How to disable auto arrange in Windows 7 Explorer?

I agree wholeheartedly. This auto arange problem is horrendous, as in I have had it with Microsoft. The fact that so many people are pissed off over this and Microsoft will not fix it proves that they have agendas not consistent with what customers want.

I WASTED $600 on a new 7 PC. I had a lightning surge that took out the motherboard on my computer. After using windows 7, I put a new motherboard in my old unit. $600 sitting on a shelf. My next computer will NOT run windows!!

I'm late getting  in on this, but I can't resist commenting. It's clear to me what Microsoft is up to here. They're heading Windows toward storing all your information on their servers ("in the Cloud" as the euphemism goes) so they can sift through it looking for ways to use it to their advantgage and to the advantage of whomever  they choose sell access. Auto arrange makes it easier for their tools to do the sifting and is easier (less costly) to implement. They want you to store all your data in the Cloud so they can eliminate local storage on PC's whose storage they can't get to.  I'm sure that once local storage is no longer present on PC's, they'll start charging you for access to your own data also. Don't be fooled by the hype about the Cloud. It's whole purpose is to get access to your data for marketing purposes (e.g. targeted ads) and for any other purpose they can contrive that'll provide them with a revenue stream that's low-investment for them. They're not working toward products for your benefit, but toward products that suck your created value into their coffers. Look at Windows Live. It's whole purpose is the same. You'll own a "thin client" instead of a computer (no disk drives) and you'll rent applications rather than own them. I'm trying to find ways to do what I need to do on linux. It belongs to nobody (thank you Linus Torvalds) and thus isn't as likely to fall victim to the thinly veiled "something for nothing" wave of greed that's washing through the PC industry. Maybe if enough of us rebel against the current trends, Microsoft will either go broke because we show them that we don't want to be used in this way (by spending our money on machines and software that are aimed at our needs and convenience rather than theirs) or they'll catch on and and look at their users as their primary customers rather than as the patsys who pay them to be exploited by their "real" customers.

Totally agree we should all switch back to Vista or XP then maybe Microsoft would get the message.