Discussion on:

Windows 8: New File Explorer features

I know we still get complaints about the Ribbon interface, but I have to agree with Greg - complaining about it is not very productive. Just by using it, I have reached a point where the Ribbon is as comfortable as the menu ever was.

What about you? Will you relent and embrace the Ribbon?

The Ribbon Gooey is obsolete.
It was obviously designed with a 4:3 CRT monitor, or a Portrait oriented phone monitor. On a "widescreen" 16:9 LCD the ribbon WASTES TOO MUCH of MY (I paid for it, NOT m$!) vertical screen space. I would rather be able to select and see 3 more file names than have to look at the ribbon (yes I know it can be minimized ... ).

Such as replace the old task pane with the ribbon, put the ribbon tabs on the left or right side of it.

In Office 2003, they had sidebars despite the fact that most people had 4:3 monitors (wasted valuable horizontal real estate).
Once a lot of people had swapped to 16:9 monitors, they introduced the "Ribbon" in Office 2007 (wasted valuable vertical real estate).

As for minimising the "Ribbon", how is it any better than the menu system, if it is minimised?

While I am typing the bulk of the content, I'll hide the bar. But when it's time for decoration and formatting, I bring the bar back.

Right-click it and 'Minimize the Ribbon'.

When it's minimized just clicking a tab heading only brings the ribbon back for one use. You can minimize or bring back the ribbon by double clicking on the tab names too...

This is by far the most important thing about the fat, fatuous, space-wasting ribbon.

Its mostly adding features that already existed, but were hidden in some way. Either by registry, or by having to do dumb things like right clicking a file while holding shift.


Have they fixed the 15 file limit? Where you can only open 15 files at a time, if you try 16 or more it just opens the first file selected and no more? I liked the old way better where it just warned you that you were doing something crazy.

When I was first exposed to the ribbon on other Microsoft software I immediately hated it. However, once you navigate it a few times, finding what you are looking for is much easier than rummaging through menu after menu.

Why didn't you just use toolbars instead of menus?
I had ALL of my most frequently used commands on 2 toolbars in Word and Excel (plus a bunch of infrequently used ones - just to use up the surplus space).

I don't think the ribbon is a great fit in Word because there is too many options.
But in file explorer, its a great idea. Have a home and task sensitive menu always up front, and other menus for networking and stuff. How about a GUI front end to robocopy?

That would be excellent.

The obligatory off-topic Linux post.

For some reason, the File Explorer Preview pane doesn't work on JPEG files . It seems to work fine with other file types.

Any idea as to why it won't work on those files?

maybe you should google it.
You could try disabling the preview pane, closing Explorer, opening Explorer and re-enabling the preview pane.

I tried all of those. I'll try Google again. When I did the first time, there weren't many hits.

Thanks for your help.

This tech welcomed the file explorer ribbon with great excitement. When I first heard about it, I was a little skeptical, but when I saw screenshots of it and actually used it in demos; well it wasn't long until I liked it.

I've pinned the file explorer to the task bar and when right clicking on it you see the folders you go to frequently.

One of my bigger pet peeves is that Map Network Drive is now MUCH harder to access, and I need that command several times per day. It used to be readily accessible in the Tools menu regardless of whether the current focus was a file, folder, drive, My Computer, etc. But now in Windows 8 the only way to access Map Network Drive is to select My Computer. THEN it appears in the ribbon. Grrr.