Completely disable file grouping, always, everywhere, in all windows, dialogs, everything!

Anonymous
2022-02-23T22:25:42+00:00

Hello,

File grouping is degrading my productivity. It is constantly getting between me and my work.

I am aware of the methods to disable file grouping within individual folders. Please do not tell me how to do this, I already know.

I am also aware of the method that is supposed to disable file grouping within folders of a particular type (general, music, photos, etc.)... by setting the Explorer "Options > Apply to Folders". (As an aside, the auto-detection of folder contents often does not work and is a big headache.) Again, please do not tell me how to do this, I already know.

What I need to do is prevent Windows from grouping files -- EVERYWHERE. Not just in Windows Explorer, but in application file dialogs. That is, file Open and Save dialogs. That is the absolutely last place I ever want to see grouping.

This is seriously a problem for me. My assets are organized alphabetically for a reason. When I have to right-click and choose "Group By > None" every single time I access a folder through an application dialog, it wastes my time, increases my workload, and makes me very cranky.

I know that Microsoft has added this feature because they think it is going to save effort and time for their users. That may be true in some cases, but there is no one solution to maximize productivity in all possible use cases.

So please, how can I completely disable file grouping, always, everywhere, in all windows, dialogs, everything?

If this is not currently possible in Windows 10, please make it possible.

Such a simple, basic option can save literally millions of hours of wasted time for a global user base.

Thank you.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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Les Ferch 10,361 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2022-06-24T16:57:28+00:00

So please, how can I completely disable file grouping, always, everywhere, in all windows, dialogs, everything?

Option 1: Use WinSetView

The easiest solution is to use WinSetView. It's a free, open source, portable app that lets you choose your preferred Explorer default views, including grouping, and sets the registry values for you. It does not modify any system files and does not leave anything running (i.e. zero overhead). The settings will stick through typical Windows Updates, but will need to be reapplied after a major update.

Note: WinSetView resets all of your folder views to whatever you select as your default view preferences, which includes your grouping options. You may select one global view setting or select different views for each folder type.

Option 2: Clear saved views and "Apply to Folders"

This option uses the "Apply to Folders" button to set the user default view for the Downloads folder to Group by (None), but in order to ensure that all file open/save dialogs get the updated view, the currently saved views in the registry must be cleared out. To do that, first open RegEdit and delete the following registry keys:

HKCU\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU

HKCU\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags

After deleting those registry keys, set grouping to (None) in the usual way:

Windows 11:

  1. Open your Downloads folder and make the window wide enough to see all options.
  2. Sort menu > Group by > (None)
  3. ⋯ > Options
  4. View tab > Apply to Folders > Yes > OK

Windows 10:

  1. Open your Downloads folder and make the window wide enough to see all options.
  2. View tab > Group by > (None)
  3. Options > Change folder and search options
  4. View tab > Apply to Folders > Yes > OK

This procedure must be applied for each folder TYPE. Typically, only the Downloads folder type is set to group by date, but if you have other folder types that are also grouped, the procedure will need to be repeated for those ones as well.

Once the above steps are complete, sign out and sign in (or restart the computer) to make the changes take effect everywhere.

Option 3: Modify the default in the registry

In this registry key:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{885a186e-a440-4ada-812b-db871b942259}\TopViews\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}

Change the GroupBy value data from "System.DateModified" to "" (i.e. clear the data).

Note: The above key is protected. You will need to either change its permissions (not recommended) or access it using a tool that provides TrustedInstaller access, such as PowerRun, AdvancedRun, or RightClickTools.

If you make the above change for a new user before opening any Downloads folders, then you're done. Otherwise, you'll need to clear out the saved views using the following procedures:

Close all open apps.

Open RegEdit normally (i.e NOT as TrustedInstaller) and delete the following registry keys:

HKCU\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU

HKCU\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags

Run the following PowerShell script to clear views for Store apps such as the Windows 11 Notepad and MSPaint:

$Pkgs = "$env:LocalAppData\Packages"
Get-ChildItem $Pkgs -Directory | ForEach-Object {
  Remove-Item -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue "$Pkgs\$_\SystemAppData\Helium\UserClasses.dat"
}

Sign out and sign in (or restart the computer) to make the changes take effect everywhere.

