How to Disable Alphabetical Sorting and Manually Change Order of Start Menu Programs List in Windows 7?

Recently when I posted “Will Windows 8 be a Good OS for Desktop PCs?” article, I got the idea of posting today’s tutorial.

As we all know Windows 7 doesn’t come with classic start menu but there are many free software available to get it back in Windows 7 which can be found at following link:

Ultimate Collection of the Best Free Tools to Get Classic Start Menu Back in Windows 7

We have also posted a few tutorials which help you in getting an advanced start menu similar to classic start menu. You can read them at following links:

[Manual Method] Get “Classic Start Menu” Back in Windows 7 Without Using 3rd Party Software

Get Windows XP Styled Classic All Programs List in Windows Vista and 7

Apart from the missing classic start menu, Windows 7 start menu also doesn’t allow you to manually change the order of all programs list. When you open All programs list, all installed programs are listed in alphabetical order. Some Windows 7 users also complain about the installed programs folders showing at bottom instead of top.

If you try to change the order of all programs list in start menu by dragging-n-dropping a program entry, you can’t. Windows 7 automatically sorts all installed programs in alphabetical order.

Today in this tutorial, we’ll tell you how to disable this automatic alphabetical sorting of start menu programs and how to manually change order of all programs list?

So without wasting time lets start the tutorial:

1. We’ll need to disable the automatic sorting feature using Taskbar and Start Menu settings. Right-click on Taskbar and select “Properties” option.

2. Now go to “Start Menu” tab and click on “Customize” button.

3. It’ll open a new window. Scroll down to the bottom of options list and you’ll see an option “Sort All Programs menu by name“. It would be enabled by default. You just need to uncheck the checkbox and click on OK button.

4. That’s it. Now you can change the order of all programs list in Start Menu by simply dragging-n-dropping a program entry to your desired location. You can even drag-n-drop installed programs folders to top, middle or anywhere you want.

Following screenshot shows you how you can change the order of programs list in start menu:

As you can see in above screenshot, a few programs folders have been put at top and there is no alphabetical sorting happening any more.