How to Sort and Select Files and Folders Windows 10 [Tutorial]

How to Sort and Select Files and Folders Windows 10 [Tutorial]

File Explorer offers smart grouping and sorting options fo files in a folder. These options are based on the attributes of the files within that folder e.g., if you have a folder that has multiple audio files in it, File Explorer’s context menu will offer you options to group and sort them by artist, or track number, or album. A file can have other attributes, in fact, many files do. If you’d like to add more grouping and sorting options in File Explorer, ones that you don’t normally see for a file, you can. Here’s how.

If you use File Explorer, you may already know that it has a nice feature to remember each folder's view setting. You can customize its sorting and grouping views. Let see how it can be done.

File Explorer in Windows 10 has five folder templates - General Items, Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos. When you see the Customize tab of a Library or of a folder, you will see these templates. This adds more flexibility in viewing your personal data.
For instance, even if you prefer, say, List view for Documents, you may want your Music Library to be shown in Details view and you would want your Pictures and Video Libraries to be in icon-based views such as Medium, Large or Extra Large icons. So for each folder template, Explorer stores its settings individually.

In Explorer windows, files and folders appear sorted or grouped by different attributes, such as name or type, in the different views, such as Icons (Extra large, Large, Medium, or Small), List, Details, Tiles, and Content. You can select the attributes you want to use and then select whether to display the files and folders in ascending (A-Z) or descending (Z-A) order. You can use the Sort by or Group by buttons on the View tab to specify the options you want to apply to the current folder. The Sort by and Group by options are the same. However, the available options vary depending on the selected folder type, such as a Documents or Pictures folder.

When using your Windows 10 system to create information, over time, we accumulate a lot of files that store on our hard disk. A critical part of how Windows 10 (and Windows in general) organizes this is by using a File System that manages how files are stored and accessed on your computer. The part you and I see when we interact with the records that we create on our computers, such as documents, audio files, pictures, and videos is the File Manager.

In addition to view templates, you can change sorting and grouping options. They will help you to reorder your files by various details like name, size, modification date and so on. By default, files and folders are sorted in ascending order by name. Here is how to change it.

Grouping and sorting options in File Explorer
Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder you want to enable additional grouping and sorting options for. The process for both is similar.

Right-click in an empty area in the folder and select either the Group by or Sort by option. Wait for the sub-menu to open and it will have a ‘More’ option. Click it.

This tutorial will apply for computers, laptops, desktops,and tablets running the Windows 10, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 7 operating systems.Works for all major computer manufactures (Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung).

[FortStorage]

Why not allow us to drag folders and files exactly where we want them to go? I guess that's too easy for Microsoft

[Poplyser]

Is there a way to manually sort the folders? Cause sometimes it makes mistakes automatically arranging them.

[shriramagarwal]

I was actually looking for this. Thanks for the great content :)

[chadlpnemt]

I'm putting music on my MP3 player and I want to manually move items around in an order I want, but it only gives me the options listed here but I can't drag and drop the files where I want them. Is there a way to do that? Otherwise it just goes in the specific order the computer wants it, which I don't want.

[FemaleObserver]

It still arranges according to date, why is this? :(

[jorgediazdesign]

How can you fill the information for the parameters, some folder i want them to be sort by contry and i can add the parameter but i cant insert the info into the folder

[jameshanson]

Could you add a part on how to sort the CONTENTS of a file? That would also be very helpful.

[bassdojo]

Does windows 10 not allow you to arrange files in any order you want? Been searching for days. The older windows allow you to simply select and drag to your desired location.

[TheakkerB]

My folder has automatically done this stupid thing where it organizes the documents in drop-down menus like 0 - 9, A - H, I - P, Q - Z. How do I switch it back to standard?

[alexandrite]

Is there a way to make the settings global? ei, sort by file type
either by having it always show up next the other options, name, size, date modified
or having it automatically sort all folders by file type

[audiolinkus]

Thank you so much! This was very helpful!

[ndsn]

I am trying to sort my pictures where some are inside folders and others are all out of folders, how can I organize everything in alphabetical order when windows automatically puts all folders first? I want them to be mixed, I don't want them to be first sort by type of icon and then alphabetical, How can I do that?

[eweaving]

Thanks alot, it helped to remember how to do this.

[DeSeldy]

Hello please my drive C has my widows system and I mistaken pasted an folders in it . I can't find my folder anymore. Can anyone help please

[Spike]

On my file explorer..."Sort By" and "Group By" are faded out and not an option for me for some reason...so I'm knackered unfortunately....

[kareemahmed]

How to arrange files inside the folder via the Auto option. Because the Auto option is not present in Windows 10

[limmiefox]

i pressed something and when i open my document it shows to the right .Docment - public doc - music - public music how do i get rid of it into 1 file.

[GraphicAnomaly]

ok I'm looking to specifically highlight over 1000 images with the word "copy" in the title. Please tell me there is a way to do this in win10 >.<

[machealaangohiatok]

I have a bunch of Word Documents mixed in with PDF files with names. It's sorted by name. How can I have all Word files above all the PDF?

[timothycirylhuntingtoniii]

I used to be able to just simply set, which sorting variant I wanted for each folder. Now it just resets, each time I leave the folder. have Windows10 messed something up at all?