Hide expand buttons until a folder is expanded: This option lets you enable folder expansion without the expander buttons taking up space until they're actually needed. Because the expanders start out hidden, if this option is on the only way to expand a folder is to run the
Go EXPANDBRANCH command. For example, you can assign that to a hotkey or toolbar button, and use it to initially expand a folder. Once one folder has been expanded the expander buttons will stay visible until the folder is changed or refreshed.