How to manually arrange folders in windows 7__

im having the same problem and i think it was a pathetic idea for microsoft to remove this VERY important feature. it makes me kind of hate windows 7 now :(

please get this sorted microsoft.

I am having the same problem, and it is a very big problem for me.  For the past 7 years, I have arranged all of my digital photos in a certain way.  I would create a folder for the new year, and then inside it I would create new month folders that also had the year, just as I say the dates.  For example, inside the "2010" folder, I just created "January 2010", "February 2010", and "March 2010".

  The computer is too stupid to realize these are dates (which it should really be able to do), and thus it always wants to put them in the wrong order.  I want to have January at the top upper left, but always had to manually drag the folder there, and place them in the correct order.  Now it appears that Microsoft took away the ability for me to place them in the correct order.

  I am very, very disappointed with this decision to take away consumer control and choice - and it is the main reason why I didn't "upgrade" our other two computers after installing Windows 7 on this one.  Although I have only dabbled with Linux before now, I think I'm going to install Ubuntu or Linux Mint, and see if they have similar limitations on users, or if they allow more freedom for their users.

Thanks for a clear answer Ryan.  Unfortunately for me this was an important feature and I am very disappointed to see it go.  I routinely used manual arrangement to organize files within folders on my desktop across two axis at the same time, such as columns for various career paths, with increasing rank arranged vertically within each column, and blank columns between them.  Another example was columns for various certifications, arranged vertically within each column based on level.  I also used this feature for groupings such as 'active' vs. 'passive' within a given project folder on my Desktop.

In short, while I don't necessarily see a need for this across all folders throughout the system, to the extent this was being used to provide a hierarchy of mini-desktops from my main desktop, this is a feature I would very much like to see restored in Windows 7.  Presently, the level of disruption caused by the loss of this feature alone, compared to the relatively minor value-add over Vista (to me, after having already shelled out the money on resources to support Vista), is enough to make me hold off.

Thanks,

Gordon

I got around it by assigning a number to each of the files in the order that I wanted them to appear in the folder.  For example, the first one has a number 1 in front of the name, the second, number 2, and so on.  It is a pain to rename all of the files, but it works to put them in the order you want.  Hope this helps.