Sort Issue: "mixing" files and sub-folders

  • Thread starter Thread starter davidb252
  • Start date Start date
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davidb252

Hello,

Is there a way to make Windows XP treat files and folders the same way
when sorting them in view?

Today, when you have a folder which contains both files and
sub-folders, Windows XP firsts sorts all the folders and then sorts all
the files. I want both files and sub-folders to be "mixed" together,
and sorted only according to their names.

For examle, in the current situation my folder will look like this:
AAA [folder]
CCC [folder]
BBB [file]
DDD [file]

And the desirable situation is this:
AAA [folder]
BBB [file]
CCC [folder]
DDD [file]

Thanks,
Dave.
 
Is there a way to make Windows XP treat files and folders the same way
when sorting them in view?

Today, when you have a folder which contains both files and
sub-folders, Windows XP firsts sorts all the folders and then sorts all
the files. I want both files and sub-folders to be "mixed" together,
and sorted only according to their names.
Click to expand...

No, I'm afraid not. This has been how Windows has worked from the beginning. You would need a third party filemanager to do that.
 
Depending on how much you need this, there is a workaround.

Pipe the directory listing to output to a text file (can't recall the exact
command), then import it into Excel. Then you can sort the columns however
you'd like to.

- John
 
usasma said:
Depending on how much you need this, there is a workaround.

Pipe the directory listing to output to a text file (can't recall the exact
command), then import it into Excel. Then you can sort the columns however
you'd like to.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, you lose the ability to manipulate the files and folders. That's good for generating a listing tough (of course in
that case you would be better off using a dedicated directory listing program which has more options.)

The command is dir (run from the command prompt).

Oh and the correct term is "redirect"; "piping" is passing the output of one command to another while "redirecting" is passing the
output of a command to a different output device. ;)
 
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