File Order in Folder Views

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I have several folder with large numbers of image files, which I like to view in descending date order in explorer, ie so that the latest files are at the top.
This was OK in XP and Vista, but since installing W7 Ultimate I keep getting the files diplayed in alphabetical order, following which it takes a cosiderable time for the folder to rearrange itself in date order.
This happens every time, and I don’t seem able to alter it.

Any advice on how to eliminate this delay would be very welcome.

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Change the viewing to “Details” and then click the Date column.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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If you haven’t yet, try getting the folder in the view that you want (descending date field) and then go into Tools>Folder Options>View>Apply to Folders and click yes to confirm. That should subsequently initiate the view based on descending date right from the start.

As to the delay, how long is it and how many files (ballpark) are in these folders? I’ve had the experience that with a few hundred or more per folder, it slows down any OS I’ve used. I think this is because the thumbs database file is being checked and updated if needed and it takes a little time to cross referrence all the images even though you aren’t displaying them in thumbnail view. If you were to turn on thumbnail view the placeholders would be there fairly quickly but then the thumbnail images just come in like mollasses in winter. Any good third party image viewer (Faststone, Irfanview, XnView, etc.) is MUCH better at the task so you might try one of those as a substitute. They also have the advantage in that you can set the field sort order once and it will stay that way as the default.

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Thanks guys.

I already have my folder view settings set to ‘details’ and with descending date order, applied to all folders (although I notice W7 doesn’t apply it to all folders, only those of a similar type).
I have between 200 and 500+ in a folder.
When I click on a folder in the left hand column, the contents of the folder appear to the right, in alphabetical order, then with no further input from me, a progress bar effect in the title bar begins a slow progress across the screen. This can take over 30 seconds for a large folder, following which the files are rearranged.

When I open the same folder, under the same conditions, in Vista or XP, it displays immediately in the prespecified order, so it’s not a problem of size or hardware state, but solely due to the operating system.

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You’re right, I have not seen the behavior you describe more in detail now. It sounds like the folder state is not being preserved from one opening to the next and it has to rebuild the sort index each time but even so, that shouldn’t take 30 seconds for a computer to do.

So I don’t know, pre SP2 Vista was really buggy when it came to the templates for preserving view but this isn’t exactly that kind of symptom either.

You might still try one of the free image display/viewer programs mentioned, sort and put the view into details there and see if its quicker or the same thing happens–a possible workaround is all I can suggest.

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” that shouldn’t take 30 seconds for a computer to do.”
If the folder has a lot files, several hundred or more, YES it will take this extra time to update.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I just did a little experiment of my own using the native explorer, details view, and I sorted by date on 1369 bitmap files (2700 KB each), AMD 4050e 2X, 2.1GHZ system and it took on average about 16 seconds to sort the folder.

Then I used an XP system, core 2, 4300, 1.8 GHz, over the network on the same 1369 file folder…blink of an eye every time to sort.

So obviously Win7 is processing some info that the XP system is not. Something somewhere that maybe can be disabled??

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