Windows 7: Windows Explorer Auto Arrange - Disable

Hello Roo,

No worries, I don't take it as criticism. Instead, I find it has helpful feedback to help make the tutorial better for everyone by making any needed tweaking.

Yeah, the only drawback is that everything is set to "Details" view. However, you could use the tutorial below to quickly set the folder view to how you want it for all folders with the same folder template (ex: Pictures), then arrange each one how you like.

Folder View - Apply to Folders

...or if you wanted to apply a folder view to all folders no matter what folder template they have.

Folder View - Set a Default for All Folders

By default, objects (columns) should be sorted in ascending order. If you have the folder already sorted by say "Name", then it will change (toggle) to descending if you click on "Name" next. You can look at what direction the small direction triangle/arrow is pointing in the sorted by column to see if it's descending (pointing down) or ascending (pointing up) to also help know.

Hi Brink,

Thanks for the swift reply, I'll have a play with it tomorrow and see how I get on. I am using external as well as internal drives, but if I can set folder options once at the beginning of a session, it's not too much hassle. I'll post to let you know how it goes.

Thanks for all your effort,

Roo

You're most welcome Roo. I hope it'll work for you.

Hi Brink,

I've had a play, and after setting all folders to Picture, and setting the defaults to work with all folders of that type, it mostly works the way I want. There are a couple of other things that still may be a deal breaker for me, not sure if there's anything that can be done or not.

I have many folders with upwards of 1000 photos in each, and to sort them, I tend to have two different folders open, snapped to either side of the screen. Sometimes I want to place another shot in so the timeline is correct (I use quite a few different cameras), so in XP I would simply arrange the main folder by date taken then drag & drop the pic I wanted into that folder, which would immediately snap to the correct place in the folder, with the pic still highlighted making it easy to see. Even with auto arrange off, Windows 7 doesn't seem to do that.

Also, in a folder with a large quantity of pics, I may wish to view them on large icon (thumbnail) view using full screen (folder maximised) to make it easier to see where to insert a certain shot, then snap the folder to the side of the screen so I can pick a shot from the other snapped folder to insert. On XP I could simply single click on a pic to highlight it, then minimise the folder, and it would still show the highlighted shot in the window, basically snapping to its' position. Again, Windows 7 even with auto arrange off doesn't appear to do it (which seems strange given the whole "snap to" hyperbole!)

To me these are major problems, it would be really nice to be able to do what a now very old OS could!!

One of the posters said he had a problem with photo viewer showing pics in the wrong order. It happened to me too, and I sussed out that if you have "auto arrange" and "align to grid" ticked on right click menu, and then move a picture, the pics will be viewed in grid order, starting with the one you clicked on, but then moving DOWN the columns from left to right. It doesn't seem to do this unless a pic is moved.

Roo

Roo,

You might see if turning on the Preview Pane may work to keep the highlighted pic in view. You can adjust the width of the preview pane to how you like as well.

Preview pane makes no difference I'm afraid!

Actually, that's not entirely true, but you have to refresh the page by using the back button to exit the page, then forward button to reenter.

This is only for chucking a pic in and following its progress. Even preview pane doesn't follow the pic when changing between maximised and minimised. Is there any way of finding out how XP managed this, and which reg keys are involved?

If not, I fear I'll have to reinstall XP on my 2nd boot, not ideal, as I use it for testing software, overclocking etc, and messing with the registry. If something goes big time tits up, I can reinstall without having to worry about my SSD write cycles!!

Roo

Roo,

I'm afraid that I do not know, but that would be a good question to post in a new thread to see if someone may know of a way.

If I understand correctly then it's not ideal but you can refresh the page by using the F5 key and that should bring it back into focus or you can use the up/down arrow keys. Does not require the preview pane to be open.

As for installing XP you could look at running it in a Virtual Machine.

Hi Duzzy,

Nice call, F5 works a treat in min/max windows! I now believe, with Brinks reg change and the F5 trick, Windows 7 works about as closely to XP as you're gonna get. It does seem odd that MS would not just have auto arrange as a bolt on option (even if defaulted to this), rather than as the only way.

Mind you (I'm a cynic), if they produced an all singing all dancing OS that was everything to everybody, who in their right mind would buy Win8/9/10?

Cheers guys,
Roo