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I just want to "disable" confounding Auto Arrange files within folders in Windows 10. I can't understand that when you leave file/folder icons in the position and order that you want and then Windows decides to mix them up. I'm continually wasting time trying to find lost data. It's ridiculous. Does anyone know or can create something that just allows you to arrange or sort files within folders, and Leave them alone, without the OS messing them up?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Now I got this solution working for all categories except images. It works with the folder set to General, Documents, Videos, Music but not with category set to pictures?
https://technastic.com/disable-auto-refresh-auto-arrange-windows-explorer/
Is this registry key for Pictures incorrect: {B3690E58-E961-423B-B687-386EBFD83239}
No, it is a matter of Microsoft knows best and we do not care what is better for users, and Microsoft techs just like changing things about to justify their existence. It worked fine with Windows XP.
It really does make things difficult for me.
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If your Windows version is greater than Windows 10 1703, the registry change (aka hack) will still enable those menu items and allow you to freely move icons within folders (this even works on Windows 11), but the icon positions are not remembered. If you don't care if the positions are remembered, then there should be no issue. If that's the case, please try again following these instructions.
I can tell that before updating to 22H2, my Windows was fully updated, and I downloaded the installer and updated manually to 22H2, yesterday.
As already mentioned, the feature stopped working as of Windows 10 1703. That is, you can still enable those menu items to freely arrange, but it will not save the positions. The change was not recent. Windows 10 1703 came out in 2017. You must have been running an old version of Windows before you updated to 22H2.
