News Microsoft to Remove Multiple Folder Options from File Explorer

[AndrewJacksonZA]

For flip's sake. I use these...

• Hide Folder Merge conflict.
• Hide protected OS files.
• Show drive letters.
• Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.
• Use sharing wizard.

 

[bit_user]

Once again, MS proves they never ever ask users what they want or need.

Yeah, these options are already so far out of the way that even finding them is almost as involved as editing your registry.
/s

 

[mickrc3]

I've been the "IT" for several family members and friends that are computer challenged. One thing I do is have them deselect Hide Protected OS files. Why? I had to have to tell someone that when they formatted an empty drive it wasn't empty and when they deleted an empty directory it wasn't either. But that's not the main reason - it's when my user living in another state vows to me that there no such file in Windows because they looked and couldn't find it.

 

[peterf28]

Been using Directory Opus for over ten years. Windows File Explorer lacks a lot of features which makes it appear antiquated.

FAR manager since ever ... But I used Directory Opus on Commodore Amiga. Wow, did not know this software is on PC.

 

[domih]

Windows 2000 --> Windows XP --> Windows 7 --> Ubuntu Mate.

The last step allowed me to solve all my Windows 10 "bad feelings" where Microsoft tried to make the same GUI work on tablets and desktop PCs. At the expense of the desktop PC GUI :-(

I had been already using Linux as server for several decades, so the final jump of using Linux on workstation was certain to happen. I'm a software developer, so there is also a whole range of graphics tools, including games, that I rarely or do not use.

 

[Sluggotg]

Been using Directory Opus for over ten years. Windows File Explorer lacks a lot of features which makes it appear antiquated.

I had no idea Directory Opus was still around. I LOVED it on the Amiga back in the days. It was very functional. I am going to buy it and install it today!
Thanks!

 

[Sluggotg]

FAR manager since ever ... But I used Directory Opus on Commodore Amiga. Wow, did not know this software is on PC.

I will give FAR manager a try, thanks for the tip.

 

[Sluggotg]

If I wanted to get rid of Choices and Options, I would go Apple.

 

[karserasl]

Why are they actively trying to become Apple?
We actually using Windows BECAUSE they aren't macs ffs.

 

[froggx]

Correction: Microsoft is CONSIDERING removing those options, among other changes, and are testing them out in the next Windows 11 Insider build.

As we know things in the insider builds don't always make it to stable releases, but one thing listed in it that I hope that does, and may allow me to drop ExplorerPatcher, is the reintroduced "Never Combine Taskbar Icons" option.

The last windows update made me super happy when I suddenly had non-combined and properly labeled windows on my taskbar for the first time since explorer patcher stopped working.

 

[cryoburner]

They want to remove UI legacy? Good!

Start with the 3.5" floppy disk icon for "save".

That would be a terrible change. Even for those who have never used a floppy disk, they have always seen the same icon used for saving in programs, so it is widely recognizable, even across different operating systems and devices. Changing it would just cause confusion, with zero benefit. And of course, changing it in the OS wouldn't effect lots of other software using a similar icon for saving, so users would need to hunt for various icons depending on what program they were trying to save something in. Keeping it largely standardized makes the most sense. If you don't like it being a floppy disk, then just imagine it as a memory card or something, since they look rather similar in icon form.

Ultimately, it's just another abstract icon like most others. Using a floppy disk icon for saving doesn't really make any less sense than using a clipboard icon for pasting, or a sheet of paper icon for creating a new file, or a zipper icon for compressing files.

Once again, MS proves they never ever ask users what they want or need. Super glad I only have to use Windoz at work and can use Fedora KDE at home.

Microsoft is just considering making it harder to access some settings here. If anything, that would make it more like Linux, since there are plenty of configuration settings in Linux that require one to enter obscure console commands or edit text files in ways that they could only hope to find by searching online.

 

[tamalero]

"But settings will be accessible via registry keys."

So whenever we want to change one of these user settings, we'll have to waste an hour calling IT and try to slowly explain to an entry level desktop support admin what we want done, and then walk them through the steps to do it. Great.

I really wish Microsoft would stop forcing user customization behind the admin wall, because people forced to use their infuriatingly slow, horribly designed, and unfixable Windows 11 GUI at work aren't exactly going to rush out and buy a Windows 11 PC to use at home.

It's shocking that the Windows 11 GUI is still as bad as it is. They keep making minor changes, but haven't touched a single one of the GUI's core design problems and deficiencies. It's been 2 years, and you still can't even move the task bar or easily speed up their excruciatingly slow animations.

Pretty sure that is on purpose. Aka they are desperately to milk money via paid support.

 

[InterDylan]

Makes me glad they stopped updating Windows 10. Don't have to worry about them removing a feature just because not everyone uses it.

