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Windows Microsoft Operating Systems Software Build

Windows 10 Is Finally Adding Tabs To File Explorer (bleepingcomputer.com) 161

Posted by BeauHD from the new-and-improved dept.
Microsoft has released insider preview build 17618 that includes tabs in File Explorer as part of its Sets feature. Bleeping Computer reports: Windows 10 Sets is an upcoming feature where you can group documents and apps into one tabbed window that are related to the particular task at hand. This feature was released for testing to a small controlled group of insiders in Insider Preview Build 17063 and was subsequently removed after the test. With build 17618, Sets are back and with it come tabs in File Explorer. You can now open different folders in the same File Explorer window with each one having their own tabs. This way one File Explorer window can have a tab for the pictures folder, a tab for the documents folder, and a tab for your documents, which you can easily switch between. If you look closely, though, the Sets feature does more than just allow you to have different tabs for different folders, but also allows you to add applications as a tab in File Explorer. According to Microsoft, in addition to File Explorer, Notepad, Command Prompt, and Powershell are also getting tabbed support.
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Windows 10 Is Finally Adding Tabs To File Explorer More

Windows 10 Is Finally Adding Tabs To File Explorer

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  • Nomad.NET (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08, 2018 @07:57PM (#56230649)

    Nomad.NET is a way better file manager.

    Also, it doesn't spy on you, steal your bandwidth or serve you ads like Microsoft's garbage does.

    http://www.nomad-net.info/ [nomad-net.info]

    • Have you tried Total Commander Ultima Prime?
      I can't live without it.

      • Have you tried Total Commander Ultima Prime? I can't live without it.

        Do you have the Incredible Magnificent Platinum Dictator version?

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I found an app on Google Play called Smart Ruler Pro. It was just one of those simple on-screen ruler apps... What was smart about it, and what the pro version had over the normal version was not very clear.

          I haven't looked but I bet there is an AI powered ruler app or three by now.

          • I found an app on Google Play called Smart Ruler Pro. It was just one of those simple on-screen ruler apps... What was smart about it, and what the pro version had over the normal version was not very clear.

            I haven't looked but I bet there is an AI powered ruler app or three by now.

            I think that is the Hypnotoad app. All hail Hypnotoad!

  • Microsoft doesn't innovate, they copy.

  • How about fucking FOLDER SIZES microsoft? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SensitiveMale ( 155605 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:02PM (#56230673)

    Every other file manager has it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nashv ( 1479253 )

      And now we won't have to install one more program just to have it. I don't know what you're thinking, but this is good news for users.

    • Re:How about fucking FOLDER SIZES microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:34PM (#56230869)

      Every other file manager has it.

      Nah, that would just further expose the fact that Windows Explorer is fundamentally broken and isn't even aware enough to handle the various links in NTFS properly.

      For example, in Windows Vista and 7, you've got the dreaded WinSxS folder, which stands for "Windows Side by Side". This folder basically stores copies of every version of every library/etc. that's been installed on your system. It grows in size forever. Don't worry, though - MS says it's just REPORTING that large size, but not actually USING it, because while there are many duplicate copies of files in there, they're only hard links.

      Of course, since Explorer and the rest of the OS (including dir) are unaware of the hard links, everything reports the hard links as being copies and the effect is your hard drive runs out of usable space even though it's not actually filling up.

      • Beware of Shadow Copies skewing the results. Also, I'm not entitely sure that WinSxS folder works quite how it was originally intended. I've seen some interesting consequences,...

        • Oh, I'm entirely sure that the WinSxS folder DOESN'T work.

          MS's solution to that whole mess? Reinstall Windows twice a year and any broken dependencies are your problem.
          This is why Windows 8/8.1/10 have big updates with stupid names ("Fall Creators Update") that actually perform a dirty reinstall of Windows, leaving you a Windows.old directory for a week or so in case you need to revert.

    • It really isn't that simple. You would have to spider the directory structure below the folder to get the total size. And being NTFS, you aren't dealing with just flat files. There is metadata and streams out the ears. So, let's say you do that. You could maybe cache the filesize and even with all of the fancy events and file system objects to let you know when something was MAYBE changed, you have no guarantee that it hasn't been touched outside of the currently running system at any point.

      If you enable t

    • Well the problem with folder sizes is that to take the size of the folder you have to take the sizes of all the files in the folder. The more files there are, the more work this takes, and then you're doing a lot of disk I/O just to list a folder listing for folder sizes which you might not even want. It make sense for them to be hidden in the properties dialog where you have to intentionally open it to see the folder size.

