This article describes how to change the displayed sort order of file and folder names in Windows Explorer.

Symptoms

By default, Windows Explorer sort file and folder names numerically rather than alphabetically. For example:

Numerical Sorted List
1.txt
2.txt
10.txt
20.txt

Alphabetical Sorted List
1.txt
10.txt
2.txt
20.txt

Cause

Windows Explorer is configured to display file names numerically.

Resolution

Important: This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. If you modify the registry manually, the device may not start. Additionally, you may lose all the user data on the device.

To change Windows Explorer to sort file and folder names alphabetically, update the following registry settings:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
“NoStrCmpLogical”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
“NoStrCmpLogical”=dword:00000001

Click here to download a file with the above registry changes.

Restart Windows Explorer for the changes to take effect.

More Information

For more information, click here.

Applies To

Windows XP, 2003, 2008, and Windows 7.