Ramesh Srinivasan devised a Registry tweak that disables the Full Row Select option in Windows 7 and 8 Explorer windows, and that has the side-effect of preserving multifile selections when re-sorting from Name to Size, Date modified, or some other category. My unit is struggling to avoid that as long as possible, but can't do so forever. But now my agency is required to adopt Windows 7. The highlighting function is essential to that task.
My work unit indexes, manages, and compares policy documents that undergo many revisions. As Dan explains: My job requires the ability to highlight multiple files or folders in a directory, and to retain that highlighting while re-sorting them by different fields (modification dates, thematically-based titles, etc.) Windows provided that feature - until version 7.
The feature has been removed from the version of Explorer in Windows 7 and 8.
Reader Dan Baechlin depends on Windows Explorer's ability to retain the selection of multiple files after changing the sort order. Sometimes you wish Microsoft would let customers decide when to delete a feature. Disable Explorer's full-row selection to retain the selection of multiple files when you change the sort order.