Sort folders and files differently

I never heard of split criteria. You could investigate the 3rd party file managers like Directory Opus, FreeCommander, Total Commander, Q-Dir etc..

If not mixed in one view a multi-tabbed file manager has the advantage you can set different sort and details for the same root folder and have the views come up together. Some file managers you can save tabs as a set or layout.

Edit: Also you could turn on the Treeview to see the folders on the left. There are Explorer enhancers like QTTabBar that add multiple pane capability to Explorer.

This turns out to be real easy.

Open Windows Explorer.
Navigate to the folder you want to look at.
Click on the 1st column header you want to sort by, like Type.
The files and folders will be sorted by file type.
Now hold the Shift key and click on another column header, like Date.
The files and folders will be sorted by date while maintaining the grouping caused by the Type sort.

Don't know where I originally found this so can't provide proper attribution, sorry.

You can also choose "Group by" and "Sort by" from the Context menu.

I assume that is what Ztruker's trick does.

Click on picture for animation

Ztruker said:

This turns out to be real easy.

Open Windows Explorer.
Navigate to the folder you want to look at.
Click on the 1st column header you want to sort by, like Type.
The files and folders will be sorted by file type.
Now hold the Shift key and click on another column header, like Date.
The files and folders will be sorted by date while maintaining the grouping caused by the Type sort.

Don't know where I originally found this so can't provide proper attribution, sorry.

I didn't know about the shift key option.

But I don't think it does what the OP asked. He wanted the files sorted by mod date while the folders remained sorted by name. When I follow your procedure I get folders and files sorted by mod date with the folders at the top(not sorted by name anymore.)

After re-reading the original post I agree, not quite what the OP wanted. I don't think it's doable with anything native to Windows.