Forum Discussion
Windows File Explorer Item Spacing just went crazy - Nov-2025
Today, the spacing in my windows file explorer just reverted to the horrible non-compact spacing. I have set all the "compact" spacing options. Checked my registry and the UseCompactMode entry is there and set to 1. But the problem won't go away. I get wide spacing. Is there a bug in the newest windows update (25H2, build 26200.7171)?
Never mind. Found it. I had an accessibility feature turned on. Text size at 110%. I turned it off (back to 100%), and all is now fine. I have had this set for quite some time, and it did not have this effect, so I'm guessing either my display driver got updated, or something in the Windows 25H2 display system got modified so that if text size enlarged, File Explorer can no longer manage display of files w/o the extra white space.
It's true they warn you that certain apps may not play nicely with this feature, but it's odd that it used to play nicely and now no longer appears to do so.
2 Replies
Never mind. Found it. I had an accessibility feature turned on. Text size at 110%. I turned it off (back to 100%), and all is now fine. I have had this set for quite some time, and it did not have this effect, so I'm guessing either my display driver got updated, or something in the Windows 25H2 display system got modified so that if text size enlarged, File Explorer can no longer manage display of files w/o the extra white space.
It's true they warn you that certain apps may not play nicely with this feature, but it's odd that it used to play nicely and now no longer appears to do so.
Oh my god thank you thank you thank you!!
I have been on reddit, youtube, Windows 11 forums and a few other places and no one has been able to help and this fixed it immediately it has been driving me crazy!!!
Have also had my text size increased since installing and this only started happening after a recent Windows update.
