Windows Explorer Auto Arrange - Disable

Well, I just wanted to have my main folders following a personal logical order instead of the alphabetical one. Dragging them into the right positions (where a black separator comes in) is a feature removed from Windows 7 as we all complain here, and it cannot be brought back for this particular main user folder. So since this is just one folder with less than 20 folders in it, and since I'm not going to change it frequently, the least intrusive solution that I found was...

To give comments to each folder and then use the native feature to sort the folders (alphabetically) by commentary. The comments just repeat the folder name, but are prefixed with a number that corresponds to the desired position of the folder. So for example, to the folder "Games" I gave the comment "5. Games," putting it in position number 5. This is way less intrusive than having the numbers in the actual folder names, which is very hard to look at: it exposes the regression that the operative system has made, it shouts out loud how much of a caveman we need to be. So the actual folder names have no numbers on them and will never need renaming for reordering (which would reset sub-folder customizations).

And... How to give comments to folders? That's not a feature, right? Well... It's kind of explained here. I used "InfoTip=" to add the commentary. It's advanced-ish but not a problem here.

Hashim said:

Hey there,

First of all, thanks for a great tutorial, I managed to follow it successfully on Windows 7 x64 and get the auto-arrange functionality back. The problem that I'm now having is that the fix also seems to modify the spacing of icons in Explorer, especially in Details view, which looks a lot like the old XP view - funnily enough, I've gotten used to Windows 7's spacing, and would much prefer it. Does anyone know how I can keep the auto-arrange option there and still use the default Windows 7 spacing for details view? If necessary, I'm happy to edit the .dll files manually, I just need to know all the values that the .reg files change.

Thanks!

Brink said:

To be honest, I'm not sure the spacing can be changed.

Hashim said:

I see. :/

I'm gonna try and figure out whether it can be done - judging by a thread I've come across, it looks like the only options are to manually modify the corresponding .dll file, or to find some purported registry keys that hold the values. This is the thread, the posts I've linked to in particular talk more about the problem as it relates to this registry edit.

possible to change list item height/spacing?

possible to change list item height/spacing?

Maybe those'll make more sense to you than they do me.

Brink said:

I'll look and see. :)

Hashim said:

Appreciate it, thanks. :)

For the sake of documentation, the issue only seems to affect List and Details - all other views seem like they normally are in Windows 7, whereas those two are as vertically close as they were in XP.

I've also checked my own ExplorerFrame.dll and the height attribute for the style resid="details" section is 22rp, which is what the thread I linked to claims is the default height for that section on Windows 7. Could indicate it's being changed by registry values... or the lack of them.

I'm surprised there haven't been more people on this thread asking about this issue tbh, I'm clearly not the only one that's had this fix cause this unintended side effect... maybe people just prefer how XP looked, haha.

Brink said:

LOL, yeah some like the XP tighter spacing, but I like the default wider spacing in Windows 7 as well.

It took a bit to jog my memory for this since it's been a while, but I think I have it sorted. Changing the FFLAGS DWORD decimal value date to 1092616209 (7 style) instead of 1124073476 (XP style) makes it wider.

If you like, test the .bat below with the new value. Using OPTION TWO in the tutorial will also undo it if needed.

Attachment 381422

Hashim said:

No such luck, unfortunately - it rectifies the spacing problem, but then there's no sign of the Auto Arrange options, so basically takes it back to default.

Brink said:

Back to the drawing board.

Hey there Brink.



I know it's been a while, but I came full circle to this thread once again in yet another hope that I could get my auto-arrange functionality back in Windows 7 without sacrificing on the less-compacted file names in Details and List view. Has there by any chance been any progress on making this possible? Thanks in advance.

Does it works on Windows10?
I have tried another method popular on internet and it works on windows10 order version ,but it doesn't work on windows 10 1909.

Is this the last word on Disabling auto-arrange in W10?

I'm so lost in this alfabetical valueless new world ... (teary)

Yes, you wrote that. That is what i responded to

I thought you were the person who made the disable-fix, and could possibly fix the fix.
Not so?
Lisa