x2 appearing to lock-out

[Gandolf]

I got into a situation to-day where x2 refused to start in my normal settings but if I used another Registry key extension it worked perfectly.
After some investigation I traced it to Left pane settings | binDefaultSortCol. I knew I had previously had x2 (left pane) open on a folder containing graphics which I had sorted by Date Picture Taken and then worked on the folder in a graphics editor and finally renamed it in the graphics editor. Hence, it no longer existed and x2 appeared to have defaulted to the desktop and then tried to sort on a column that was not displayed (Date Picture Taken) and failed dismally!!
Having changed Left pane settings | binDefaultSortCol to 1 all worked and I could use x2 again perfectly (I now realise the default appears to be ffffffff).
Any easier way of avoiding the problem again rather than changing this registry setting (other than not changing folder names externally!!). I seem to remember something before about a similar situation but I haven't been able to find the post.

[x2 1.1.0.90, O.S. is XP Home]

[nikos]

there is no restriction regarding the column used for sorting, it doesn't have to be visible (it doesn't make much sense of course!). It is like any non-detailed view: you only see the filename but you can have items sorted by dates etc

in what sense did it fail? my guess is that it took a long time but it was working nevertheless