List alphabetically in Windows Explorer, with folders mixed with files?

Question

Previously when opening Windows explorer, it would come up as below:

Key
Folders : UPPERCASE
documents : LOWERCASE

Example A:

• APPLES
• apple 1
• apple 2
• BANANAS
• banana 1
• banana 2
• CARROT
• carrot 1
• carrot 2

Etc, etc, all types of files (whether they be folders or documents) showed alphabetically.

Now, they show like below:

Example B.

• APPLES
• BANANAS
• CARROTS
• apple 1
• apple 2
• banana 1
• banana 2
• carrot 1
• carrot 2

Sorting the folders alphabetically then the documents alphabetically. How do I get it back to example A?

Answer 1

It can be done with a 3rd party file browser: http://www.zabkat.com/x2lite.htm

How to enable within x2lite:

• right click on the header of the columns (Name, Extension, Size, Attributes,...) and then select columns (Or just hit ALT+K)
• select the additional column 8.3 Name and add it to your used columns.
• sort the list of files by the 8.3 Name instead of the regular Name column

Answer 2

There is also a partial solution within Windows explorer itself:

• right-click into the folder, group by Name
• if you like, you can then select a sort by Name

This will give you intermixed folders and files, but will insert some separators that group by letters.

Source (also describes how to make this permanent): Windows Explorer sorts files and folders separately