How to add grouping and sorting options in File Explorer on Windows 10
File Explorer offers smart grouping and sorting options fo files in a folder. These options are based on the attributes of the files within that folder e.g., if you have a folder that has multiple audio files in it, File Explorer’s context menu will offer you options to group and sort them by artist, or track number, or album. A file can have other attributes, in fact, many files do. If you’d like to add more grouping and sorting options in File Explorer, ones that you don’t normally see for a file, you can. Here’s how.
Grouping and sorting options in File Explorer
Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder you want to enable additional grouping and sorting options for. The process for both is similar.
Right-click in an empty area in the folder and select either the Group by or Sort by option. Wait for the sub-menu to open and it will have a ‘More’ option. Click it.
A new window will open with lots of additional file attributes. Go through the list, and enable the ones you want to group or sort files by. You can change their order by using the ‘Move up’, and ‘Move Down’ buttons on the right. Click Ok.
Return to the folder in File Explorer and right-click again. If you added new options to the Group by feature, go to it and the sub-menu will list the new file attributes to group files by. If you added more options to the Sort By feature, go to it and select the file attributes in the sub-menu.
It goes without saying that the options for Group By and Sort By are added separately. An option that you enable for grouping will not be added for sorting as well.
There are no limits on which type of file attribute you can enable for grouping and sorting, however, enabling an attribute doesn’t mean that a file will have said attribute. You can, for example, enable the ‘Business Fax’ attribute and you can use it to sort a folder full of images but that won’t do much since an image will not have a fax number in its metadata.
The additional grouping and sorting options in File Explorer are added on a per-folder basis. You will have to enable them for folders one-by-one with the exception of common attributes like date created, or name. If the grouping and sorting options are too cluttered or they have options that are of no use to you, you can disable them in much the same way you can enable them.
