Windows 10 File Explorer Features Settings And Changes

Let us take a look at some of its features, settings, and changes made in Windows 10 File Explorer.

Windows 10 File Explorer

Click on File Explorer in the Start Menu or press Win+E to open the Windows File Explorer. It is a bit different from the one we had in the previous versions of Windows. The prominent changes include:

Quick Access instead of Favorites.New tabs Home and Share andDirect access to One DriveIt opens to Quick Access now.

The navigation pane in the older File Explorer had a tab ‘Favorites’ which is now replaced with ‘Quick Access’ which helps users to navigate to their frequently used locations and the recently used files quickly.

Quick Access

You can access your frequently visited files with the newly added Quick Access feature. It includes the commonly used folders and automatically suggests the lists of files you frequently use, so as to let you access them quickly.

OneDrive

The new and changed file explorer lets you save your files directly to OneDrive online cloudy storage and to sync everything from your OneDrive to your PC. Microsoft has changed the way OneDrive used to work in Windows 8.1 where users were not allowed to sync the files from OneDrive with local file system. In the latest version of Windows Microsoft has rolled back OneDrive to how it was before Windows 8.1.

Home Tab

The new Home tab is added on the top left corner of your new file explorer in Windows 10. Unlike the Windows 8.1 file explorer, the shortcut (Win+E) takes you to the Home tab instead of ‘This PC’. However, you can go to ‘This PC’ from the left pane of your file explorer.

Share Tab

We never had a Share tab in file explorer in previous versions of Windows. Here you can share any of your files or folder with others. Just select any file you want to share and click on the Share icon on the top left corner of your File Explorer. You can also zip the files or burn them into disc from using this new feature. 

View

This View tab in your Windows 10 File Explorer allows you to access the files and folder in a way you want, may it be a tiled view, view with details, small icons, medium icons and much more. You can add a preview pane or details pane in the right of your file explorer. You can change the Folder and Search options from here. Click on Options and adjust the settings according to your preferences. Select if you want to open each folder in the same windows or a new one and more.

In Windows 10, when you click open Explorer, it opens to Quick Access to show Frequent Folders and Recent files. But if you wish, you can disable the Quick Access folders and also make File Explorer open to This PC instead. Read about Work Folders encryption here.