Windows Explorer drop-down navigation is blank (picture).

[rmendoza]

For some reason, in Vista, when I open explorer, say to my documents, the traditional drop-down navigation list, to change location, just shows big blank, it's just empty where the different locations should be. It also happens when I go to save a file from online, say an email attachment, or a picture or what have you. Although it does not affect functionality since I still have the navigation pane on the left, it's very annoying.

Does anyone have a similar problem? Any solutions? Thanks everyone.
Here's a screenshot

[steveg47]

In Vista that pulldown appears to be for previous locations not navigation as it was in XP. I prefered the way it was in XP.

[rmendoza]

Do you mean that is the way it's supposed to be, all blank? That's pretty screwy! I mean, when you go to save a file from an email, and you want to save it in a different location, you now have to click the "browse" button, instead of just using the drop-down menu.

And here I am thinking it was some installation problem.
It still seems wrong to me, but I will defer to the engineers in the forum.
Thanks.

[steveg47]

Unless you deleted your browsing history in IE it shouldn't be blank. And yes, I agree that it's kind of a useless change that degrades the functionality of the file explorer.

Anyone, am I missing something here?

[rmendoza]

I don't use IE that much, only when it's absolutely necessary, like microsoft's own website, or some other site that might not work with Firefox.

[rvacha]

If the dropdown is blank you either deleted IE browser history or have it configured not to save history.

There are alternate, if not better, ways to do what you want. Before you click on the dropdown arrow you should see in the navigation area:

>Roberto>Documents>

Try clicking on one of the > symbols and you will see that the dropdown happens from that spot of the folder path. This can be faster than traditional folder browsing.

Another idea: Add a shortcut to the "Favorite Links" area in the upper left corner to the folder you keep E-mail stuff.