[Hippo]

In windows XP, you can change the default sorting and display type of folders just by opening it and changing it, and they will show that way every time you open them. I have an issue with my open file windows though, that it always sorts reverse-alphabetically, regardless of what i change in the screen. Regular folder windows behave normally, its just open/save boxes that do this, and its ****ing annoying when all the folders are backwards compared to how i normally have them, or I have to scroll through a few thousand files to find one that should be right at the beginning. Anyone have any ideas?

[jr2]

Right-click on blank space in Open or Save dialog > Arrange Icons By > Name (or Date, or whatever is inverted).  You can do the same thing again to invert it again.  This also works in Explorer.

[Hippo]

yeah, as i said, even when i do that it reverts to reverse-alphabetical sorting later on

[Herra Tohtori]

Okay, sounds like a prank someone has made on your PC...

Now, here's how I think you can solve it, but bear in mind that I have a Finnish edition of Windows and thus I need to translate the Finnish translations back to English, so there may be some differences to what it actually reads in menus and stuff.

1. Open a directory window. Set up the view to whatever you appreciate (I usually use the one that shows information about the files and then sort by type).

2. Go to Tools -> Settings of the directory (the lowest option in the menu)

3. Select "View" tab (the middle one)

4. Click on "use on all folders" or something like that (the left one of the two big buttons).

This should set the current folder view as default view on every directory, at least on that user. Hope you get it sorted out... 

[Hippo]

Had no effect. IIRC, that screen of settings is only associated with file types shown and stuff, it has no influence on sorting.

[Herra Tohtori]

It does have effect on how the files are sorted... it remembers if you had "Sort by Name" or "Sort by Type" or size or edit date or whatever selected. At least on my PC, that is.

You had the alphabetic sorting selected in proper order when you tried the procedure in my last message, right? Strange if it doesn't work, but I've seen weirder stuff with explorer.exe. My sister has a laptop whose explorer.exe cannot open directories that have too many image files in them... I don't remember the limit but it's pretty weird anyway.


EDIT: Whoo, take a look at annoyances.org. Might find something useful.

[jr2]

Jeez... does M$ have any explanation for this?  Stupid.