Interesting. I use a MBP for work, and hate that Finder intermixes directories and files. I much prefer having directories sorted separately: it makes it easier to drill down through a hierarchy of all the directories are grouped together...

I browse my file system a lot with the keyboard by typing the first few letters in a file name, and if directories are sorted on the top, that means getting to a file starting with the letter "F" is way more difficult when there are also directories named with "F". It also makes things messy when you have related files and folder. E.g. how Firefox saves a website as a "page name.html" and a directory with the assets "page name files". Suddenly these aren't grouped together and copying them together means scrolling back and forth.

At least in the Finder on the Mac you can turn your preferred behavior on (it's in preferences/advanced). On Windows AFAIK there is no setting for it.

> At least in the Finder on the Mac you can turn your preferred behavior on

Per directory. There’s still no way to set the desired view and sorting for the entire system.

And DMGs will open with no toolbar and sidebar.

I don't mean just sorting a window by file type - Finder has a global "Keep folders on top when sorting by name" preference that applies to all windows.

AFAIK there is no way to get Windows to not sort folders on top.

Finder has a preference item called "Keep folders on top" for both "In windows when sorting by name" and "On Desktop".

What about sorting by type/kind? Sounds like you might be on sort by none/name...