Sort by Extension in Explorer

In Windows Explorer, files are classified by their File Type, which is one step beyond the file extension. However, there are circumstances where it is advantageous to sort by file extension, and not file type. While sorting by file type and extension yield similar results, they are not identical. A temporary, although impractical solution to this limitation is to rename all your file types to mirror the extension names (such as *.TXT = "TXT file," *.WPD = "WPD file). As of yet, there is no way to sort the files in Explorer by the actual extension.