Windows 7 How to disable auto sorting of folders and files

[zvit]

When your in folder, doing folder or file operations in Windows 7, the auto sort will always be on and this is VERY frustrating! In XP, while in a folder, nothing will auto sort until you refresh the folder view or reopen the folder. This means if you create a new folder or just downloaded a file and your downloads folder is open, the new folder or file will be the last item in the folder. But in Windows 7, if I just create a new folder and click out of the folder name, it will automatically jump to the 'Ns' because it's name is "New Folder". If I'm in a folder with lots of files I have to go search for it so I can continue my work!

How can I disable this auto sort function?

p.s. I know that if you choose "sort by date madified", it will always be at the beginning or end, but I DO want my folders to be sorted by name, just not to update the sorting while I'm still in the folder!

Thanks

 

[A Wizard]

Same problem...

I have the same problem except I DON'T WANT IT SORTED AT ALL!!!!! HAVING TO RENAME FILES JUST TO HAVE THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER IS BLASPHEMY!!! THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! WHY NOT JUST USE THE SAME SORTING AS XP???? REVERSE
COMPATABILITY IS NEVER A BAD THING!!!!! WITHOUT REVERSE COMPATABILITY, NO WONDER
VISTA USERS ARE IN A RAGE!!!!! FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU... I EXPECT AN UPDATE ALLOWING USERS TO SWITCH BACK TO XP STYLE OPTIONS!!!!!

 

[reghakr]

AWizard,

Please don't shout and use large red text.

Not proper etiquette on a forum.

zvit, unfortunately that's the way Windows 7 works. I was a little upset myself.

 

[RAK]

Hopefully it may come up in SP1? Odd they provided about 150 ways to autosort, in the "sort by" option, but not a single one to not sort!

 

[iMissWinXP]

id like to give this a bump...

Has anyone fonud a solution? This drive me up the WALL, and its probably my #1 biggest problem with win7 right now.

I cant believe how win7 has so many problems. Its almost like MS wants to drive people into apple/linux.

Ive fixed many things (some of them tnx to this forum) yet there are still many other small things that bug me.

 

[iMissWinXP]

bump... God I hate Microsoft.

Sad thing, I always strongly defended Microsoft before vista/win7...

 

[zvit]

I'm definitely going to be looking into this but as most of you have probably noticed, I've kinda disappeared in the last few weeks. This is because I have moved and am in the process of getting basic home appliances and on Monday, they are coming to hook up Internet at my new home. I have been very busy getting settled into the new place and take a bike to work every day (Not relevant but thought kinda cool to mention )

So hang in there and we will beat Microsoft as soon as I have a little more time than Bill Gates on my hands!

 

[dbbb]

I'm definitely going to be looking into this but as most of you have probably noticed, I've kinda disappeared in the last few weeks. This is because I have moved and am in the process of getting basic home appliances and on Monday, they are coming to hook up Internet at my new home. I have been very busy getting settled into the new place and take a bike to work every day (Not relevant but thought kinda cool to mention )

So hang in there and we will beat Microsoft as soon as I have a little more time than Bill Gates on my hands!

Going to work on a bike is very nice!
Please solve this! If you do, I will cry tears of happiness and hug random people on the street ...possibly!

 

[zvit]

Wanna hear something weird? I just purchased a new computer for my new home and it came with Windows 7 Professional X64 (at work I use Ultimate) and this problem does NOT exist! This is good news for when I get Internet there, I have a lead to work on. I'll do some registry comparing...

 

[unawave]

See here:

Link Removed

 

[dbbb]

Wanna hear something weird? I just purchased a new computer for my new home and it came with Windows 7 Professional X64 (at work I use Ultimate) and this problem does NOT exist! This is good news for when I get Internet there, I have a lead to work on. I'll do some registry comparing...

Does this mean you can arrange such things as photographs in your own chosen order within a folder with Windows 7 Professional X64? My new computer has Windows 7 Home Premium X64 installed on it and does have the problem where you cannot.
Does this mean that if I pay to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional X64, I will be able to arrange my photographs within a folder the way I want them to be?

I have seen other posts which say I should put a number or a letter in front of the picture. This would not work for me, since I need to decide the order of the photos before I rename them, and will involve more wasted time in "donkey work" than I am prepared to do. Your solution, and the one possibly below sound far more alluring.

