14 DAY TRIAL // Users have been asking for a redesigned File Explorer in Windows for many years already, but until now, Microsoft doesn’t seem ready to overhaul its file manager with major new features and a redesigned UI.
What it does, however, is add more subtle tweaks here and there, and after rolling out a dark theme to bring it in line with the rest of the operating system, Microsoft is now getting ready for another minor touch.
File Explorer will soon get a new icon based on the Fluent Design language, and a tweet published by Aggiornamenti Lumia provides us with an early look at its design.
There’s not much to discuss about the icon, however, albeit it’s worth mentioning that it comes in line with the other redesigned icons that were released by Microsoft for Windows 10 and the Office productivity suite.
New icon not yet available publicly
For the time being, however, the icon is yet to go live for everyone, so presumably Microsoft is just waiting for the design to be complete before rolling it out in Windows 10. This could happen in the upcoming 19H2 feature update due to be finalized this month and then released to production devices in October.
As for a revamped version of File Explorer, Microsoft is still tight-lipped on this one, so requests like tab support are still uncertain for the time being. Microsoft originally planned to add tabs in File Explorer using a feature called Sets and bringing tabs at OS level, but the project has since been abandoned and a replacement is yet to be confirmed.
In other words, File Explorer is unlikely to change too much in the short term, albeit there’s hope that the major update due in the spring of 2020 would introduce more substantial refinements for the file manager as well.