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Fred, I discovered this trick under XP but haven’t tried it with Vista nor 7, but here goes. The upshot of this is, most of the files I deal with are the ones last created; older files tend to become archival docs quickly. (Because I work in a data acquisition work environment where hundreds of documents are created daily into large folders this trick has been a Godsend to me. Literally.)

1. Open a folder and change it to “Details” view. Click the “Date Modified” column until entries are reverse-sorted chronologically. I usually reorder and resize the columns while I am doing this.
2. Using “Folder Options” apply this setting to all folders.

Here’s the real beauty of this: when I open any “File Open” dialogue box, in any application, the files are listed in reverse chronological order — and this is without going into “Details” view. By extension I am sure this works for any other global sort applied to all folders, be it date, size, or what have you.

I have not seen this trick documented elsewhere, but it sure has saved me a ton of seconds.

Thanks, and regards,
Tom