      One obvious solution is to cache the sizes and update them whenever a file changes, so they are always ready the go. This is great except it just takes one time for an OS which does not support folder sizes (eg pre-Windows 10, or older versions of Windows 10) accessing the drive directly and your caches are not only wrong, but won't fix themselves since noticing the cache is wrong would require Windows to count all the files, which we don't want it to do. At that point you can't trust the folder sizes anyway so they're useless!

      Folder sizes would be great but it seems like something that would need to be introduced as a core part of a new filesystem to ensure any OS that uses it doesn't screw up the folder sizes.

      • Re:How about fucking FOLDER SIZES microsoft? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09, 2018 @04:40AM (#56232311)

        Windows XP file explorer did it on systems with a 32bit single core processor and spinning disk HDDs, but it's just too much work for Windows 10 on a quad core with an SSD. Sure sure.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by dddux ( 3656447 )
          Nailed it! d= ;)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Toshito ( 452851 )

          I had folder sizes with MacOs 8 on a 33 MHz (0.033 GHz!) 68040 processor with 8 MB of RAM... on a 350 MB IDE hard drive.

          It took 1 or 2 seconds to show the folder size.

      • Well the problem with folder sizes is that to take the size of the folder you have to take the sizes of all the files in the folder.

        Yes, I know. Every other Windows file manager, yes I'm generalizing but not by much, has this feature. It isn't like I'm suggesting something impossible.

    • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.c... [microsoft.com]

      Why doesn't Explorer show recursive directory size as an optional column?

      "Why start up another program to see folder sizes, when they should just be right there, in Explorer, all the time?"

      The same reason \\ does not autocomplete to all the computers on the network: Because it would destroy corporate networks.

      Showing folder sizes "all the time" means that when you open, say, the root of a large server, Explorer would start running around recursively enumerating every single directory on the server in order to compute the folder sizes. One person doing this to a server is bad enough. Imagine if hundreds of people did it simultaneously: The server would be hammered continously.

      Even worse: imagine doing this across a limited-bandwidth link like a VPN or an overseas link. The link would be saturated with file enumerations and wouldn't have any bandwidth remaining for "real work". Even the change-notifications that Explorer registers are cause for much hair-pulling on corporate networks. (And these are change-notifications, which are passive.)

      Even on a home computer, computing folder sizes automatically is is still not a good idea. How would you like it if opening a folder caused Explorer to start churning your disk computing all the folder sizes recursively? (Then again, maybe you don't mind, in which case, go nuts.)

      (Of course, the question sidesteps the question the linked article tries to address, namely, "What do you mean by the size of a directory anyway?")

      • The same reason \\ does not autocomplete to all the computers on the network: Because it would destroy corporate networks.

        Of course, I'm equating reading the local drive with doing something that requires discovering and reading every computer on the network.

        Fuck dude, really?

    • Every other file manager has it.

      ... disabled by default. It would be a horrible idea to do this automatically. You would need to index all files in each folder. This takes an incredible amount of time, not only on Windows, but on Linux, Unix, Mac etc.

      There's no sane file manager that shows you folder sizes automatically. And with the file manager I use I try not to hover my mouse on folders for too long, the thrashing of the HDD can't be doing it any good.

      • There's no sane file manager that shows you folder sizes automatically.

        My copy of xyplorer has been doing this for over a decade. XP had this. Other file managers I've used had this. All with NTFS. If your hard drive is thrashing because of a mouse hover, buy some fucking RAM, buy a larger hard drive, and keep that drive defragmented.

        • Yes and they are all disabled by default. XP included. I'm typing this at an XP machine right now. If you want the foldersize you need to hover over the folder and a huge amount of disk thrashing ensues.

          If your hard drive is thrashing because of a mouse hover, buy some fucking RAM

          You would dedicate the complete index of ever changing files on a disk into RAM? I'm impressed. I thought your desire to know the folder sizes at all times was the dumbest idea. I was wrong. What an unexpected one-up.

          • a huge amount of disk thrashing ensues

            If you're getting any disk thrashing over a folder size, something is wrong with your PC.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by stooo ( 2202012 )

      Why do you want to know the size of the "fucking folder" ?
      What is a "fucking folder" in the first place ?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jez9999 ( 618189 )

      I'll tell you another bizarre missing feature: telling me the version of a DLL in the details window. Confusingly it gives you the file version but not the actual DLL version! I have to use ILSpy to see the real version.

    • That retarded lack of functionality is why I really like the program Spacesniffer [uderzo.it] which graphs folders and files relative to their size within a plane representing the entire disk.

      It is incredibly useful to quickly understand what is taking up the most space on a disk along with its folder structure.

