Windows Explorer filename sort order: why ×a before 'a?
Solution 1:
Natural sorting in Windows Explorer simply ignores (leading) quotes. Only what comes after counts.
- " G"
- " Hello"
- "' Hello"
- " I"
- "×Hello"
- "G"
- "Hello"
- "'Hello"
- "I"
So in your example, "'a" is equivalent to "a" which comes after special characters. If anything, it’s more surprising that leading spaces change the sort order.