I’ve been having this issue with Windows 7 ever since I installed it: When browsing shared folders across the network the contents would often be out of date (by as much as six hours). They just wouldn’t refresh properly; F5 didn’t do anything. If I deleted things, the operation often ended up targeting the wrong files/folders. One suggested fix I found involved disabling “Client for Microsoft Networks” in network adapter properties, but that had some negative consequences (not being able to connect to network resources after reboot, frex).

Well I finally found a good fix. Here’s a little guide for anyone else having the same problem:

1. Run regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{BDEADE7F-C265-11D0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F}\Instance (It’s probably quickest to use Edit > Find to search for “DontRefresh”).
3. There should be three values in here, one of which is named DontRefresh. By default, its value is set to 1 (on). Double-click and change it to 0. Click OK.
4. Hit F5 (give it a second to refresh), then exit.

Now shared folders should refresh normally. No more out-of-date listings.

So I’m doing this “365 Photo Blog Project” thing for 2010. Here’s the Flickr set I’m putting the photos in, and here’s relevant Facebook group. Today’s day 40; only 325 to go.