  • don't need tabs, tyvm... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    what we need is control of OUR computer back. updates when WE WANT THEM, not when you insist upon slowing down our internet, consuming our precious quotas, and rebooting whenever the fuck you want.

    fuck, just today, we had a pc launch the "upgrade assistant' which went and started downloading fcu while windows update was also already downloading it... attempts to remove the "assistant" were met with it magically reappearing over and over, even after reboots, and, yes, downloading the 4 fucking gigabytes itse

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Then run a Free and Open Source Software operating system. If you haven't learned this by now and are still whining about Microsoft Windows then there's little hope for you.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        Then run a Free and Open Source Software operating system.

        Good luck finding a laptop warranted for compatibility with such an operating system in any major electronics or office supply chain. Good luck even mail-ordering such a laptop in 11.6" size, as the well-known options are 13" (Dell XPS Developer Edition) or 14" (smallest System76 laptop). What am I missing?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      If you don't like it, then don't run it.

    • Re:don't need tabs, tyvm... (Score:4, Funny)

      by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:35PM (#56230885)

      what we need is control of OUR computer back. updates when WE WANT THEM, not when you insist upon slowing down our internet, consuming our precious quotas, and rebooting whenever the fuck you want.

      fuck, just today, we had a pc launch the "upgrade assistant' which went and started downloading fcu while windows update was also already downloading it... attempts to remove the "assistant" were met with it magically reappearing over and over, even after reboots, and, yes, downloading the 4 fucking gigabytes itself over a metered connection again with windows update's own download of the same damn thing. we had to disconnect the pc from the internet, manually download the installer to a usb drive on a different pc, and run the 'upgrade' from that removable drive instead.

      we also want absolute and full transparency (i hate that term, but it applies here) on exactly what data you're gathering on us, and allowing us absolute and full control to turn that spying shit off.

      No.

      - Satya Nadella

    • You signed up for this (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Tenebrousedge ( 1226584 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `egdesuorbenet'> on Thursday March 08, 2018 @09:51PM (#56231229)

      It's not necessary to have such large updates, or to reboot during updates. Microsoft explicitly and deliberately forced that upon the world, and have consequently been responsible for more wasted man-hours than really bear contemplation. This happened some decades ago, however, and it's generally widely known. So if you are choosing to run this software, you are signing up for the upgrade hassle, and various viruses, and (in the modern era) some degree of surveillance. If you are regretting that decision, you might seek alternatives. You're probably not going to get much sympathy for your problems, however.

  • Go linux (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Forget MS and just go linux already. I did, my wife did, my parents did, my last 2 employers did. It is easy, it does not spy on you, it will not reboot on you, it will not erase your data or hold you hostage for unwanted updates, it will not try to sell you things, it will not steal your information to sell to others, it is not in league with shady dictatorships, it is free and open and it is the future, embrace it and join the side of freedom join the side of liberty join the side of thinking and produc

    • Sorry... but I searched for "linux" and found a forum, a wiki article and a bunch of operating systems related to it. So... which one could I play World of Tanks on?

      The above was a bit ironic, but that's exactly how Average Joe would see your parent post.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Sorry... but I searched for "linux" and found a forum, a wiki article and a bunch of operating systems related to it. So... which one could I play World of Tanks on?

        All of them [playonlinux.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Which is more important to you though. You count and people like you count, desktop users, not the average mug punter for whom smart TV, a smart phone and maybe a tablet are enough, no desktop for them any more and if they have children a cheap notebook for school. The desktop is shrinking back to it's original market and M$ in the ultimate dick move is apparently doing everything they can to piss of the remaining likely long term users of desktops.

        For you, which is more important, control of your digital

  • On the top?? (Score:3)

    by rwven ( 663186 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:07PM (#56230709)

    Why are the tabs at the TOP of the window in the title bar? That's a HORRIBLE design.

    • Why are the tabs at the TOP of the window in the title bar? That's a HORRIBLE design.

      Yes, and you'll learn to like it, Citizen. Next you'll be asking us to make it configurable, you ungrateful user!

    • Why are the tabs at the TOP of the window in the title bar? That's a HORRIBLE design.

      Because it is the most sensible place give that the application runs inside the tab. If you put it underneath it would make users think that the tab is part of the application, and THAT would be horrible design.

      Go have a look again at how this works then you'll see it makes perfect sense to put it there. The way it works may not make sense, but at least the location of the tabs do.

  • Try to be original Microsoft. Directory Opus [gpsoft.com.au] has been able to do this and give file, folder sizes and a WHOLE lot more than your lame worthless POS of a File Explorer. I've been using Directory Opus since the days of the Commodore Amiga.

    • "I've been using Directory Opus since the days of the Commodore Amiga."

