How to fix Creating a new folder or file is not appearing - Windows 7, Vista

Problem

Recently, after a major overhaul of my tower of power Windows 7 machine, I ran into this scary problem of my files not appearing. Trick or treat! Nice. That's all I need - a vanish act of my files not appearing - lol, just in time for Halloween. 

I had the following problems with Window Explorer; 

• Created a new folder or a files, but it doesn't appear
• Renamed files, but the old name keeps appearing 
• Move or copy files, but the file doesn't appear on the target destination
• Delete files, but the files still appear in a folder or on the desktop
• Empty the Recycle Bin, but the recycle bin is not shown as empty.

Eventually these show up by after closing and opening Windows Explorer or pressing refresh. But it was frustrating, and I finally fixed it.


Cause

It's a bug/odd ball setting in Windows Explorer that prevents files and folders from properly updating until you perform a manual refresh. It affects Windows Vista and Windows 7 (SP1). 

Solution 

Open your registry and Search for Registry key. You can do this safely with my free "Registry Viewer" app to check if this key exist. Then alter it in your normal regedit cmd.


"{BDEADE7F-C265-11D0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F}\Instance"

Look out for a DWORD value called "DontRefresh" which is set to "1" (on). 

Change the value to "0" (off). 

This re-enables the refresh.