I'm not sure the generic Tree control is the right place for this change. It should probably be controlled at the the File Explorer level. I thought we maybe already did that. But I yield to @bpasero on #34047.

I see we do have https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/blob/master/src/vs/workbench/parts/files/browser/views/explorerViewer.ts#L571 which marks roots as equal, but like you said it's related to V8 having an unstable sort, so I guess that alone won't work.

Yup! the original patch was mostly a proof of concept fix; it was my first time diving into the VSCode codebase, and this was easier than making the more correct fix, as you said, at the fileExplorer level.

I've updated it to add a rootIndex property to FileStat and sorting on that if the fileStat is a root.

This makes the FileStat constructor a little ugly though, i'm open to improvements.

Alternatively, a class RootStat extends FileStat could be added, like NewStatPlaceholder, and rootIndex could only be there, instead of added to FileStat

@forivall thanks a lot for this PR.
Instead of changing the model. I would prefer if FileSorterwould depend on WorkspaceContextService and then if both stats are roots you would go to the Workspace Context Service and check the index of each root.

You could inject the Workspace Context Service to the Sorter using

@IWorkspaceContextService private contextService: IWorkspaceContextService

@isidorn cool! thanks! good ol' DI. (patch updated)

@forivall looks good, thanks again! Merging in, will be available in tomorrow's insider build