Windows Explorer Auto Arrange - Disable

Yeah I understand that and I figured that out later on. But why is it that you cant overlap anymore?

Ahhh I see I its no big deal though dont go out of your way or anything thank you for responding.

Very Nice! I had discovered that shortly after my last post. Thank you again.

Is it possible to work without change tiles view to extended tiles?

I only began using Windows 7 a couple of months ago and it annoyed me so much that the way I used to sort files in XP was no longer an option. The mandatory auto arrange made managing large numbers of images unnecessarily difficult, and since the OP was over three years ago, you'd think that MS would've offered an alternative by now!

After finding a few inadequate work-arounds, I found this post and can finally cut down on the profanity.


Thank you very much for the clear instructions and easy to implement solution. - It works great.

this hack is good. solves the problem. this hack has side effects. a hack that has no side effects is difficult to find (if it exists).

this hack does not disable auto arrange. it disables an aspect of auto arrange. the aspect of auto arrange that it disables is auto sort by name. the other aspects of auto arrange are things like how folders get positioned before files, and things like gaps between items are taken away. this hack does not disable those aspects, but instead gives you the option to apply them, by applying auto arrange, which is by checking auto arrange from the menu. the aspect that is disabled is auto sorting by name. when you check auto arrange, all other aspects take effect, but sort by name does not. it is disabled. auto arrange is not disabled, auto sort by name is disabled. i should also say that strictly speaking, this hack does not disable auto sort by name. the first time you go into a folder of items, they have got to be sorted in some way, and the way they are sorted is by name (except in special situations). so, in a sense, auto sort by name is not disabled. items are auto sorting by name. the point to understand is that sorting by name is not forced on you (you are able to manually change their positions). so, to be exact, what this hack disables is your inability to manually change the positions of files. auto sort still occurs.

what are the side effects of this hack?

RENAMING FILES
if auto arrange is not checked, and if you try to rename a group of files (by highlighting them all), then the naming sequence goes from top to bottom, then across and top to bottom, then across and top to bottom, etc. if checked, the sequence goes left to right, then down and left to right, then down and left to right, etc. this second way is the way the system renames files by default.

UNRESPONSIVE "SORT BY" FUNCTION
this is a very interesting side effect. it's interesting if you try to understand why it happens. but first i will say what happens. if you change the position of a file while both auto arrange and align to grid are checked, then, before closing the window down, if you choose to Sort by Name (or [probably] other sorting methods too), you will find that nothing happens. if you do it again, it finally responds. and when it responds, items sort by Name, except they sort from z to a, not from a to z. if you sort by Name one more time, they will sort by name (from a to z).

why does this happen?
well, when you manually move an item to a new position, it is still registered in part x of the system that items are sorted by name. this is because, as far as the system is concerned, manual sort is not possible. it didn't happen. part x of the system thinks that files are arranged by name, even though they are not. part y of the system knows they are not arranged by name, and we know this because, when you move a file and then click Sort by, the Name item is not checked anymore. now, when you chose to Sort by Name, nothing happens. this is because part x thinks they are already arranged by name (from a-z), and so does not sort anything. part y knows they are not, but the only thing part y does is check off Name again in the menu (since it knows you just clicked Name). now, when you click Name again, they sort by name, but from z to a. why do they now sort? because part x of the system knows they are arranged by name (a-z), and sorts them the other way (z to a). basically, when you clicked Name again, it was a click that meant something to part x of the system, and it meant "sort the items from z to a". the first time you clicked Name, it meant "sort the items from a to z", but it did not prompt part x of the system to sort items from a to z because they already were (according to the system) sorted from a to z. this, or something very close to this, is the reason that click goes unresponsive.

there are other side effects too, but i need to go. the other side effects are a bit less important though, i think.

thank you for this hack.