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With Windows XP and in [My Computer] Windows Explorer when I right-click there is a option "arrange by".

I want to know when arrange by comments is selected, how does Windows arrange drives in [My Computer] Windows Explorer?

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barlop
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user123
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2 Answers2

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How does arrange by comments arrange drives in my computer?

With Windows XP and in [My Computer] Windows Explorer when I right-click there is a option "arrange by".

I want to know when arrange by comments is selected, how does Windows arrange drives in [My Computer] Windows Explorer?

Group Files by Using Folder Views (arrange by field with no value)

From what I read on Files Using Folder Views in Windows XP and from what I tested, it appears that if you "arrange icons by" "comments" or any other field that does NOT have a value, then those items are grouped under the heading of Unspecified.

When this occurs and there are absolutely no values for any of those items in that group for that field you sort by, it appears it orders them by "name" alpabetically in ascending order (A to Z).

WHAT ARE COMMENTS AND HOW TO MANIPULATE (plus resources)

In this context, the "comments" field is an attribute (or perhaps an extended attribute) of a file system object such as a file or folder. In a sense you can think of this as metadata I suppose but it's just an attribute of a file system object that can have an empty or some value as assigned.

  • As far as assigning a file system object a value for the comment attribute, there are some mixed answer on this subject but below is what Microsoft has to say about this with Windows XP.

    enter image description here

Sources

(Some parts of these posts are specific to Windows Vista or Windows 7 while other parts are specific to Windows XP so pay special attention when you read these to clearly indicate which comment or answer is referring to XP.)

Answer Notes

  1. Please note that you will not be able to 'arrange icons by' any column field header that is NOT set to show with the Windows Explorer options. So in order to arrange (or sort) by "comments" the "comments" column in that view needs to be available.

    enter image description here

  2. See this post here: Windows Explorer Edit Data Attribtes. It just appears that some file system object types can have their attributes\metadata changed more easily than others natively with Windows, and some may not be able to be updated. There are some third party tools that could potentially be used for this as well but I'll not list any to keep it Windows native.

Community
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Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
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Comments can be set for drives by adding an desktop.ini file to the root of drives. The file must contain

[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=comment

The "comment" can be changed.

You can add desktop.ini file with Notepad. For C:\ drive, you have to save the file with an elevated Notepad ( admin ).

Restart the computer if the group/sort by comment does not have immediate effect.

Bogdan
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