Windows Explorer, when you select
"View", "Choose details", you get a list of 37 possible column
headings.  Inexplicably, one day, Windows Explorer reverts to only 8
possible column headings

Solution:   Some programs like XDrive.exe and WebDrive.exe (for no
apparent reason) rename a key in the registry which causes this
behaviour (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ColumnHandlers).   The
generic solution is to rename this key back to the original value and
then set permissions so that it cannot be renamed again by any
program.   Here are the detailed steps:

1. Back up the registry before doing anything (using ?System Restore?
(?Create Checkpoint?))
2. From ?Start? menu, select ?Run?; type ?regedit? to edit the registry
3. Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ColumnHandlers"  (or renamed version)
4. If it has been renamed to something like "ColumnHandlersXDriveSave"
rename it back to ?ColumnHandlers? first
5. Highlight ?ColumnHandlers? and select ?permissions? from the ?Edit? menu 
6. Click on ?advanced ? button
7. ?Remove?  all the permission entries
8. Select the ?Add? button, then enter the name ?Everyone? in the
field ?Enter the object name to select?
9. Select ?Check names? button
10. On the next screen check the ?allow? buttons for ?Query Value?,
?Enumerate subkeys?, ?Notify?, ?Read Control? and make sure all other
boxes are unchecked
11. Select ?OK? on remaining screens and exit regedit.

Hope this helps anyone else who hits this problem.