Advanced Explorer vs. Windows Explorer
From version to version, Windows and its Explorer retain the same flaws as a precious legacy.
Worse, Linux distributions like Mint, in their quest to provide an interface as familiar as possible to Windows, repeat the same flaws when it comes to user interaction. While developing the Tiloid and Advanced Explorer interface, I sought to find new solutions to prevent these flaws from appearing in these new programs.
What are these flaws?
Here is a list of things in the Windows interface, and even more so in Explorer, that can annoy the user...
- In
- Windows Explorer, if you are trying to rename a file and several are already selected (you do not necessarily see them; they may be off the list), they all take the same name! Would you like to have more than one file with the same name? I never used it from the start of Windows, but I often fell into its trap.
- When you click on a directory entry, file name, or subdirectory name, Explorer inevitably prompts you to rename it. However, it is much more common to select a file to open than to change its name, a fairly rare operation that should not be so immediate.
In Advanced Explorer, you can rename a file by clicking the menu or icon. - When you move the window on the screen, as soon as it touches the edge, it goes into full screen mode. None of Microsoft's designers thought you might want to move the window to the edge of the screen to clear the view of other windows.
- When you request a new folder, Windows immediately creates a folder named "New Directory." Even if you refuse the operation. Over time, it may happen that several of these empty folders appear in the directory.
This drawback is not present in A.E., since the folder is created only after the operation is completed. - The designer who came up with the idea of reducing the size of the scroll bar button based on the contents of the folder may never have had a directory containing more than 1,000 files. In this case, the scroll bar button becomes so tiny that it is difficult to grasp it with the mouse.
Unfortunately, A.E. depends on the browser interface and cannot do anything when using native system widgets.
But this flaw has been fixed in Windows 10. - The flaw was also found only in the Gimp drawing software, another interface nightmare: lack of memory in system navigation. When you open Explorer, you are definitely at the root of drive C; You then search the subdirectories of the directory you viewed in the previous session.
A.E. always opens in the last directory visited before closing the program. If you want to go back to the root of the file system, it's not very difficult...
Designers often give the impression that they never use the software for which they create the interface.
And yet Explorer also has its strengths. The ability to click on the directory on the way in the navigation bar, for example, is one of them. Its implementation will also have to be dealt with in A.E.
The Art of Microsoft Innovation: AOL in 1996 vs. Windows 8
But A.E. doesn't just fix browser flaws, and that wasn't its design goal. It features a local client-server architecture that allows you to easily add new modules without the need to compile code. Over time, it will gradually be equipped with new features that will never be visible in Windows Explorer or any other operating system.