How do I set a custom order for folders on Windows 7 and 10?

Question

I have folders with these names:

• Introduction
• Theoretical Background
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusion

and would like to keep this sequence.

Unfortunately, Windows 7 doesn't let me and orders the folders according to their names or alteration date.

How can I fix the sequence of folders in Windows 7 and 10 according to my requirements?

Is it maybe possible to set an additional folder attribute like "1" or "2" and let Windows sort according to this attribute?

Answer 1

I generally do this by simply prefixing the folders with either letters or numbers, as though they were sections of a document:

1 - Introduction
2 - Theoretical Background
3 - Methods
4 - Results
5 - Conclusions

If there are more than ten "sections", I will use a two-digit zero-padded prefix, e.g., 01, 02, 03, etc.; I've never been quite so deranged as to insist that I need this for a group of over about 15 folders. (Even if I did, I could probably manage to script the rename.)

Answer 2

You can make the folders a system folder with a desktop.ini file.

Create a new text file within the folder, and set the content

[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=1
[ViewState]
Mode=
Vid=
FolderType=Generic

Where InfoTip=1 sets the "tag" as "1", so you can sort numerically

Then rename the file to desktop.ini.

Then set the folder as a system folder using command prompt

attrib +s "Introduction"

Then in the root folder:

View → Choose Details → add "Comments"

And sort by Comments, now the folders will be sorted according to the "InfoTip" field in the ini file as long as the folder is marked as a system folder.

Answer 3

Update per comments: doesn't have to be a minute apart, only creation order matters.

If you create them at least a minute apart in the order you want, you can then sort by Date Created.

Answer 4

I know this is an old question, but I saw Jan Doggen's answer and wanted to help anyone that may want to use his method, but can't because Windows deletes trailing spaces. Also, I have FINALLY signed up for SE! lol, I come here like 100 times a week.

Instead of using a space, you can use this 'invisible' Unicode character --->‎ <--- (within the arrows). The cool thing about it is that programs will not delete this character whether it precedes or follows a filename, title, header, etc. Well, every program I have used it in hasn't anyways (OneNote, Excel, Windows Explorer, and so on). For example, you can have a product folder with 4 files custom sorted this way (imagine the dashes are spaces - coincidentally, SuperUser is the first website/program I have encountered that treats the invisible character as a space, haha):

---Product Overview
--Specifications
-Resources
Support

I'm really OCD though, so I think I am going to go with Richie Frame's answer, but still, this will appease most normal folks! Hope it helps :D

P.S. - Huge props to this website for teaching me about it! And if you don't have Unicode shortcuts enabled on your PC, just bookmark that site and you can easily access it through your browser whenever you need it. :)

Answer 5

A variation on Jeff's answer (also interferes little with default Windows behavior and is quickly accomplished): add 4,3,2,1 and 0 spaces in front of the directory names:

    Introduction
   Theoretical Background
  Methods
 Results
Conclusions

A matter of taste ;-)

Answer 6

One thing is a real (physical) order of files / directories, the other is their logical order (sorted by name, by extension, ...) shown in File Managers.

Use such a file manager (instead of Widnows Explorer) who is able to show files in their physical order (i.e. unsorted). For example Total Commander:

Answer 7

First of all, thank you so much for your responses to my question!

I presented them to my colleagues and now half of them are using Jeff's and the other half Richie's solution.

Jeff's solution is, as pointed out by @Dubu, stable across different file systems, works with backups and is portable to other operating systems. Moreover, the solution is fast and easy to accomblish for everyone.

Now, let's assume you are using LaTeX for writing your thesis, then you will use similiar lines of code to insert your sections:

\input{./03_Section_A/Section_A.tex}
\input{./04_Section_B/Section_B.tex}

Let's also assume that you make the decision to add a new section, which should come between two existing sections (here between 03 and 04). Which changes are needed to add the new section in the sequence of folders? Using Jeff's solution, you need to rename all existing folders and adjust all paths in your LaTeX file accordingly:

\input{./03_Section_A/Section_A.tex}
\input{./04_NewSection/NewSection.tex}
\input{./05_Section_B/Section_B.tex}

Here, Richie's solution comes in handy. In fact, you do not need numbers in front of folder names anymore. If you make the decision to add a new section, which should come between two existing sections, you just need to update the desktop.ini files. Any adjustments in the LaTeX file, besides inserting the new section, is not needed.

\input{./SectionName_A/Section_A.tex}
\input{./NewSection/NewSection.tex}
\input{./SectionName_B/Section_B.tex}

To sum up, it is a personal decision to use Jeff's or Richie's solution. Both of them are great.

Answer 8

An alternative to the link mentioned by TrustKibou is this blanktext website which contains a lot of Unicode whitespace characters. Hope it helps :)