Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer in Windows 10

Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer in Windows 10: There are two typing of sorting mechanism used by Windows namely Intuitive or Numerical Sorting and other one is called Literal Sorting. The difference between them is that Numerical Sorting is used by all the version of Windows from Windows XP to Windows 10, where Literal Sorting was used by Windows 2000 and earlier versions before that. In Numerical Sorting the files names are sorted by increasing number values wherein Literal Sorting the files names are sorted by each digit in the file name or each number in file names.

Anyway if you disable numerical sorting, the Windows will switch back to default literal sorting. Both have their advantages and disadvantages but in the end, it all depends on the user to choose which one they want to use. Windows don’t have any inbuilt option to enable or disable numerical sorting and hence you need to use either Group Policy Editor or Registry Editor to change these settings. Anyway, without wasting any time let’s see How to Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer in Windows 10 with the help of the below-listed tutorial.

Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer in Windows 10

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

Method 1: Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer in Registry Editor

1.Press Windows Key + R then type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry.

Run command regedit

2.Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

3.Right-click on Explorer then select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name this DWORD as NoStrCmpLogical and hit Enter.

Create a new DWORD as NoStrCmpLogical under Explorer registry key

4.Double-click on NoStrCmpLogical DWORD and change it’s value to:

To Enable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer: 0
To Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer (This will enable Literal File Sorting): 1

Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer in Registry Editor

5.Once done, click OK and close registry editor.

6.Reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 2: Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer in Windows 10 using Group Policy Editor

Note: This method won’t work for Windows 10 Home edition users, and it will only work for Windows 10 Pro, Education, and Enterprise Edition.

1.Press Windows Key + R then type gpedit.msc and hit Enter to open Group Policy Editor.

gpedit.msc in run

2.Navigate to the following registry key:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer

3.Select File Explorer than in right window pane double-click on “Turn off numerical sorting in File Explorer” policy.

Double-click on Turn off numerical sorting in File Explorer policy

4.Now change the above policy settings according to:

To Enable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer: Not Configured or Disabled
To Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer (This will enable Literal File Sorting): Enabled

Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer using Group Policy Editor

5.Click Apply followed by OK.

6.Close everything then restart your PC to save changes.

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That’s it you have successfully learned How to Enable or Disable Numerical Sorting in File Explorer in Windows 10 but if you still have any questions regarding this tutorial then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.