Windows Explorer Auto Arrange - Disable

How to Disable Auto Arrange in Windows 7 Explorer to have Free Sorting​

   Information

In Windows 7, auto arrange is enabled by default so that all file and folder names in Windows Explorer are sorted alphabetically no matter what folder view you used.

This is basically like having how you can arrange icons how you like on your desktop in every folder in Windows Explorer now.

This will show you how to disable Auto Arrange in Windows 7 to be able to sort your files and folders in any random order and position you like in each opened folder in Windows Explorer and in the Pin to Start Menu area at the top of the Start Menu without it having to be sorted alphabetically by name. Windows 7 will also remember these random folder sortings (order and position), and open as how they were when the folder window was last closed.

   Note

When You Disable Auto Arrange:

• While using Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons, Small Icons, and Extended Tiles folder views, you can arrange files/folders in any random order and position.
• While using Details folder view, you can only arrange files/folders in any order and not in any random position.
• While using Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons, Small Icons, and Extended Tiles folder views, you can click on View (Menu bar) and check Auto arrange to have the black indicator line back inbetween files/folders when arranging files/folders in any order. This turns off the ability to arrange files/folders by random positions though.
• While using Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons, Small Icons, and Extended Tiles folder views, you can click on View (Menu bar) and uncheck Auto arrange to be able to arrange files/folders in any order and random positions.
• The Auto arrange and Align to grid options can be turned on and off at will in the View (Menu bar and right click context menu) when available (not grayed out) while using Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons, Small Icons, or Extended Tiles folder views.
• If you have items arranged by random positions and switch from a Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons, Small Icons, and Extended Tiles folder view to a List, Details, Extended Tiles, or Content folder view, the random positions will be reset but still placed in a order of arrangement instead.
• If you unzip a file in a folder, move a folder, or rename a folder, it will refresh and auto arrange the files in that specific folder only after each time you do this. Auto arrange is still disabled for that folder, but you will need to arrange the files back to whatever non-auto arranged order you like again after unzipping a file in a folder, move a folder, or rename a folder.

   Warning

DO NOT USE this tutorial in any other OS than Windows 7.

• While this tutorial will allow you to disable auto arrange in the main Libraries folder itself, it will not disable auto arrange in any of the other library folders (ex: Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos).
• Free sorting is not available if you use "Group by" folder views instead of only "Sort by" folder views.
• Free sorting is not available in the List and Content folder views.
• When you disable Auto Arrange, you will have Extend Tiles folder view instead of Tiles available in all folders except the Computer windows.

EXAMPLE: Auto Arrange Enabled and Disabled
NOTE: Notice in the screenshot with Auto Arrange disabled, the files can be dragged around the Windows Explorer window to sort how you like without having to be in alphabetical order.

OPTION ONE

To Disable Auto Arrange in Windows 7 Windows Explorer

   Warning

It is also recommended to create a restore point before doing this option in case you would like to undo any unwanted unknown side affects that OPTION TWO may not undo. This way, you could also do a system restore with this restore point to undo this option completely.

1. Click on the Download button below to download the BAT file below.
Disable_Windows_7_Explorer_Auto_Arrange.bat

Download


2. Save the .bat file to your desktop.

3. Close everything that you have running first, then run the downloaded .bat file.

4. If prompted, click on Run.
NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

5. You will now notice your screen flicker and a command prompt open as the explorer process is restarted.

6. Let the command prompt count down to finish on it's own without pressing a key.

7. When it's finished, you will see the Computer window open.

8. Auto arrange in Windows Explorer is now disabled.

OPTION TWO

To Enable Auto Arrange in Windows 7 Windows Explorer

NOTE: This is the default setting.
1. Click on the Download button below to download the BAT file below.
Enable_Windows_7_Explorer_Auto_Arrange.bat

