Disable Auto Arrange in folder view


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I recall this option available in every windows iteration since W95. It seems its been left off W7. Oddly, its available as a desktop option.

What this means is that if you want to drag a frequently used file or folder to a side or corner in a window to work with, you wont be able to anymore! It will snap back into the grid! Some MVP in another forum said this was intentional by design (I doubt it, I think he's assuming that its impossible for MS to make a mistake like this, so it must be intentional). I've seen a few others complain about this omission, but seems the response was indifference. This omission was as of build 7077, so I assume its part of the RC as well. Which means the final version may be like that as well. I have a feeling there will be many complaints over this when the final is released and sold to the masses. And it will probably be fixed in a SP. But until then, I will probably not buy W7 if it is like this, this omission will impede my productivity.

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To help clarify, this isn't something which was actively removed, however, Windows 7 includes a brand new view control for items in the Explorer. Given time constraints, certain functionality that was deemed lower priority wasn't able to be implemented in the new control. Now, I'm not certain what the exact story is with this particular feature, but that's my guess. I'll talk to the person who would know for sure and get back to you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been struggling with this for a over a week and it was driving me crazy because I swear (though I must be wrong) that it initially worked as Vista giving me the option to turn auto arrange on or off. This is such a small thing but one of things things that can completely ruin yoru ability to do things it is hard to fathom it being like this in an RC.

Is there any word on a registry hack or some other way to get the ability to turn off auto arrange? As simple a thing as this is because of the files I work with and how I work with them this nearly completely breaks explorer for me.

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  • 5 months later...

Ok that's it!! I HATE Windows 7 because of 3 removed features:

1- Old XP classic start menu 2- ability to disable folder auto arrange 3- Animated tray icon of network activity

This is so dumb move from Microsoft!! what did they think before deciding to remove these features!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????????

Duh, MS Never Learns simple rules :crazy: I keep my XP and don't mind if it's too old :angry:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree. This is one of the show stoppers that is preventing me from moving to W7. Really. I eventually got over the removal of the Explorer icon bar in Vista with QTTabBar so hopefully there is a fix for this glaring omission around the corner.

Another nice feature that was removed was the sort headers in icon view. Now you have to sort with the context menu or by switching to details view.

The animated network icon I don't care about but the black & white icon is very hard to distinguish from the others.

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Really, one simple feature that doesn't really matter? I have always liked the Auto Arrange feature, it helps arrange my stuff... automatically? :p

To tell you the truth, I didn't actually know this feature existed. It's not something I would use anyway. :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...
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