In M.S. Windows 7, Started Emacs with C:\emacs-25.0.90\bin\runemacs.exe -Q Entered The following listing of my home directory looks as follows c:/kg: total used in directory 210 available 150000864 drwxrwxrwx 1 TrustedInstaller TrustedInstaller 24576 02-03 13:31 .. drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 12288 02-04 17:28 . -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 1835 2012-02-01 .aliases~ -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 1893 2014-04-14 .aliases drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2005-07-09 .autosave -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 8231 01-31 15:31 .bash_history -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 263 2011-06-27 .bashrc drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2014-04-14 bin-save -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 1404 2014-06-30 .edt-gnu-W32-keys -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 1409 2014-04-13 .edt-gnu-W32-keys-save -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 44241 2007-12-12 edt-user.doc drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2013-05-19 emacs -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 6438 2012-05-02 .emacs drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2012-05-13 .emacs.d -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 6103 2011-07-25 .emacs-indent-4 -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 7 2007-12-09 .emacs-places -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 34540 2001-09-03 filladapt.el drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2005-12-23 .fvwm drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2014-03-14 Game Stuff drwxrwxrwx 1 Administrators None 0 12-06 09:58 .gimp-2.8 -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 188 2005-09-21 .history drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2013-07-23 lisp drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 4096 2013-07-23 .lisp drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2012-05-13 Magueijo -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 3632 2014-04-15 message-20140415-140728 -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 2725 02-04 17:33 #message-20160204-172757# -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 195 2011-08-23 .profile~ -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 111 2014-05-24 .profile -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 35820 2005-07-03 RMAIL -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 1024 2008-11-30 .rnd drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2012-12-19 .save-env -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 125 2005-07-09 .saves-2304-janus drwxrwxrwx 1 Administrators None 0 2014-04-14 share -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 134 2014-04-15 stuff.sh~ -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 135 2014-04-15 stuff.sh drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2009-04-15 TempSBE drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2012-05-13 .texmf drwxrwxrwx 1 Administrators None 0 2015-08-02 .thumbnails -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 14000 2013-05-26 videos.docx -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 4928 2013-05-26 videos.txt -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 3672 2012-10-06 vids.txt -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 554 2005-11-18 .xdvirc drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2013-07-23 .xemacs In Emacs 24.5, the listing of the same directory looks like this: c:/kg: total used in directory 210 available 150000864 drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 12288 02-04 17:28 . drwxrwxrwx 1 TrustedInstaller TrustedInstaller 24576 02-03 13:31 .. -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 1893 2014-04-14 .aliases -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 1835 2012-02-01 .aliases~ drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2005-07-09 .autosave -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 8231 01-31 15:31 .bash_history -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 263 2011-06-27 .bashrc -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 1404 2014-06-30 .edt-gnu-W32-keys -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 1409 2014-04-13 .edt-gnu-W32-keys-save -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 6438 2012-05-02 .emacs -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 6103 2011-07-25 .emacs-indent-4 -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 7 2007-12-09 .emacs-places drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2012-05-13 .emacs.d drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2005-12-23 .fvwm drwxrwxrwx 1 Administrators None 0 12-06 09:58 .gimp-2.8 -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 188 2005-09-21 .history drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 4096 2013-07-23 .lisp -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 111 2014-05-24 .profile -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 195 2011-08-23 .profile~ -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 1024 2008-11-30 .rnd drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2012-12-19 .save-env -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 125 2005-07-09 .saves-2304-janus drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2012-05-13 .texmf drwxrwxrwx 1 Administrators None 0 2015-08-02 .thumbnails -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 554 2005-11-18 .xdvirc drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2013-07-23 .xemacs drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2014-03-14 Game Stuff drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2012-05-13 Magueijo -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 35820 2005-07-03 RMAIL drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2009-04-15 TempSBE drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2014-04-14 bin-save -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 44241 2007-12-12 edt-user.doc drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2013-05-19 emacs -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 34540 2001-09-03 filladapt.el drwxrwxrwx 1 kgallagh None 0 2013-07-23 lisp -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 3632 2014-04-15 message-20140415-140728 drwxrwxrwx 1 Administrators None 0 2014-04-14 share -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 135 2014-04-15 stuff.sh -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 134 2014-04-15 stuff.sh~ -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 14000 2013-05-26 videos.docx -rw-rw-rw- 1 Administrators None 4928 2013-05-26 videos.txt -rw-rw-rw- 1 kgallagh None 3672 2012-10-06 vids.txt I believe the listing in Emacs 24.5 is preferable. It 25.0.90, it is as if the initial period in any file/directory entry is being ignored when sorting alphabetically. Also, upper and lower case are also being ignored. In GNU Emacs 25.0.90.2 (i686-pc-mingw32) of 2016-01-31 built on JANUS3 Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601 Configured using: 'configure --prefix=/c/emacs-25.0.90 CPPFLAGS=-I/c/usr/include' Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF SOUND NOTIFY ACL TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS Important settings: value of $LANG: ENU locale-coding-system: cp1252 Major mode: Dired by name Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t buffer-read-only: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent messages: For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec epg epg-config gnus-util mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util help-fns help-mode easymenu cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib mail-prsvr mail-utils dired time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32 ls-lisp disp-table w32-win w32-vars term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote w32notify w32 multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 8 91893 10306) (symbols 32 19566 0) (miscs 32 40 181) (strings 16 16515 3771) (string-bytes 1 437792) (vectors 8 12386) (vector-slots 4 426311 4428) (floats 8 160 112) (intervals 28 782 407) (buffers 516 12))