Anomalous sorting by name in Explorer

  • Thread starter Thread starter John H Meyers
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John H Meyers

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On WinXP Pro SP2 (32-bit Intel, my own CPU is Celeron),
updated thru today via Windows Update,
create the following two named files in any existing folder
(the content of the files is irrelevant):

VD271009.txt
VD272C03.txt

When the folder (in Detail view)
is sorted by file name,
should those names appear in the sequence shown above?

Well, on my system, with all other files in correct
alphanumeric sequence A-Z, the above appear
with the _second_ before the _first_ !

A "DIR" command in a "cmd.exe" window sorts correctly,
while Explorer reverses just these two entries in my folders.

Would anyone care to try the same experiment,
and compare notes with me?

Thanks!

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Re: Anomalous sorting by name in Explorer

On Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:02:12 -0600:

File names which sort in wrong order in Explorer:

> VD271009.vdb
> VD272C03.vdb

These happen to be real file names,
created by (or for) Symantec Anti-virus servers;
further examples (changing daily) will be found at
ftp://ftp.sarc.com/AVDEFS/norton_antivirus_corp/xdb

Symantec continually increments these names,
parts of which are in Hexadecimal,
and getting the order right is essentisl
for deciding which ones to delete first!

Found an explanation:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001018.html

Also found a cure:
http://www.pctools.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-26104.html

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