      Yep DOpus has been around since the days of Workbench 1.3
      30 years ago

    • Same here. I used Directory Opus for about 10 years on the Amiga and now I use it on the PC. It's too expensive, but I got it when they had a sale.

      Before that I used Cubic Explorer, which I use at work. That one's free.

  • Welcome (Score:4)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:15PM (#56230761) Journal

    Welcome to 2005 or thereabouts, we hope you enjoy your stay.

    • Welcome to 2005 or thereabouts, we hope you enjoy your stay.

      Oh? A mainstream OS nested its apps in tabs in 2005? Sounds interesting.

      • Welcome to 2005 or thereabouts, we hope you enjoy your stay.

        Oh? A mainstream OS nested its apps in tabs in 2005? Sounds interesting.

        KDE

        • So no mainstream OS then but rather an optional feature used by a very tiny minority of a minority of GUI users, on an at the time almost non-existent desktop OS. Got it.

  • Big whoop (Score:3, Informative)

    by kmassare ( 113285 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @08:17PM (#56230775)

    It's going to take more than tabs to make it useful. I don't know if it's the Windows 10 file structure or the file manager but it has become very difficult to find anything on my drive since "upgrading" to Windows 10. Stuff seems to get randomly stashed in any of numerous Documents Folders.

  • Why do major software vendors have to sound like hustlers these days?
  • Wow. I feel like notepad.exe's functionality has been the same for 20+ years.

    • Yep, and that's why we now have Notepad++!

    • Harsh. Did it have a single-level undo twenty years ago? Progress in action...

      (Post v2!)

    • functionality

      If by functionality you mean spitting out garbled text, making people swear and forcing them to open wordpad then yes, yes it's functionality has been the same for 20 years :)

  • Windows 10 Sets is an upcoming feature where you can group documents and apps into one tabbed window that are related to the particular task at hand

    Does it..... maintain state for that task across reboots which occur one second after you've gone afk or does that still require seventeen hours of manual recreation? :|

    • Many Linux distros lost that feature years ago. Google says Unity stopped years ago. I learned this when I set up some laptops for production use, ended up having to launch screens as workaround because session state doesn't work. This would have been mint or lxle distro. Fucking pissed me off to learn that. Fragmentation in linux is a real bitch.

  • when will windows get a mc file manager (Score:3)

    by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @09:20PM (#56231113)
    Midnight Commander in Linux is my favorite Go To file manager for doing all my heavy lifting, moving and unpacking source code, editing and viewing files, (has excellent syntax highlighting) i love mc.

    when a good double pane file manager with an excellent built in text editor comes to windows post an article on slashdot, because windows explorer is so 1990's

  • About the last thing we need is tabs in Windows Explorer. How about Microsoft pay ZTree one beeeelion dollars for a non-exclusive license to ZTree (XTree(tm) implemented for Windows) and include that with their OSs

    sPh

  • My earliest memory of tabs is from Opera back in the 90's.. I "think" they invented the concept and then other browsers copied it..
  • This is will be soo cool!!!!!!!!!
  • Meh. I just want the old two pane file manager back again. (yeah, I know about 2xplorer, etc, etc, but I'd like microsoft to restore what it took away.)

    So much for Microsoft's original excuse of getting rid of the two paned one... It's not "object oriented" enough. You should open up (instantiate) a new explorer window for each directory you want to move things from/to. This tabbed explorer doesn't fit the "object" model, either.

  • So that, you know, when Windows suddenly reboots for an update, your unsaved Notepads don't get lost forever.
  • How about instead of useless crap, my be get rid of that ribbon garbage. That would be much more useful. Seriously, who thinks searching trough a bunch of tabs is easier that just clicking on a drop down menu. Having a few often used items in a toolbar is nice, but having EVERYTHTING in a tool bar is just idiotic. They even have things hidden in drop down menus from the toolbar icons in some of their apps. Pure idiocy!
    • What's worse is how the Ribbon in Outlook 2017 changes depending on where you are.

      IE: If you're in your Inbox, the HOME tab will be all about sending email and shit, but if you go to DELETED ITEMS suddenly you get "Recover Deleted" and a bunch of other shit. It's completely unintuitive and garbage. Menus were great because you could access settings regardless of where you were. Now you have to remember which section to go to in the program (totally dropping whatever the fuck you were working on) and

  • QTTabBar (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I've been using QTTabBar for this, it uses the native Windows Explorer and adds Tabs + a search panel that won't disappear every time you browse to a file location.

  • I've been saying this needs to be a thing since at least 2002. It's about fucking time they finally decided to add it.
  • Nothing to see there. Windows has had it for years. Though the 'tabs' you click on are down (or up, or over) in the taskbar. Big whoop.

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