Explorer in Windows 7 sucks, how do I make it more like XP?

[Kev]

I'm fed up with windows explorer. I cannot stand all the garbage in the left hand pane (Favorites, Libraries, Homegroup). I just want to navigate my folders. It seems like MS's new interface design credo is to dumb things down to the point of uselessness.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Organize -> Layout -> Uncheck Navigation Pane

 

[JackMDS]

http://www.freecommander.com/

 

[Makaveli]

or get total Commander its great and allows me to do things at dos speed.

 

[Nothinman]

or get total Commander its great and allows me to do things at dos speed.

You like working at 25Mhz?

 

[Makaveli]

lol

I think you know what I meant.

everyone's a funny guy

 

[Jeff7181]

I'm fed up with windows explorer. I cannot stand all the garbage in the left hand pane (Favorites, Libraries, Homegroup). I just want to navigate my folders. It seems like MS's new interface design credo is to dumb things down to the point of uselessness.

You're really gonna hate Windows 8... rumor is it uses "ribbon" a la Office 2007/2010.

 

[Jeff7]

You're really gonna hate Windows 8... rumor is it uses "ribbon" a la Office 2007/2010.

A substantial part of me just died.

I still can't find stuff most of the time in Office 2007. Instead of "Tools" or "Edit" or places that seemed to make sense, the ribbon has features strewn into random categories. If they want to keep using that ribbon thing, fine - but dear god please make the menus available as well, maybe an "Advanced" mode or something.

 

[JackMDS]

If we would take seriously the complains made when new things comes out we would be still on Atari 800.

 

[Binky]

Check out the tips here:
http://www.7tutorials.com/how-improve-windows-explorer-using-folder-options

And change your Explorer shortcut to open to your most commonly used folder (e.g. D drive)

C:\Windows\explorer.exe /e,d:\

 

[Jeff7181]

If we would take seriously the complains made when new things comes out we would be still on Atari 800.

True... it happens every time a new version of Windows comes out... then some years later everyone hates the next interface and begs for the one they hated when it came out.

 

[Bill Brasky]

A substantial part of me just died.

I still can't find stuff most of the time in Office 2007. Instead of "Tools" or "Edit" or places that seemed to make sense, the ribbon has features strewn into random categories. If they want to keep using that ribbon thing, fine - but dear god please make the menus available as well, maybe an "Advanced" mode or something.

There will have to be some compelling reasons for me to upgrade from 7. I <3 7.

 

[Jeff7181]

There will have to be some compelling reasons for me to upgrade from 7. I <3 7.

There will have to be some compelling reasons for me NOT to upgrade from 7. I love 7 as well, but I love new shit too.

 

[kmmatney]

Organize -> Layout -> Uncheck Navigation Pane

That makes it even more useless.

 

[kmmatney]

True... it happens every time a new version of Windows comes out... then some years later everyone hates the next interface and begs for the one they hated when it came out.

I didn't have any complaints about Windows 2000, or even Windows XP when it came out. But windows 7 seems to take away too much power from the user. Making any changes beyond the very few options Microsoft gives you is a pain. I might as well just buy a Mac is this is the direction Microsoft is headed.

 

[Modelworks]

I didn't have any complaints about Windows 2000, or even Windows XP when it came out. But windows 7 seems to take away too much power from the user. Making any changes beyond the very few options Microsoft gives you is a pain. I might as well just buy a Mac is this is the direction Microsoft is headed.

The newbies have won. The people that don't care to learn about computers but raise hell because computers can't read their minds and do what they want are the cause. It has spread to every OS from windows to linux. Expect more wizards, ribbons, etc in the future. One thing xp had going for it is the ability to rip out or put in just about any feature you wanted. Google custom xp versions and you will find thousands of variants users created.

 

[Jeff7]

The newbies have won. The people that don't care to learn about computers but raise hell because computers can't read their minds and do what they want are the cause. It has spread to every OS from windows to linux. Expect more wizards, ribbons, etc in the future. One thing xp had going for it is the ability to rip out or put in just about any feature you wanted. Google custom xp versions and you will find thousands of variants users created.

