14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve known for a while that Microsoft has been working on a modern version of File Explorer, and now the company itself has teased this highly-anticipated release in an official video.
Panos Panay, Chief Product Officer at Microsoft, published a video on Instagram to celebrate Windows 10 reaching 1 billion active devices, and among the features presented in the clip, there’s also a new File Explorer version.
Without a doubt, this isn’t something that happened by accident, so it’s most likely a teaser of what’s to come in terms of file management for Windows 10.
At first glance, File Explorer is indeed getting a more modern experience, with the sidebar substantially redesigned to make more sense in the updated versions of Windows 10. The app also seems to feature optimizations for touch input, especially as Windows 10 is migrating more in this direction.
Google Drive support
Of course, the new File Explorer will come with support for OneDrive, Microsoft’s very own cloud-based storage service that’s already deeply integrated into Windows 10. But at the same time, this mockup seems to suggest that Google Drive support in File Explorer is coming as well, presumably as Microsoft wants to give users more control over their cloud storage without leaving the desktop.
Overall, the new file manager seems to be heavily inspired from the so many concepts that made the headlines lately, and this is without a doubt a good thing, as many of them have proved to be pretty popular in the existing Windows 10 user community.
When exactly the new File Explorer is projected to see daylight is still something that remains to be discovered. The next version of Windows 10 is version 2004 due in the spring and no major changes for File Explorer are planned.
View this post on Instagram The team made this video to celebrate making it to 1 billion MAD on Windows 10 and I wanted to share it with all of you. Now at a time when so much of our work and communication is taking place through our devices, it’s especially humbling to know that Windows can help empower a billion people to stay connected to the things and people they care about #Windows A post shared by Panos Panay (@panospanay) on Mar 19, 2020 at 12:47pm PDT