Is there a way to fix the sort by name in Windows 10 File Explorer?

Question

There seems to be a bug in Windows 10 File explorer.

For instance here are four files I created listed how they appear when I have sort by Name ascending selected:

31A.txt
32A.txt
311.txt
321.txt

These are not correctly sorted by name ascending. The proper sort would be:

311.txt
31A.txt
321.txt
32A.txt

This bug appears whenever the filenames start with the same character. In other words, File Explorer will place a file that starts with '1' before one that starts with 'A'.

This only happens in File Explorer and open dialog boxes that I'm aware of. Command line lists the files in the proper order.

Is there a fix for this? Am I off my rocker? Googling is coming up zilch for me. This also seems like a very strange bug, sorting algorithms have been around for ages now.

Solution

The fix for this in Windows 7 almost works, but the group policy setting's location changed.

1. In the start menu, search for "Edit Group Policy" or "gpedit.msc" and press enter.
2. In the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / File Explorer.
   • In Windows 10 this is in File Explorer, whereas Windows 7 apparently called it Windows Explorer.
3. Double-click Turn off numerical sorting in File Explorer and select Enabled, then click OK.

Comments

[Kamil Maciorowski]

I do not know how to change it, yet it may not be a bug. I think it's because 31 and 32 are less than 311. Non-technical users expect such behavior. They think your way is a bug. See this.

[Chris B]

Well that sticks, and none of the custom fields seem to have the proper sort. thanks.

[w32sh]

NoStrCmpLogical registry value windows 7 - Change how Explorer sorts files with number in name - Super User should work in Windows 10 as well.

[phuclv]

the numbers are compared in decimals, so definitely for 31A it'll stop and 31