Windows File Explorer, Group by Date Modified

Question

Hi all, I have a small question about Windows File Explorer

So using file explorer there's a feature to group your files by specific parameters. My question is about the "date modified" parameter.

Can I change the amount of categories besides "Today", "Yesterday" and "Last Week" ?
or alternatively, can I change the formatting to the exact dates (e.g. 07-04-2024) to create more categories that way?

I'm currently using Windows 10 (yes, I know)

Many thanks in adance!

Answer 1

Hi FatMax1492,

I can see that Q&A Assist has already clarified that Windows 10 File Explorer doesn’t currently allow customizing the Date modified grouping ranges or grouping files by exact dates and that behavior is by design.

As an additional suggestion, if your main goal is to work with exact dates rather than relative time buckets, you might find one of these approaches more helpful:

• Sort instead of group by Date modified in Details view. This shows files in precise chronological order without using the “Today / Yesterday / Last week” categories.
• Use the File Explorer search bar with date filters (for example, searching by a specific modified date or a date range) to narrow results more precisely.
• For workflows that rely heavily on date separation, creating date‑based folders or using Libraries (where available) can sometimes provide more predictable organization.

I understand this may not be the level of flexibility you were hoping for, but these options are currently the most practical ways to manage files by date in Windows 10.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions.

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Answer 2

Windows File Explorer in Windows 10 does not provide options to customize or add more grouping ranges for “Date modified” beyond the built‑in buckets such as “Today”, “Yesterday”, “Last week”, etc.

It also does not allow changing the “Date modified” grouping to use exact date values (for example, one group per specific date like 07‑04‑2024). The date format shown in the column can be adjusted via system date/time and regional settings, but this only affects how the date is displayed in the column, not how File Explorer groups items.

Available customization in File Explorer for details view includes:

• Choosing which columns are displayed (for example, adding or removing “Date modified”).
• Changing column order.
• Changing column width.

These are configured via View → Choose details in Windows Explorer/File Explorer, but there is no setting there or elsewhere in File Explorer to redefine the grouping ranges for dates.

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References:

• How to Change Column Settings in Windows Explorer
• File Explorer in Windows
• Common file name extensions in Windows