Microsoft changes file management in Windows 8 after customer feedback

In a series of blog posts on the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft outlined the new features and functionality that was being introduced in Windows 8:

1. Improving our file management basics: copy, move, rename, and delete
   

   In Windows 8, we have three main goals for our improvements to the copy experience:

   • One place to manage all copy jobs: Create one unified experience for managing and monitoring ongoing copy operations.
   • Clear and concise: Remove distractions and give people the key information they need.
   • User in control: Put people in control of their copy operations.

2. Designing the Windows 8 file name collision experience
   

   These designs introduced some concepts that really stuck around:

   • Getting rid of unnecessary labels (like “Date modified:”) and obvious explanatory text enabled us to present the important details at a glance.
   • Metadata adjectives were emphasized. Rather than requiring users to compare values like file size, using words like “Larger” gave users the right summary.
   • Smart defaults were pre-selected, reducing the work for users.

3. Improvements in Windows Explorer
   

   We set out to accomplish three main goals with this new version of Explorer.

   • Optimize Explorer for file management tasks. Return Explorer to its roots as an efficient file manager and expose some hidden gems, those file management commands already in Explorer that many customers might not even know exist.
   • Create a streamlined command experience. Put the most used commands in the most prominent parts of the UI so they are easy to find, in places that make sense and are reliable. Organize the commands in predictable places and logical groupings according to context, and present relevant information right where you need it.
   • Respect Explorer’s heritage. Maintain the power and richness of Explorer and bring back the most relevant and requested features from the Windows XP era when the current architecture and security model of Windows permits.

Today Steven Sinofsky announced that Microsoft had been carefully monitoring the “comments, newsgroup discussions, and reviews that have been written about Windows 8″ and subsequently incorporated much of the feedback into the design process, resulting in the following changes to file management in the upcoming Windows 8 beta:

Conflict: identifying duplicate files during conflict resolution

Windows 8 will now include a new option for  selecting the right file when file name collisions are encountered during a copy or move:

In the beta, we’ve added a new option to the detailed conflict resolution dialog. By checking the box in the bottom left of the dialog, you can filter out all files that match on name, size (down to the byte) and time (down to the granularity of the file system timestamp: 2 seconds for FAT, 100 nanoseconds for NTFS). The system will skip copying or moving these files. This functionality adds no additional time to the operation, works both locally and across networks, and on all types of systems and storage.

Copy: system changes

File Copy operations will automatically pause and offer the user the option to continue after reboot / sleep/ hibernate:

.. when a system sleeps or hibernates, the copy operation will automatically pause, and when the machine wakes, you can choose to resume the copy by clicking the depressed pause button. (We decided not to have copies automatically resume on wake, as the system environment may have changed significantly in the interim and we do not want to cause an error.)

Copy: handling confirmations and interrupts

Confirmation and errors are now displayed together before the system starts to move or copy large amounts of files.  This should hopefully stop confirmations getting lost amongst existing running copies.

Explorer: navigation pane scrolling issue

In Windows 8, Microsoft has fixed a bug with navigation pane scrolling that exists in Windows 7.

Explorer: respect picture orientation metadata

Thumbnails of pictures now respect orientation information for JPEG images in Windows 8, automatically orienting thumbnails (if your camera supports the EXIF orientation feature).

Explorer: Overlay changes to improve performance

The Windows 8 beta will have improved performance for Explorer by removing overlays (such as the padlock icon for a private file) from file icons.

Explorer: pin to Start

Responding to feedback that the Windows 8 start screen doesn’t allow shortcuts for folders:

In the beta, you can now easily pin your favorite folders to Start, and take advantage of the rich customization functionality that we built into it to arrange the folders into groups and into any order you want. Additionally, just as in Windows 7, you can pin shortcuts to executables to Start directly from Windows Explorer, which can be very useful for applications that don’t add themselves to the Start screen by default.

Explorer: PowerShell

New options related to Powershell have been added to the Explorer window’s File menu. (Previously, there were some command prompt options only.)

Explorer: ribbon changes

The introduction of the ribbon interface into Explorer was highly controversial, and Microsoft have incorporated the feedback to improve the design:

1. Ribbon minimized by default: With the ribbon maximized in the Developer Preview, we’ve been able to learn a lot about how people interact with it, which has enabled us to tweak and fine-tune it. With the beta, we will be making a major change that brings Explorer in line with our design principles for Windows 8. As in our copy dialogs, Task Manager, and Metro style experiences, we will be reducing distractions and trusting users to discover functionality on their own, by minimizing the ribbon by default.
2. Visible hotkeys: Our telemetry data has shown us that for users who actively choose to minimize the ribbon, their strong preference is to use hotkeys. The ribbon provides new ways to access functionality via the keyboard with keytips (those floating cues that pop up when you hit Alt), but traditional shortcut keys like Ctrl+V remain the most efficient method. We love shortcut keys (internally, their usage gets up over 85% of all Explorer commands issued), so we want to help more people discover them.
3. User setting roaming: We want to make sure you only need configure your Explorer options once. If you maximize your ribbon, and add Undo and Map Network Drive in your Quick Access Toolbar, we want your Explorer to look like that every time.

With this process Microsoft is showing that they listen to and value consumer feedback and use it to help guide their Windows 8 design decisions, something that many analysts were questioning.