Classic Shell: Forum

Is it possible to have that OR the way windows XP does it? I hate it how it groups A's with B's C's D's E's F's G's and H's.

In XP A's were with A's

B's were with B's

C's were with C's

and so on... it was allot easier and i didn't have to think about what letter was within what group. I just went to that letter and there was the item i was looking for. It was easier.

So is it possible to make it so windows vista, 7, and 8 uses the classic XP style of grouping?

Yes this has been a problem in all post XP OSes- Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. Basically, grouping by name has become useless because Explorer does not put them under individual letters of the alphabet. Unfortunately, Microsoft no longer cares enough about fixing such issues.

If a shell namespace extension is written that groups items in a folder under each letter of the alphabet, it may be possible to fix this but that's a major undertaking. It's up to Ivo (the developer of Classic Shell) to decide.

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

If Ivo ever decides to do that, I would absolutely love sorting by hash/md5 This would throw duplicate files right next to each other, for easy deletion (when you have hundreds of thousands of pictures like me, thats no easy task)
As it is, I run a bat that changes the filenames to md5(Original Name).extension, and overwrites any duplicate. Though this can cause issues, and isnt ideal, its still better than any duplicate file finder i've found thus far..

You can use an alternative to Windows Explorer, that does this. For example, XYPlorer can be configured to act like Windows Explorer but has a huge number of extra features, if you want a feature rich WinExplorer lookalike. In particular it has options to calculate hashes of files and (I think) to display them as a column in the right hand pane, or at the least to export them with file details, which is exactly what you want, and it's rock solid and constantly updated.

It might be useful as a workaround until available in Windows Explorer. I'm not sure what Ivo's priorities are but he is looking after the whole of Classic Shell so extra features like this may take a while. But I agree, it would be nice!!

Im aware of most the alternatives.. and have tried xyplorer (and 5-6 others) none of which were capable of handling the 20k+ image folders I have.. windows seems to manage them just fine until the 50k mark

broken hand. right hand. i am right handed. excuse poor typing and spelling please.

thanks for responses. it helps to find items easier is all when i know what letter or number it start with. grouping it all together make it that i still have to search multiple items to find things it makes it harder.