Download


2. Save the .bat file to your desktop.

3. Close all opened explorer windows first, then run the downloaded .bat file.

4. If prompted, click on Run.
NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

5. You will now notice your screen flicker and a command prompt open as the explorer process is restarted.

6. When it's finished, you will see the Computer window open.

7. Auto arrange in Windows Explorer is now enabled again.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Back Up and Restore Your Folder View Settings in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Disable Auto Arrange in Vista Windows Explorer to have Free Sorting
• Make Windows 7 Start Menu User Folder Buttons Open to Users Instead of Libraries Location
• How to Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in Windows Explorer
• How to Reset All Folder View Settings to Default in Windows 7
• How to Reset the Folder View Settings for All Folders with Same Folder Template in Windows 7
• "Apply to Folders" a Specific Folder View to All Folders with Same Folder Template in Windows 7
• How to Change a Folder Template in Windows 7
• How to Set a Default Folder Template for All Folders in Windows 7
• How to Change the File and Folder View Arrangement in Windows 7 Explorer
• How to Change the Icon Size in a Windows 7 Explorer Window
• How to Change the Group by, Sort by, and Arrange by Folder View in Windows 7 Explorer
• How to Set a Default Folder View for All Folders in Windows 7
• How to Add or Remove Windows Explorer Columns
• How to Change the Width of Columns in Windows Explorer
• How to Enable or Disable Start Menu Auto Arrange by Name in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Arrange Folders Included in a Library in Any Order in Windows 7 and Windows 8

 

[Brink]

Hmmm. This is one of my biggest pet peeves with Win 7.

I use folders on my desktop to organize my contents and have done so for a long time, only to find that feature missing with Win 7.

I've followed your instructions to the letter and there doesn't seem to be any change at all to the Windows behavior. Auto arrange still seems to be very much active, unfortunately.

Any ideas of things to try? My account has admin privileges, the registry merges happened just as expected, I had the computer window open, I logged out when I was supposed to -- and no changes in behavior at all.

I even undid it with your 2nd step and then tried it all again, this time restarting the computer instead of logging out. Nada.

Hello Demogo, and welcome to Seven Forums.

What is the folder location that you are testing this in?

You will not be able to disable Auto Arrange in any of the Library folder locations.

 

[demogo]

It was in a folder on my desktop.

I have a "Main" folder, a "Utilities" folder, etc.

Nada for all of them. They aren't in a library.

I also opened up "my computer" and navigated to a directory (at random), put it in medium icon mode, tried to drag an icon away from the others and it just snapped back like auto-arrange was on.

Not sure what's going on but it doesn't seem like anything changed.

This is a great place, btw. Whenever I'm googling for Win7 technical info, it seems to lead me to sevenforums quite a lot of the time.

 

[Brink]

Demogo,

I'm not sure why it may not be working for you. Triple check through the steps to make sure that they're followed exactly step by step and that all explorer windows are closed until you get to step 7. At step 7, you must open the Computer window directly from the Start Menu and not navigate to it.

 

[paddyng]

Hey Brink, thanks a lot for your fix!

I seem to have a small problem though, I can disable auto arrange in every folder, but by default it's still enabled. So I have to disable it every time I want to move some files freely in a new folder, which is a real pain since I use a lot of subfolders to organize my files. Is there any way to fix that, a line to fix somewhere in the reg to make it permanent? I'm on a 7 home 64 bits version, if that could be the problem? Maybe folder types numbers are different?

Edit: seems it was because I was changing the folders to medium icons and applying to all folders in the folder options. It then deletes the {5C4F28B5-F869-4E84-8E60-F11DB97C5CC7} line under shell and starts new bags instead with different numbers... weird.

Also I found another helpful link saying 43000000 is to turn off auto arrange, while 43000001 is to keep it enabled. : http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/142961-new-win7-reg-entries-related-to-folder-views/ -- what do you think?

I'm gonna keep looking (it's all new to me), but it might be a good idea to update your tutorial by pointing out changing the folder options/switching to different icons may have an effect on the fix.

