If I could send you a picture, I could show you that it is not sorted in alpha, and there are no system folders under the directory in question.

In XP I have in the Explorer LHS I have:

Desktop
+My Documents
+My Network Places
+Recycle Bin
then my desktop folders in Aplha sorting.

Expand My Computer and I have drives in order of drive number.

Expand a drive and I have folders in alpha order.

There are a few minor differences in W7, but essentially same scheme.

geoff

I concur with you, melkins. I have the same issue.
My folder contains multiple directories like 2014-01, 2014-02, 2014-03 and you would expect it to be sorted by name but actually the sort order is random, first sub folder is 2014-02 followed by Jan and March last.

In windows explorer itself the folders are sorted correctly, obviously.

Just to be sure, we are talking about the lefthand tree, not the details view. There you have the option to sort, but on the tree you don't, as it seems.

Ok, just gonna toss this out there. Anyone else find that the right pane doesn't remember sort settings? I prefer to sort by newest date and have to reset it each time I start Vegas Pro. I've had this difficulty since Vegas Pro 11.

Probably doesn't actually help your problem, but (apart from the System folders - like Desktop, My Documents, etc), In the LEFT-hand pane my desktop folders drive folders, and sub-folders if you drill down, are all sorted exactly as you would expect. I even created folders 2014-01, etc, to demonstrate.

See here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99297255/V13_Explorer.jpg

Same on several different systems. Or have I misunderstood the problem ?

geoff

I believe I found the main difference: I am viewing network folder contents!
When I copy the directory structure to the local drive all is in order, on network drives (shares) it is not.