Sorting Windows Download Directory

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I’m sure this has come up before because it’s such a nuisance.  Ever since the brains at Microsoft have forced the “download” directory to sort by date with no option to have it sort alphabetically as it should.  I can’t find the existing directory I want to save my download in.  I searched and searched for a work around with no luck.  Somebody, somewhere must have come up with a fix for this extremely aggravating problem.

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Try WinSetView

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Alex5723 wrote:

Try WinSetView

Thanks for your help Alex5723!
I must confess to using the “Open Shell” desktop to save my sanity (I hate the Windows desktop after chicklets were introduced) and “xplorer²”as my file manager.  I also use “TrayStatus”  to restore the status bar.  Will WinSetView have any problems working with these utilities?

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When you are viewing the Downloads folder in File Explorer, use the Sort options to turn Group By off, then sort by whichever column you wish.

--Joe

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Moonwink

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In the past the Windows gurus had that option disabled as I recall.  After your suggestion, I tried it again.  Group by NONE and sort by NAME works perfect.  It would be great if I could set those options without them reverting back the settings Microsoft has them defaulted to.  Shame on them for enforcing this change!

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It does not revert on my system. Windows 11 Pro 22621.2134

--Joe

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I’m not running the Pro version but I do have the fully patched version of Home 22621.2134.  I made the changes you mentioned, closed the window and reopened it right away.  All my changes were gone and I was back to grouped by date.

I wonder how many arrange their filing cabinet folders in order of when the files and folders were created?   According to Microsoft, my method of not using groups but relying on folder names must seem illogical.  Since the days of DOS, I’ve never seen any use for grouping files by date as a default.  It’s easy enough to click the date column heading to sort by date but I wouldn’t leave it that way.

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Moonwink wrote:

Will WinSetView have any problems working with these utilities?

I don’t know as I don’t use any of these utilities.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Moonwink

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