How to force Win11 to sort files the way I want when opening directory?

Hi all,

Win11 sort files in a certain order , no idea what order that is, possibly NAME

When one has set sorting to something else (for instance DATE in my case ) windows still opens a directory with the files sorted in the standard order and then takes 5 to 10 seconds to change the order to DATE.

This happens all the time, so also after one has already set sorting to DATE and has visited the directory multiple times.

I find this waiting annoying.

Is this standard Win11 behavior ? Is there a fix / solution for this issue ?

Thanks

I've just tried sorting my documents folder into date order. After exiting, and then going back in, it still displays in date order. So I don't see your problem.

GeneralLee01 said:

Is this standard Win11 behavior ? Is there a fix / solution for this issue ?

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Please see this Windows tutorial.

I just tried it on my desktop, and it's working like it should. My guess is a program or setting is causing the problem.

IanMosley said:

Please see this Windows tutorial.

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Hi Ian. I am not sure I understand your suggestion. I do know how to change sorting and have the folders set to sort to date.

But internally windows sorts differently, so when opening a folder windows first takes up to 10 seconds to sort the folder according to my settings.

RFS said:

I've just tried sorting my documents folder into date order. After exiting, and then going back in, it still displays in date order. So I don't see your problem.

Click to expand...

Mine does that too. But when opening tghe directory windows takes time, up to 10 seconds, to sort the thousands of files. So I suspect internally windows uses a different sort setting and not my sort setting.

Winuser said:

I just tried it on my desktop, and it's working like it should. My guess is a program or setting is causing the problem.

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Hi Winuser. How should it work ?

Mine is okay, too. Opens instantly by preference.

I did did another check and will try to describe the issue a bit better:

Folder is set to sort on DATE, did that eons ago.

- I open the directory in fileexplorer. After this I do nothing, hands-off
- Thumbnails are visible instantly , sorted by "I am not sure by definitely not DATE"
- Then a green bar is slowly getting longer over what I think is the called directory address bar
- When the bar is at the end the thumbnails are re-ordered and are now sorted on DATE
- End

GeneralLee01 said:

Hi Winuser. How should it work ?

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What ever sort order I choose is how File Explorer opens. There is no waiting for the files to get sorted.

Winuser said:

What ever sort order I choose is how File Explorer opens. There is no waiting for the files to get sorted.

Click to expand...

Thanks. How many images are in the folder ?

GeneralLee01 said:

Thanks. How many images are in the folder ?

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My largest folder of images has 120 photos.

Ah ok, mine have from about 300 files (total about 300 MB) to about 14000 files (total about 3 GB).

I can notice the effect already in the 300 folder , although it is just a tiny split second. That 300 folder sorts to DATE almost, but not fully, instantly.

I did some extensive online searches but it seems this can not be fixed easily. The standard way Windows sorts a directory is hard coded.