 

[Ogrejelly]

The biggest thing on my mind is if it'll just stick with using the default values, but I think for most of them, the defaults are fine. Although for those curious:

Hide Folder Merge conflict.	Yes
Always show icons, never thumbnails	No
Display file icon on thumbnails.	Yes
Display file type information on Folder tips	Yes
Hide protected OS files	Yes
Show drive letters	Yes
Show popup description for Folder and Desktop items	Yes
Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color	No
Use sharing wizard	Yes

The coloring for encrypted or compressed NTFS files stood out to me, because a Microsoft developer noted that the choice of colors is pretty poor for colorblindness.

Details should always be on by default as should show file extensions. Let ppl customize from there....it's pretty simple and you really need to stop playing UI games. Removing basic features like copy and paste and replacing them with icons in unexpected locations is not innovation, creative or productivity enhancing. It's annoying and counter productive to every single existing customer who is used to seeing the words copy and paste. Moving the start button to the middle of the screen isn't either. MS needs to think about current and long time users rather than someone picking up their first PC for the first time as a pre-teen. If they can't then please provide legacy UI options that take you to the same apps and mmc's but without the hide and seek shell game. Your focus group of 13 year olds are not giving you advice where you are actually winning - in the Enterprise. Change is generally good but not good when it comes to UI. Give up and focus on speed, memory util, virtualization and security rather than add endless garbage features that nobody uses. Movie maker in Win7 was about as good as you've even done with an OS addon. Just stop the endless churn of playing hide and seek with your current customer base because some group of 13 year old's told you it "looked like way better".

 

[dalek1234]

By " Multiple Folder Options", do you mean:
Multiple-Folder Options
or
Multiple Folder-Options
?

 

[palladin9479]

Makes me glad they stopped updating Windows 10. Don't have to worry about them removing a feature just because not everyone uses it.

This is why I won't go near 11 until it's stabilized and they have started working on 12. By then all the UI modification tools should be solid and no fear of them breaking with some feature update. Open-Shell fixes so many of the "Windows 10" UI issues that I can't see using the newer Windows without it.

 

[danny009]

"streamline" = "we will do everything for you so you dont have to use your brain, because we like braindead people. Braindead people are easy to ruin."

There is a reason people still claim "Windows XP/7 better than this and that." Remaster Windows XP without changing anything else and it will outsell the Winblows Microshaft 10/11 in a day.

 

[Wimpers]

Who cares, those are settings you set once, like Show hidden files or Show libraries.
What we really need is a tabbed Explorer or one with 2 panes instead of we having to open 2 instances.
And let us save the layout of those things somewhere...

I personally hate the Hide folder merge conflicts, how else can you know you're overwriting stuff?

 

[Grobe]

Remaster Windows XP without changing anything else and it will outsell the Winblows Microshaft 10/11 in a day.

Don't know if I'd like to see a re-born XP that looks like the XP we knew, when one of the changes being it keep calling home to check if the annual subscription for the licence is still valid.

 

[USAFRet]

Don't know if I'd like to see a re-born XP that looks like the XP we knew, when one of the changes being it keep calling home to check if the annual subscription for the licence is still valid.

The funniest part of that concept is that XP was widely ridiculed for the toy-like UI when it first came out.

Memory lane: Before everyone loved Windows XP, they hated it

Back when it was new, Windows XP was the worst thing imaginable—ask Ars readers.

arstechnica.com

 

[USAFRet]

This is why I won't go near 11 until it's stabilized and they have started working on 12. By then all the UI modification tools should be solid and no fear of them breaking with some feature update. Open-Shell fixes so many of the "Windows 10" UI issues that I can't see using the newer Windows without it.

The last Feature Update for Win 10 was 22H2, September 2022.
7 years after Win 10 was released.

Win 11 has only been out for ~20 months.

 

[palladin9479]

The last Feature Update for Win 10 was 22H2, September 2022.
7 years after Win 10 was released.

Win 11 has only been out for ~20 months.

Yes and I won't go near 11 until they are working on 12 and have stopped messing with 11's internals. They were working on 11 for a year or two at least before it was released, which is why 10 became stable near the end. Ignore the terms used on the releases, they could call it "Top Hat Release", doesn't mean its sending Top Hats to the users. Look to see if they are messing with the internal API's and UI libraries as that is what will break third party tools.

 

[bit_user]

The funniest part of that concept is that XP was widely ridiculed for the toy-like UI when it first came out.

Windows Vista made XP seem more appealing, by comparison.

The last Feature Update for Win 10 was 22H2, September 2022.
7 years after Win 10 was released.

And that's about when it finally became stable, for me!

 

[danny009]

Microsoft is like Google now, they do whatever they want on our computers, they using their userbase as test subjects in my opinion

I became a paranoid person before updating my PC if something breaks again, I have to check everything double check until my eyes water.

Every month or so I see some useless update breaks something on Windows

 

[danny009]

Remember when back we were able to stop and choose the updates we want to download/install with one single click? (Windows 2000/XP/7)