I'm in the process of cleaning up my folders and FILES in Windows XP in preparation for a switch to Vista. In most cases I want to organize folders/files by Name; however, in certain folders I want THINGS to be organized non-alphabetically. The process I use is to simply open the folders and drag/drop icons in my preferred viewing order. I've noticed that in a few cases when I go back to look at the contents of a folder I've reorganized, Windows has kindly rearranged things back to alphabetically by Name.

Questions: Is there something I NEED to do to make certain that my reorganized folders/files "stick?" Will the files/folders retain their order when I transfer them to Vista? Does Vista provide another way to "randomly" organize folders and files?

Thanks!! Well, I believe the dragging technique is simply not the RIGHT way to permanently re-arrange the files/folders in a folder. Why aren't you using the menu options in Explorer to do this? You have various options there, as shown below:

Yes, I know, dragging is a relatively labor-intensive option. For certain reasons, however, it helps me to have certain folders organized in ways not covered by Explorer's standard options. Just curious if others have tried organizing things in non-standard ways and learned any tricks along the way.

Thanks for the prompt reply Soybean.