 

[Brink]

Hello Paddyng, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yeah, that's one of the quirks of disabling Auto Arrange in Windows Explorer.

You can do this instead from the NOTE box at the top of tutorial to have it arranged how you had it again. There's no need to disable it again.

   Note

When you disable auto arrange and either move or rename a folder, it will refresh and auto arrange the files in that specific moved or renamed folder only after each time you move or rename it. Auto arrange is still disabled for that moved or renamed folder, but you will have to arrange the files back to whatever non-auto arranged order you like after moving or renaming the folder.

 

[bshamilton]

Hi, new member here.
I recently re-built with Win7x64 and hated that I couldn't manually rearrange files, so I was excited to see this fix!
Can I safely assume it will also work on folders in my secondary internal hdd (photo storage) and external hdd's (back up)?

 

[Brink]

Hello Hamilton, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It will work on the other internal HDD.

The external is questionable since folder views are not suppose to be remembered for removable devices. However, it works just fine for me on a USB flash drive, and remembers how I have them arranged even when I unplug it and plug it back in later. It probably will work for you as well.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[bshamilton]

Thx!!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. Please let us know how it works for you with your external HDD.

 

[bshamilton]

Well, no joy.
When doing step 5....I got this message.....Cannot import....specified file is not a registry script. Can only import binary registry files from within the Registry editor.
I proceeded to restart, thinking that might be normal, and followed step 7 and 8 and got the same message.
The 'disable' did not take effect.
What did I do wrong?

 

[Brink]

Hamilton,

You might try downloading them again to see if the others may have been corrupted while downloading if interrupted.

If not, then unhide your file extensions, and double check to make sure that the downloaded file has .reg at the end of it's name. If not, rename it so that it does.

If it does, then check in default programs to make sure that the .reg file extension is set to have it's "Current Default" program as Registry Editor (C:\Windows\regedit.exe).

If it still will not merge, then download and merge the reg option in the tutorial below to see if that may help. It will restore all default associations for reg files.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html

 

[bshamilton]

Un-hid file extensions, threw away and re-downloaded .reg files.....et voila!!!
Now it works like the old days.
You are a wizard! Thank you very much, especially for being available on a Sunday!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Hamilton. I'm happy to hear it's working for you.

 

[LeadFArmer]

I cant get this to work, tried loads of times.

I want to be able to rearrange the folders Ive created in Pictures.

Rather frustrating

 

[Brink]

Hello LeadFarmer, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If this is the Pictures library folder that you are trying to do this in, auto arrange cannot be disabled in library folders.

This will only work other with the normal folders in Windows Explorer. For example, the C:\Users\(user-name)\Pictures folder instead. If you have auto arrange disabled in all other non library folders, then you could also change the Pictures button in the Start Menu to open to your user profile folder location instead of the library location.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...der-buttons-open-users-instead-libraries.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[LeadFArmer]

Thanks Brink for the prompt reply, and for the welcome

I never know that I could change the buttons in the start menu to open a different file. Great feature.

I only came accross this forum yesterday when searching for a possible 'auto arrange disable' fix. Great forum by the way, think Ill be busy researching here over the next few weeks. W7 works great for me as it is, finding additional features will be a bonus

Thanks

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome LeadFarmer, and thank you.

 

[LeadFArmer]

Its all working fine now, thanks.

Although Ive noticed that since performing this procedure, when I view any of my folders via 'My Pictures' its contents are displayed in 'Details' format when I really want them defaulted to 'Large Icons'. Is there any way of changing everything to display in the Large Icons format, without having to open each folder and change each one individually? I have lots of folders and sub folders so this would take a long time to do.

Cheers

 

[Brink]

That's great news.

The tutorial below will show you how to set a default folder view like that in all folders.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/41198-folder-view-set-default-all-folders.html

 

[LeadFArmer]

Fantastic. Excellent service. Many thanks