How to manually arrange folders in windows 7__

Follow this guide.

http://windowsreport.com/disable-auto-arrange-folders-windows-10/

You're quite right Ugh, the Nazi thing was a bit much but Satan is far more like it, more appropriate for the evil that clearly upset me that day, all the toys came out the pram!!! If I could tell you how I got it sorted I would, it would then be the first time I post something even close to a solution as opposed to a question, lunatic rant, or rage filled psychotic event. I've never come across anything that can annoy me quite like a PC, mixed with my ignorance, and apparent lack of aptitude, but I have improved and the restraining order should be lifted anytime soon, it'll be nice to see the wife and kids again. Anyway, I can't remember what I did as it was back in July but I can drag + drop folders wherever my want desires, in the order of my fancy. Obviously I didn't come up with this without the help of some kind soul, but I'm a techno whizz kid if I can remember how, what, or when it all came to be, not got a Danny (Larue!). If I have some sort of epiphany and remember I'll let you know, otherwise, all the best and I hope your folders are soon to be found wherever it is you want them to be, it's not too much to ask, is it?????

 Si

I had actually considered this approach, but hated how it would look--and that there'd be extra stuff in the way of my finely-crafted labels. Plus I self-consciously imagined that it was yet another of my crazy schemes that others would poke fun at: not that that's always stopped me in the past, but one chooses one's battles. ;-)  In the end it was just as easy to adjust my whole approach to conform to the new paradigms. Not saying it was easy or that I like it, just that the workaround involved too much of its own disruption.

Let's not quite go as far as a Nazi comparison

One solution, as somebody else pointed out is to number them.  I find this works fine in some situations. As long as your other files in the folder don't happen to start with numbers.

I have a desktop folder that contains shortcuts to all the apps that I often use. But I want the most prominent ones grouped together and at the top.  So I prefix the shortcut names with #nn[space]   Like "#01 Evernote"

The 0 is unnecessary, but I put it in there because if I ever get as high in my groupings to get to a 10, I don't want #1 files to be followed by #10 files, and then #2 files.  So with 01...09, then 10 will follow.

The # character makes sure these appear before files that might have a name like 2brightsparks.com

Still not as easy as Microsoft understanding that we prefer to have our computers comply to our wishes and not have their aesthetics department dictating where our icons must go.  ;-)  Hitler wouldn't do that sort of thing. Satan... maybe.  ;-)