You can click the Date Modified tab first then shift-click the Name tab to get the current list ordered in Date but still with the folders listed at the top. Thanks to the reader Shelku who shared an even better solution. But hey, at least this is a workaround, let us know if you have a better way to resolve this issue. There are other directories and folders out there still have the previous unchanged view properties. One good way to do that is to customize a folder’s column ordername, size, type, date modified, and so onunder the details view. The catch is, if you do it this way as above, the change only appear to be applied to the directory you are in. Notice, you now see all the folders appear before the files in a directory. Now go back to the Windows Explorer, click sort “Date” column.

Scroll down to the list, find the “Date” type, select and click OK. Go to View tab > Sort by > Choose columns … If you’d like to keep the folders show before the files, don’t use “Date modified” attribute, but instead use “Date” attribute. When you do use this attribute to sort the folders, all the files appear before the folders. Ideally, the command should be able to go down several levels some of these sub-folders have their own folders. Notice when you view a directory in Windows 8.1 in a detailed view, you will get the option to sort the folder by “Date modified”. Use Date Instead of Date Modified Attribute For Directory Column Type

Here is a solution I found to get around with this problem. I poked around to see if there are new options in Windows 8.1 that might lead to this subtle change. This wasn’t the behavior it was back in Windows 7, the folders always appear on top of the files, at least it wasn’t what I was remembering. One of the new changes I noticed with my Windows 8.1’s Windows Explorer is that when I sort folders (directories) by modified date the files appears before the folders.

Sort windows folders by size