How can I disable Windows Vista / 7 Explorer's “auto sort” after file copying?

Question

One of the things that really annoys me in Windows Vista / Windows 7 is the new "auto sort" feature.

In Windows XP, whenever you copy a bunch of files to a folder, they are all placed at the end of the Explorer file list, until you manually refresh or navigate away; this is my preferred behaviour.

However in Windows Vista / Windows 7, as soon as the files have been copied, they are automatically sorted into the existing Explorer file list (all over the place) - I can no longer easily find them unless I change the sorting to "date modified". This tends to be unreliable and I usually never use this sort for the default view.

There's a thread on TechNet about this problem, although I didn't see anyone there providing a solution.

Is there any way to completely disable this "feature"?

Answer 1

There are no easy ways to do this... But according to this article the option is becoming available again. The author explains how to disable full row select.

Anyway, after doing the provided steps you will be able to choose if the explorer is going to auto arrange your files (See #4 in the article):