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

 

[boohbah]

still a puzzle as to why it wasn't showing as i was only setting up the folder views with large icons and clicking the apply to folders in folder options, whatever it was it works so im happy,

 

[Mooly]

Shawn and boobah

Great tutorial Shawn. Your a star
I have a new lappy with W7 and knew I would hate the folder handling. I posted a similar moan on the W8 forum if you remember.

I want Vista

Anyhow I have installed W7 on a spare machine specifically to try out all this folder stuff before applying it to the new PC.

It seems really good. I have put the three shortcuts (Docs/Music/Pics) from the my user name at the top of the start menu and find all three desktop folders allow free sorting. Nothing untoward happens dragging and dropping files from one to another, and dropping it into the appropriate folders in the left hand pane.

However , I have the same issue as boobah regarding no free space bars when showing computer drives.

boobah... I can't quite follow what you have done to resolve this as. I've tried various folder options and nothing seems to work. It would be great if you could write down please (click by click) what you did.

Edit... if you look at the picture you can see it shows a bar at the bottom for the selected drive.

 

[Duzzy]

@Mooly
Not exactly sure what boohbah did but I think the problem with you at least is Computer is not opening faster enough before the reg entries are entered. If I'm correct then editing the batch file should help.

Right click the bat file and click edit, find the line "explorer.exe shell:MyComputerFolder" and on the next line type "TIMEOUT 10" (without quotes). This will wait another 10 seconds for Computer to open but you may only need a couple so when the Computer window opens press any key to continue if it's still counting down.

If this doesn't help post back and boobah should be able to explain what he did.

For others.
If you want the black bar that boobah was referring too to show as default for all folders and lose the ability to arrange the folders in any position in all folders then edit the bat file and replace all occurrences of "/D 1124073476" with "/D 1124073473".

I'm 99% sure this was the original setting before the change was made and works under my quick test, boohbah should be able to confirm this.

 

[Mooly]

Looks like we have another star here. Thanks Duzzy

 

[Duzzy]

No problem.

 

[Brink]

Thank you Dustin. I added a 5 second timeout to the BAT file for that to help make sure that it Computer opens before the registry entries are made.

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.

 

[Mooly]

That's great, thanks you two.

Shawn... showing my total lack of expertise here.

What would happen if you took (exported) the reg keys for explorer from a Vista PC and imported or merged them to a W7 installation. Is that kind of experimentation possible. It would be great to have the exact same folder handling that Vista provides.

 

[Brink]

Hello Mooly,

That would not be recommended since Vista does not have libraries like Windows 7 does. They may not work properly in Windows 7 and cause unknown issues.

If you wish to give it a play with, be sure to create a restore point first so that you could do a system restore if it messed things up.

 

[Mooly]

Hmmm... well I just might have a play at some future point.

It would all be done on what is now a "spare" old Vista laptop (that I have Acronis images of anyway ) so there is nothing to lose in that sense. In fact I have W7 on it now which is what I was playing with trying all this folder stuff out and which I installed using the recovery media ( a full W7 SP1 disc) supplied with the new PC and didn't activate or update it of course.

I just wondered whether it was all a waste of time trying to use registry keys from another OS but maybe not... who knows

 

[Brink]

Hmmm... well I just might have a play at some future point.

It would all be done on what is now a "spare" old Vista laptop (that I have Acronis images of anyway ) so there is nothing to lose in that sense. In fact I have W7 on it now which is what I was playing with trying all this folder stuff out and which I installed using the recovery media ( a full W7 SP1 disc) supplied with the new PC and didn't activate or update it of course.

I just wondered whether it was all a waste of time trying to use registry keys from another OS but maybe not... who knows

Please let us know how it went if you give it a play.

 

[Mooly]

I'm sure it is something I will try so of course I'll update on here. I want to get the new PC as I want it first and then.....

 

[boohbah]

@mooly... not quite sure what i did to resolve it either, what i did do was...
as my window view settings had reset to default, i opened a window, set the folders to large icon and then clicked
organise/folder and search options/view tab then i clicked the apply to folders button,
when i went back into "computer" the space used bars were showing!
give it a whirl let us know if it worked for you

 

[Mooly]

boobah... adding the time delay as Duzzy suggested worked instantly for me.

I am experimenting with all this on an older laptop with limited performance by modern standards (amd64 turion mobile) so perhaps that had something to do with it.

One problem I have found is that although the folder placing is good the folders (random ones, no pattern to it) sometimes lose any custom icons that I have allocated.

 

[boohbah]

hhmm not sure about that, personally im not keen on folders dotted about a window, i like rows neat and orderly,

a lot of my folders have custom icons also, but i didnt notice an issue when i was able to arrange higglety pigglety.
glad you sorted the space used bar, i hadnt noticed those posts til you mentioned duzzy's post

 

[Mooly]

I have it like this with Vista and each folder has subfolders arranged in a way that maen something to me.

Solved Can you do this in W8 with files and folders ?

And W8 CP actually deletes your custom icons during a disc cleanup.

 

[Emcitement]

deleting this identity

 

[Brink]

Hello Emcitement,

Is this in a library by chance? If so, then that would be why since auto arrange isn't disabled in the library folders. Instead, you have to do it from within your actual C:\Users\(user-name)\Documents.

If you open it from the Start Menu often, then the tutorial below can help by having it open to your user folder instead of in the library.

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

 

[Emcitement]

deleting this identity

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

 

[Aphis]

Help!

Hello Brink,
I notice this has been discussed in this thread, but due to unintelligible language from some users, I really couldn't pinpoint the solution:
What I want to do is to have auto-arrange turned on, but no sorting be automatically selected. In other words, I want to move file order at my discretion, but have Windows automatically arrange my files to "fill" the grid after I have moved a file from one pace to another.
The attached files show (in Windows XP) what I want to replicate in Windows 7:

One show normal auto-arrange and sort by name behavior.
Two shows auto-arranged but not sorted by anything. So I can move folders or files, but do not need to "fill" the holes left by a moved file or folder.

Thanks for your great work!