Hey now, I'd love to have a direct neural interface for my computer. It'd sure reduce any repetitive strain injury problems. :\

I'd love if they'd at least add an "advanced" mode to these new interfaces.

 

[Nothinman]

The newbies have won. The people that don't care to learn about computers but raise hell because computers can't read their minds and do what they want are the cause. It has spread to every OS from windows to linux. Expect more wizards, ribbons, etc in the future. One thing xp had going for it is the ability to rip out or put in just about any feature you wanted. Google custom xp versions and you will find thousands of variants users created.

Computers should be easy to use and maintain and that's something that Windows has failed at since it's inception. But at the same time they should be considering the technical users, which OS X and Windows are both failing at pretty badly in recent years and it only looks to get worse.

I believe that technically Vista/Win7 are more modular than XP, but it's still more difficult to pull out pieces because of interdependencies. MS needs a real package management system badly, supposedly CoApp was supposed to help with that, but the project page looks pretty stalled to me.

 

[Lorne]

I also have trouble in some of the newer visual interface design, I am of an older school.
I have been programming some and building and OC'ing alot since the early 80's, I went to school to learn english (Insert you language as needed) in the form of words.
Now I cant use some things well eg. my cellphone because it uses icons and not words.

I get the point that icons are now becoming the new universal language as numbers were in my day, But when you shrink numbers down to fit the screen they still look like numbers, Pictures de res badly when they do this are unreadable (not that I knew what the icon ment in the firstplace.

I am one of those that goes in right after and install and forces all thubnails off in the filemanager (yup, I said filemanager ((Winkey E)), Not windows explorer ) and apply to all folders and drives.

 

[Rackmountsales]

Organize -> Layout -> Uncheck Navigation Pane

I was also looking for the same. Thanks for this help!

 

[Modelworks]

I believe that technically Vista/Win7 are more modular than XP, but it's still more difficult to pull out pieces because of interdependencies. MS needs a real package management system badly, supposedly CoApp was supposed to help with that, but the project page looks pretty stalled to me.

Win7 to me is a step back in manageability. There are services upon services that all rely on each other and turning off one can break things you wouldn't expect. I was frustrated for a long time because silverlight quit working for netflix. I re-installed stuff, drivers, plugins, and nothing worked. I did some digging and found out if tablet input service was disabled it broke netflix. You can set it to manual just don't disable it. Things like that are what kills windows future as my OS .

 

[C1]

Im XP user but a friend wanted me to groom his new Samsung Q430 notebook for him. This means really going thru from performance and visual tailoring to back up/restoration setup. I find that Win 7 is too verbose. That is, there simply are too many information and alert screens between the user and what they want/need to do. Also, in many ways MS seems to have (IMO needlessly) renamed many of the standard legacy functions and scattered or dispersed them to different areas.

I suspect that with enough effort, Win 7 can be tailored to suit one's preferences, but it will take lots of time to learn the relatively new OS layout - where and what are all the available hooks & handles. I wouldnt say that Win 7 is necessarily faster than say XP as most of the difference would be expected to be due to running in pretty much the latest hardware most often when Win 7 is encountered.

 

[Jeff7181]

Screw Windows all together... too complicated. CLI is where it's at.

 

[Jeff7181]

I didn't have any complaints about Windows 2000, or even Windows XP when it came out. But windows 7 seems to take away too much power from the user. Making any changes beyond the very few options Microsoft gives you is a pain. I might as well just buy a Mac is this is the direction Microsoft is headed.

As well it should be. A standard user should never be able to make system-wide changes. Can't find something? Click the Start button and begin typing. I know exactly where to find various settings and modules in Windows 7, but why click through a few menus when I can tap the Start button on my keyboard and type "network connections" and press enter in 1/4 the time?

 

[Ross Ridge]

As well it should be. A standard user should never be able to make system-wide changes. Can't find something? Click the Start button and begin typing. I know exactly where to find various settings and modules in Windows 7, but why click through a few menus when I can tap the Start button on my keyboard and type "network connections" and press enter in 1/4 the time?

If I wanted a command line interface I know where to find one.