Unfortunately, I don't have great computer skills, just enough to allow me to use the computer to do what I want to do; this is what I loved about XP - that you don't need to be an expert in order to use it. I am sure Windows 7 is a much more powerful program than XP if you really know your way round a PC, but for all its wizz-bang graphics, it has significantly less basic functionality for non expert users like me, and it is a little disappointing that Microsoft seems to have forgotten that many users seek this simple, easy and well laid out functionality. Oh well, the problems this creates are what forums are for, I guess!

See here:

Link Removed

This seems to offer a solution too, but I'm not sure because it is way beyond me and I don't understand it!!


Thanks for your help,

David

 

[zvit]

Does this mean you can arrange such things as photographs in your own chosen order within a folder with Windows 7 Professional X64?

Not exactly. Even in XP, files must be sorted in SOME way. Folders do not have the flexibility of shuffling files around like the desktop does. There might be some 3rd party software that allows you to do this but I'm not aware or any. For you, the best way to sort files I guess would be by date created and not by name.

My first post on this issue was about the fact that Windows Ultimate will automatically sort a file by name even when I had JUST created it! This was frustrating when I dragged a file to folder that had 500 other files and instead of the file being last (since I just created it) it would jump to it's sorted place and I would have to scroll and look for it. Of course, when I close the folder and reopen it, even in XP, files would get sorted but that's good. I just don't want it to sort NEW files INSTANTLY. But like I said, in Windows 7 Professional, the file ONLY gets sorted once the folder is closed and reopened. (Or if I click refresh in the folder). This is how XP works and is the correct way Windows should work.

 

[dbbb]

Hi,

I don't have great computer skills and worry that I do not have a full grasp of the terminology and have now ended up confusing myself (I am not clear on the difference between "folders" and "desktop"), so it could be that I am confusing things by using the wrong words here.

The problem I have is that when I view my pictures stored on an external hard disc with my computer, Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit won't let me manually/physically move the pictures into the order I want them displayed, so that I can them rename them. I have long done this in XP, and on Windows products before this.

Windows 7 will not let me do this, instead offering an assortment of "tags" and other new ways of doing it. I couldn't fathom them - or see the point in having to change a system which works, and with a largeish number of pictures, all untaged, tagging them will take forever!!

If I upgrade to Windows 7 Professional 64bit, will I be able to do this? Reading your reply, I think you say it will - but I have managed to get a bit confused now about whether my issue is covered by your problem, and I don't want to spend money unless I'm sure!

If Windows 7 Professional 64bit won't let me arrange my pictures this way either, then I guess I will go back to XP. My computer is new though and 64 bit, so will XP run on it OK? I would rather stay with Windows 7 if I can, since I worry that Microsoft won't support XP that much longer. XP is much better for the novice though...

Thanks for your help on this,

David

 

[zvit]

Ok, I think I understand what you are saying. Are you saying that you view your pictures in your folder in the "icon" view? And in icon view, are you saying that in XP, you were able to "move" the pictures around by dragging them? I never viewed photos in icon mode in XP so I didn't know XP does this.

If that's what you are talking about, I just tried it at work with Windows Ultimate and no, I can't "move" around the icons. I will try it at home with my Windows Professional and tomorrow I will let you know if it works. (Unless you tell me that this is also not what you meant).

If all you need is to move around pictures and rename them, there are many programs that you can use that do this and that are much cheaper than a new copy of Windows. Let me know.

 

[dbbb]

Hi,

Thanks for replying.

It is only photos (the photo thumbnails) that I need to move around into the order I want and rename them. I used to move photos round in this way as thumbnails in XP, which is what I would like to be able to do with Windows 7. I find that organising the order of my photo thumbnails is the only way I can organise my photographs! All the options offered by Windows 7 don't work for me at all.

Thanks for your help,

David

 

[zvit]

I tried at home and unfortunately, also with Windows 7 Professional this is not an option. If you would like 3rd party software, let me know and I'll look for something.

 

[Joe S]

You might try this Explorer++ - A small and fast file manager for Windows I've used it a little with photos. When you rename you need to add the file type after name such as .jgp or.bmp
Joe

 

[dbbb]

Hi,

Thank you for you help Zvit - it would be very useful to know which 3rd party software to go for!

Joe S suggests Explorer++ (thank you for the suggestion). Do you think this is the best solution, or are there other options out there? I am very new at all this!

Thanks for all the help - this is a great forum!

David

 

[reghakr]

Link Removed - Invalid URL allows you to sort by Name, Extension, Size, Type, Date or Attribute.

It's like Explorer on steroids.

It also sports the fastest File Finder you'll ever use

 

[zvit]

I would suggest PowerDesk as well. Link Removed