While it is not exactly difficult to create folders in Windows to help keep your files and shortcuts organized, it is a process that can take just a little too long.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to create folders on the fly, without the need to fiddle about with context menus, Smart Folders could be just what you need.

This is a free tool that mimics a feature that will be familiar to users of iOS and Android – when you drag one file or shortcut icon on top of another in these mobile operating systems, a folder will be automatically created that contains both of these items.

Smart Folders is a free tool that brings the same option to Windows, making it easier than ever to create folders whenever you need them and keep your desktop as tidy as possible. This is a program that can be used with all versions of Windows, regardless of whether you have a 32- or 64-bit operating system, and it is the type of utility you will quickly find to be essential to your day to day computing.

Download and Getting Started

Grab yourself a free copy of Smart Folders from here. This is a tiny program so it will downloaded in a matter of moments and you can then double click the executable file to get the software up and running.

If a User Account Control warning appears just click Yes to continue and then click the Install button. The installation takes seconds to complete and all you need to do is to click the OK button and you can then close the program window.

Smart Folders is a tiny but immensely useful program, that installs in seconds

Automatic Folder Creation

Using Smart Folders could hardly be simpler. If you have two files on your desktop that you would like to add to a new folder, simply drag one of the icons on top of the other one so that a Move tooltip is displayed.

Drag and drop is all that's needed to create new folders on the fly

When you release the mouse button a dialog will appear asking for the name of the folder you would like to create. Just enter a suitable name and hit OK and a folder will created for you and the selected files will be moved into it.

Name your folder after one or more files on top of another

The same technique can be used to create folders that contain much larger numbers of files and this is a great way to quickly group together related files on a desktop that has become cluttered.

Working With File Types

By default, Smart Folders should work with any type of file you care to mention, but you may find that you have problems with some, particularly in the case of file types that are registered with Windows after the installation of Smart Folders.

If you find that a certain file type is being problematic, you may have to explicitly register it with Smart Folders in order for it to work properly.

To do this, launch the installer once again – clicking Yes if a User Account Control warning appears – and then type the troublesome extension in the File Extension field before clicking the Register button.

Individual file types and be separately registered to help overcome problems

For example, if you find that you are having problems using Smart Folders in conjunction with Rich Text Format documents, you will need to register the extension RTF with the program.

Should the time come that you want to unregister a file type that you have registered using this method, simply launch the Smart Folders installer again, select the relevant extension from the list and then click the Unregister button.

You can limit Smart Folders to working with only certain file types if you want

You may find that it is useful to have Smart Folders configured so that it only works with certain file types – by default it is set up to work with every type of file. To do this you can use the Register option to indicate which file types you would like the automatic folder creation option to be available for, but you will then need to ensure that you disable the global setting for all file types.

To do this, just select the * option from the Registered File Extensions list and click Unregister. This will automatically limit Smart Folders to working with the file extensions that have been manually added.

If you ever need to drag and drop for other purposes, you may need to temporarily uninstall the program. This is easily achieved by launching the installers and selecting the Uninstall option.

Unfortunately, there is no way to back up your settings, and when you uninstall the program any file extensions that you have manually registered will be lost, so you may want to make sure that you make a note of any that you have added.

When you are ready to start working with Smart Folders again, you can install it just as before and start enjoying easily folder creation all over again.

Wrapping Up

This is a wonderful useful tool that makes a simple, everyday task even faster and easier to perform. Smart Folder is a great addition to your software arsenal.

Thank you so much for reading and let us know what you think in the comments below!