Windows XP file sorting problem

[fuzzymillipede]

Recently, I have been experiencing an extremely annoying problem. My computer keeps sorting my files by "Modified", i.e. in the order that they have been modified. Typically, I like to keep files sorted by name. I am constantly having to go to View -> Arrange Icons By -> Name, but they always end up back in "Modified" order sooner or later.

How do I stop my computer from reverting the sorting order?

[Akkleptos]

This might work:

When using the File Explorer, select the sorting you prefer via the View options.
Then, go to Tools from the toolbar, select Folder Options, then in the box that'll appear, select the View tab. Uncheck the "Remember each folder's view settings" box, which is the likely culprit. Click the "Apply to all folders" button near the top, if it's okay with you to see all of the folders presented like the one you're viewing right now (be advised that this will apply to all folders you see using Explorer, and the view type -Icons, List, Details, Thumbnails or whatever you chose- will also be applied to every folder). Then click the OK button, and that's it.

While you're at it, you might want to select a couple of other useful options from the list while you're at it, like "Show all hidden/system files" (if you don't think you could delete something vital by mistake) and uncheck the dreadful "Hide extensions for known filetypes".

If you think you messed something up, there's always the option to "Restore defaults".

[Executor32]

Windows is notorious for forgetting your folder view settings after a certain point, because apparently it's still 1995 and a user is only going to have 200 folders/subfolders.

Here's a Knowledge Base article with a workaround for it, but keep in mind that it'll still do it after you've reached whatever higher limit you set using that workaround.