Forum Discussion
Completely get rid of "Group By" anywhere in File Explorer
To disable Group By globally in File Explorer on Windows 11, use this method:
- Press Win+R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
- Right-click in the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it UseAutoGrouping.
- Set the value of UseAutoGrouping to 0.
- Close the Registry Editor and restart File Explorer (or reboot your PC).
This will disable Group By globally for all folders.
Your solution does NOT work, i restarted my File Explorer but the groups are still there.
This solution DOES in fact work. Creating the registry key does not turn off the group items feature completely. You still need to go to Sort >> Group By >> (choose your preferred setting, presumably {None}).
Having the registry key will prevent Windows from dictating this setting in the future. Meaning you won't log in one day and your folder(s) are all of a sudden sort-grouped in whatever way, when you never touched the setting to begin with.
unfortunately this is incorrect. the sort by option is stored PER FOLDER. that means every single folder will have the option setup unless you go to each one and start disabling this. this works even without the registry key.
the only true fix is to use WinSetView which unfortunately i can't use on my work computer. works just fine on my personal one. both have the same OS
This is correct. Once you restart File Explorer (or your PC) you need to go back in to File Explorer and set "Group By" to "None". As stibs pointed out, the registry key does not disable the feature but rather prevents Windows from changing it back later. Thank you stibs for the assist. Worked perfectly for me.
Nope, I did this weeks ago and still every new folder I make has the group by thing turned on. That's not a proper solution sadly.
