i am opening an xml file in Internet Explorer (9, Windows 7 64-bit).
Internet Explorer likes to display element attributes in random order, e.g.:

rather than in declared order:
<ApplicationVersion major="2" minor="2" release="12" build="687">2.2.12.687</ApplicationVersion>
e.g.:

Or

rather than:

Is there an element, attribute, xml-dtd, xml-schema, Internet Explorer option, Windows option anywhere that will instruct IE to display the XML in declared, rather than random order?
Attributes are unordered as defined by the xml standard.
from the standard:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-starttags
If you require order in attributes you are going to have to change your markup. I suggest something like the following:
links:
Order of XML attributes after DOM processing
Can I enforce the order of XML attributes using a schema?