Auto Arrange Files in Folders (Windows 11)

jto72 · Jan 1, 2022

Is there a way to disable auto arrange in folders? I need to be able to manually arrange my files. This was easy in XP, and I found a patch for Windows 10, but I can’t find a way to make it work in Windows 11.

glasskuter · Jan 3, 2022

The only way I know of would be to sort by name and then use your own naming scheme to make them appear in whatever order you want by using letters or numbers in your file/folder names. For example in my Downloads folder I wanted a folder called Archived Downloads to appear last. I named it zz-Archived downloads.

ssully715 · Jan 25, 2022

Would love to know if anyone has found an answer for this as well. Renaming my files is not an option when I have hundreds, sometimes thousands of files I need to group together for work.

Berton · Jan 25, 2022

My needs are usually met by adding to the name of a file or folder by using a Tilde ~ or two ~~ at the beginning, puts them at the top of a list. If wanting a different filter I click the column heading in File Explorer [and other data lists] to rearrange the list, works good if searching for a file by name, size, date, type, etc. Right-clicking a column heading gives more options for additional columns. There's also the View tab that gives more choices.

LesFerch · Oct 6, 2022

jto72 said:
Is there a way to disable auto arrange in folders? I need to be able to manually arrange my files. This was easy in XP, and I found a patch for Windows 10, but I can’t find a way to make it work in Windows 11.

I assume you want to manually arrange icons in folders as you can on the desktop. The patch (registry settings) to enable that feature became useless as of Windows 10 1703. Those settings still allow you to move the icons around freely, but their positions are not remembered. For more details, see this tutorial.