Microsoft moving Windows 11 File Explorer to Windows App SDK

From above reference:

"And doing so would likely break File Explorer’s extensibility model. The most obvious victims are cloud storage services like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive, unless of course Microsoft has figured out a way to bring these things forward to the new app."

Is this just scaremongering or a realistic proposition?

I wonder what the driver is to migrate File Explorer - is this just for show (because we can), or does it open up new developments?

cereberus said:

Is this just scaremongering or a realistic proposition?

I wonder what the driver is to migrate File Explorer - is this just for show (because we can), or does it open up new developments?

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Not sure, but, I got a chuckle out of one of the Twitter comments...

Let's do it!!! Embrace change!!!
... even if it costs you your sanity!!!

I predict a Bug-fest for a least a decade!

Edwin said:

Not sure, but, I got a chuckle out of one of the Twitter comments...

View attachment 52954

Click to expand...

To paraphrase a Smokie tradition

Panos - who the f*ck is Panos?

cereberus said:

From above reference:

"And doing so would likely break File Explorer’s extensibility model. The most obvious victims are cloud storage services like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive, unless of course Microsoft has figured out a way to bring these things forward to the new app."

Is this just scaremongering or a realistic proposition?

I wonder what the driver is to migrate File Explorer - is this just for show (because we can), or does it open up new developments?

Click to expand...

I bet One Drive will still work.

I would love to tell something to MS... LEAVE THE FILE EXPLORER AS IT IS NOW!

The guys at files have a nice concept going but, it's merely a piggyback UI on top of your existing Explorer!

Josey Wales said:

I bet One Drive will still work.

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Sorry - not willing to bet against that LOL.

If it does break other cloud services, whose fault is it? MS could claim it is up to 3rd parties to update in line with new standards. Does MS have a moral obligation to ensure other can work, or are they abusing their position as a market leader.

The legendary EU case against MS forcing them to provide an alternative (N versions) was so overhyped. Whenever I have been to Europe, I have never encountered an N version in any company I visited. The general opinion from IT guys I spoke with was that "it was just pompous bureaucrats doing it because they could" and their testing found too many compatibility issues with N versions (particularly related to media files).


In the end, MS could retain legacy file explorer to avoid any backlash, but given their inane emoji/widget focus, I doubt they care.

It may temporarily break third party services, but I'd expect there be new API hooks they can change to. I doubt that they would integrate oneDrive this deeply without making the connections available to Dropbox and others.

Futurdreamz said:

It may temporarily break third party services, but I'd expect there be new API hooks they can change to. I doubt that they would integrate oneDrive this deeply without making the connections available to Dropbox and others.

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IMHO, it would be against the benefit of MS to lock any other service out. It may even be illegal. I would be totally surprised if MS doesn't allow other online services to have access. I do see it being up to them to update and I don't see that not happening.

If we use MS EDGE as a guide, they probably WILL incorporate OneDrive, and leave Google Drive and Dropbox, twisting in the wind. ^^

Winuser said:

IMHO, it would be against the benefit of MS to lock any other service out. It may even be illegal. I would be totally surprised if MS doesn't allow other online services to have access. I do see it being up to them to update and I don't see that not happening.

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I'm suspecting that it may be a survival thing. Microsoft LOST the phone market very badly, and they're losing laptop space to iPads and Android tablets. What happens if something new comes up that completely changes how we use computers, like if AR tech can be miniaturized into the size of normal prescription glasses, or even cybernetics?

Microsoft doesn't want to pull a blackberry and be caught with iths pants down, it wants to be at the forefront with a freshly written codebase that will be flexible enough to handle its needs in the future. Imagine if Microsoft tried to stay in the digital age using the Windows 95 kernel.

Futurdreamz said:

Microsoft LOST the phone market very badly,

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IMHO, that was their own fault. They got into the market way too late and didn't give it the advertising it needed. The phone itself was great. They were too concerned about making Windows 8 the One OS for all devices and we know how that turned out.

Hi,
Must be an important change just like home/ quick access/ favorites dance was
I believe file explorer/ desktop has a terrible refresh anyway so might as well kill it and make people use a real file explorer absent from the bing/ cortana sludge ms screwed it up with.

Using ViveTool, I can enable the App SDK version of File Explorer in the Dev build, but I have not had any luck enabling it in the Canary build. Anybody else get a different result?

I also noticed that the Gallery feature is independent of the App SDK Explorer. That is, Gallery appears whether I have the App SDK Explorer enabled or not.

Previously when the App SDK Explorer was enabled, there would be a pizza icon in the ribbon. The pizza icon is gone. The current indicator is that navigation and search are above the ribbon. With that change, I'd expect an option to hide the ribbon, but I don't see that yet.

Another indicator is that the Home folder must be grouped by something. If it's grouped by None, the App SDK Explorer crashes. Of course, the Sort menu (where Group by lives) is disabled in the Home folder, so I'm talking abut setting grouping via the registry.

If they do this, I will use XYplorer as a replacement for File Explorer, I have been using it for years.