Windows 10: Windows 10 Folder Alphabetization Issue

Hi all,

I am having an issue with the way Windows 10 alphabetizes files in folders in Windows 10.

If you were to alphabetize the following file names, how would you do it?

001
01A
002
00A

If you're like me, you would arrange them in this order: 001,002,00A,01A.

This is how Windows alphabetizes it: 001,01A,002,00A

This creates a major problem for me. My family camcorder has recorded thousands of files in the alphabetical order that makes sense to me (001,002,...009,00A,...010,011,...01A), but which Windows then throws out of order (it puts 01A after 001, but before 002, which makes no sense to me). Is there a way to change the alphabetization scheme in Windows 10? If not, does anybody know of a good way I can rename all my camcorder's files so that they conform to Windows naming in an automated process? This is going to end up taking me forever if not haha

:)

 

Windows 10 Mail folders

My Windows 10 folders for storing emails received and sent have got out of alphabetical order. When I try to move a folder to the correct position in the list it doesn't stay there.

How can I have them rearranged alphabetically?

 

Favorites in Windows 10

How can you alphabetize the favorites folders and contents in windows 10?

 

Not sure its possible to customise the sort order, but apparently you can disable the current 'Intuitive or Numerical' sort algorithm and revert to the older 'Literal' sort algorithm used before XP.
http://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-...nd-7-explorer/

...or try sorting that particular folder by date instead? Should probably match the naming order. File Explorer seems to remember the sort type you choose independently for each folder.

 

At first, I thought you were mistaken and were confusing Numerical sort with Text sort. But this seems to be something else, and is confusing.

It seems to me that Windows is actually performing 2 sorts here. The first sort is on the number, then on the letter. So, for example, 001 and 01A are both seen as "1" but the one with the Letter is placed after it because it is larger in the sort (so it's sorted as 1A), followed by 002 because that's seen as "2" which is larger than "1".

There is a different way to sort, but that has its own problems. That way will sort textually, which means you get 1, 1x and 1xx comes before 2, which comes before 3, etc..

 

Yes if you use Alpha Numeric with a alpha character after a number, it will do as the behavior you described. There are better tools out there than File Explorer.

 

Thanks, yes what I need to do is to revert to the older 'Literal' sort algorithm. The only problem is, every description I've found online, including the link above, refers to an old way to fix this. It doesn't work on my Windows 10 machine because when I try to run gpedit.msc in the Run command, gpedit.msc cannot be found. I'm wondering if there's a new way to fix this for Windows 10.

 

That's probably because you have the Home version of Win10 where gpedit comes with the Pro version and maybe the Enterprise version.

You might try one of the free [additional or replacement] file management programs available such as MultiCommander, see if it does it the same way.
free file managers at DuckDuckGo

 

Never mind, I tried the second solution on that page and it worked! Thanks so much Bree!!!

 

That is true, but all the Group Policy Editor seems to provide is the ability to mix and match from a predefined set of carefully constructed registry settings. For an Enterprise environment this is a powerful tool for managing site-wide policies in a clear and error free way - but in the end it just edits the registry. If you are very careful and know what keys to use you can do it yourself. That's why (as in the tutorials here) those of us on the Home edition can skip past the gpedit section and use....

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-...nd-7-explorer/

 

Special characters take precedence, then numerical place values, then alpha characters.