Hi I'm running Win 98 and for some reason in Win Explorer and whenever I browse to open a file from ANY application my file lists default to 'date modified' order, and not alphabetical order. I've tried changing the view settings in explorer and applying it to all folders, but this has no effect on the default icon order. I can't find any settings for this kind of thing and I've tried TweakUI as well. Any ideas?

Try opening Explorer and clicking on the title bar above the name of the icons. If you click on it once it will place them in ascending order, click again for descending order. HTH

In Explorer go to: View/Arrange icons. Now check to make sure that Auto Arrange is NOT checked. If auto arrange is checked you will never be able to change the arrangement of any of the icons from the default locations. Many people have this checked and don't relize what it actually does to the icons.

cheers guys, I know what you're both saying but perhaps I didn't explain it quite right. I know how to get them into alph order by clicking the bar as Bryan says and also I know about Auto Arrange, which incidentally is greyed out and not selectable. My problem is that EVERY time I try to open a file from an application or view files using Win Explorer the file listings DEFAULT to date order, and to find my file I have to re-order them as alphabetical in the way Bryan describes. BUT I cannot find anywhere how to change this default or how it ever got like this in the first place! Any more ideas would be much appreciated as it's really irritating having to do this every time I want to open anything. Oh and I've re-installed windows but it kept all the same 'settings'! Cheers, Ed

I have the same problem except that my default sort is by TYPE. It used to be by NAME but I don't know how it got changed.

Very frustrating!

Help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Tom