Option 4: Per user script

Close all open apps and run the following PowerShell script for each user (please see the comments):

# This script will remove grouping from all possible views of the Downloads folder. 
# The change is applied to the current user's profile only. 
# Warning: ALL folder views (except Downloads grouping) will revert to Windows defaults! 
# This is a minimal solution. To set ALL default folder views, use the free tool WinSetView. 

$RegExe = "$env:SystemRoot\System32\Reg.exe"
$File = "$env:Temp\Temp.reg"
$Key = 'HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{885a186e-a440-4ada-812b-db871b942259}'
& $RegExe Export $Key $File /y
$Data = Get-Content $File
$Data = $Data -Replace 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE', 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER'
$Data = $Data -Replace '"GroupBy"="System.DateModified"', '"GroupBy"=""'
$Data | Out-File $File
& $RegExe Import $File
$Key = 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell'
& $RegExe Delete "$Key\BagMRU" /f
& $RegExe Delete "$Key\Bags" /f
$Pkgs = "$env:LocalAppData\Packages"
Get-ChildItem $Pkgs -Directory | ForEach-Object {
  Remove-Item -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue "$Pkgs\$_\SystemAppData\Helium\UserClasses.dat"
}
Stop-Process -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -ProcessName Explorer

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  1. Les Ferch 10,361 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-01-31T22:15:41+00:00

    So now it's 2024. ****? It's bloody obvious by now that many, many, many users are displeased with Group By, so why hasn't Microsoft acted on that user feedback and provided a configurable workaround? Or is this another, "Complain to Us for 30 Years Before We Act So We Know You Really Mean It" issue like the lack of smooth-scrolling in Excel?

    I'm convinced that the people who design and program Explorer don't actually do any significant file management tasks with it. It would be interesting to hear the discussion that led to the decision to set Downloads to group by date by default. Did they really conclude that's what most users would want? And do they still believe that or is it just too minor of an issue for them to bother revisiting? Who knows. You'll never get a straight answer about things like that.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-08T12:24:53+00:00

    I am so glad other people find this feature annoying. It's even worse in Outlook. When I search for something in Outlook I do not want outlook to decide if the email is important or not - just give me the emails in date order. Stop grouping! I lose so much time trying to find emails because Outlook has decided on some random sort order when searching.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-02-28T20:36:39+00:00

    If I want to see the files grouped together, I can sort by the desired field in the header.
    Microsoft Windows needs to stop trying to be a phone or a "macbook" and go back to being a solid reliable OS, that is why I purchased a MS PC.

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  4. Les Ferch 10,361 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-02-01T20:51:56+00:00

    Those are false positives. You're going to see that with Windows utilities, especially from small developers and individual contributors, such as myself.

    AV vendors have to use heuristics (i.e. pattern matching techniques) to determine if something "looks" like it could be malware. Obviously, utilities that write to the registry will fall into that category. The AV vendors can't limit their flagging to exact matches of known malware because then the malware creators would only have to make the most trivial change to avoid detection. Therefore, legitimate software gets caught in the net all the time.

    VirusTotal will continue to throw up these false positives no matter what, but if Windows Defender throws up a false detection, I will report it to the Windows Defender team (as I did two years ago) and they are very good at making the appropriate corrections to their definitions. I did the same with Kaspersky two years ago and they were also very responsive and fixed their definitions.

    Common sense should tell you that WinSetView is safe as long as you're getting it from a reputable site. I recommend getting it straight from my page. Consider that it's open source, my personal email is on the project, it has over 300 stars on GitHub, and has been downloaded thousands (if not tens of thousands) of times. If it contained malware, I'd be kicked off of GitHub in a heartbeat.

    For more perspective, please see these pages from a couple of free software developers:

    http://blog.nirsoft.net/2009/05/17/antivirus-companies-cause-a-big-headache-to-small-developers https://ritchielawrence.github.io/cmdow/#is-cmdow-malware

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