Sort files in a folder - sorting

Question

I am trying to sort the files of a folder and perform action on them in a specific order (by name or by date modified for example)
I have tried the following method:
Dim objFSO
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(source_folder.Path)
Set colFiles = objFolder.Files
Set outputLines = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
For Each objFile in colFiles
outputLines.Add(objFile.Name)
next
outputLines.Sort()
For Each outputLine in outputLines
set objFile = colFiles.item (outputLine&"")
*rest of the code*
the problem is if the file name of the file contains a char with an ASCII value which is less the ".", for example, "test!.exe" will be before "test.exe", which is not good for me.
I had an idea to make a class which contains the "extension" and "file name without extension" as field and sort by the "file name without extension" but I found out I cannot sort an Arraylist with custom objects as elements.
I have two questions on the same subject:
1) Is there a way to sort the files of a folder and perform action on them in a specific order which handles such cases (like test!.exe and test.exe)
2) Is there a default order to the files in a folder? I tested it a bit and it seems like the order is by the files name, but I saw in an official Microsoft documentation that there is no order to the files, so I am a bit confused.

Answer 1

Here's one idea. You could substitute a control character (or some other invalid filename char) between the file's base name and its extension. For example, put a vbTab in as a delimiter.
For Each objFile in colFiles
strBaseName = objFSO.GetBaseName(objFile.Path)
strExtension = objFSO.GetExtensionName(objFile.Path)
outputLines.Add strBaseName & vbTab & strExtension
Next
After sorting, you'll just have to remember to swap it back out before doing anything with the file.
For Each outputLine in outputLines
strFile = Replace(outputLine, vbTab, ".")
...
Next