# What the hell happened to my Windows Explorer??

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-happened-to-my-windows-explorer/76423>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [August 15, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-happened-to-my-windows-explorer/76423 "2001-08-15T18:01:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MagicalSilverKey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MagicalSilverKey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicalSilverKey)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-happened-to-my-windows-explorer/76423/1 "2001-08-15T18:01:06Z")

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Help! What the hell happened to my Windows Explorer? (NOT Internet Explorer)

I have a set of files I am saving. The files are named and numbered as such: (example)  
file 1  
file 2  
file 3  
file 4  
file 5  
file 6  
file 7  
file 8  
file 9  
file 10…and so on

The above is how Explorer _ **should** _ list them. But it’s not doing it that way. It shows up as

file 1  
file 10  
file 2  
file 20  
file 3  
file 30… and so on… WTF???

HELP!! What is wrong?

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**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-happened-to-my-windows-explorer/76423/2 "2001-08-15T18:04:28Z")

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Windows (and most computers in general) sort by characters, rather than numbers. Computers, in fact, really don’t know what a “number” is.

So, doing a character sort, 1 comes before 10, and 10 comes before 2. Rather like alphabetizing.

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**Author:** ![MagicalSilverKey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MagicalSilverKey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicalSilverKey)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-happened-to-my-windows-explorer/76423/3 "2001-08-15T18:21:07Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Darwin’s Finch \*  
> \*\*Windows (and most computers in general) sort by characters, rather than numbers. Computers, in fact, really don’t know what a “number” is.
> 
> So, doing a character sort, 1 comes before 10, and 10 comes before 2. Rather like alphabetizing. \*\*

Thank you Darwin!!! I tried something AND IT WORKED

for all files less than “10” I renamed and put a zero in front, like so

file 01  
file 02  
file 03…

That solved the ordering problem. You rule, Darwin!