Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows Explorer Through the Years

gekk.info

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 185 posts

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#31

Post by pjc50 »

vbezhenar wrote: post #4

Sorry for offtopic, but I'd like to share a tip I can't imagine living without. You can type cmd in explorer address bar and it'll open cmd in that directory (probably works with any other program in your %PATH%). Also you can type `explorer .` in cmd to open explorer in the current directory.

I've always used "start ." in cmd to open explorer. "start" is kind of useful to know since it triggers the default action for a file, e.g. "start foo.txt" opens it in Notepad or whatever your default text editor is.

"start "."" however opens another cmd window. Consistency is not a strong point.

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#32

Post by jerrygoyal »

CrlNvl wrote: post #13

And still no tabs. I know about Clover, QTTabbar (my current choice) and Groupy, but it still blows my mind we've had tabs in web browsers for nearly 20 years and not in local explorers.

I found TidyTabs much better.. less visual clutter and small memory footprint

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#33

Post by LandR »

vbezhenar wrote: post #4

Sorry for offtopic, but I'd like to share a tip I can't imagine living without. You can type cmd in explorer address bar and it'll open cmd in that directory (probably works with any other program in your %PATH%). Also you can type `explorer .` in cmd to open explorer in the current directory.

Also if you aren't on hte mouse, CTRL+L in the folder jumps the cursor to the address bar.

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#34

Post by ygra »

pjc50 wrote: post #31
vbezhenar wrote: post #4

Sorry for offtopic, but I'd like to share a tip I can't imagine living without. You can type cmd in explorer address bar and it'll open cmd in that directory (probably works with any other program in your %PATH%). Also you can type `explorer .` in cmd to open explorer in the current directory.

I've always used "start ." in cmd to open explorer. "start" is kind of useful to know since it triggers the default action for a file, e.g. "start foo.txt" opens it in Notepad or whatever your default text editor is. "start "."" however opens another cmd window. Consistency is not a strong point.

start uses the first quoted argument as the window title and with your example the actual argument is missing, hence you get a new console window.

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#35

Post by grandchild »

open-source-ux wrote: post #10

"Windows 98 was famously controversial, at least in nerd circles, for the integration of Internet Explorer into Explorer itself" How interesting to see attitudes change. Today, using a web browser and HTML/CSS/JavasScript to write your app (whether as a SaaS app or a desktop app using Electron) is one of the most popular options for creating apps. In fact, Microsoft explored this space many years ago too. Remember Mi…

And then there was Active Desktop. I remember setting an HTML file as desktop wallpaper, so I could have an animated wallpaper. :)

(Why I wanted my wallpaper to visually distract me at every step is beyond me today, but I had fun.)

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#36

Post by ygra »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #22
cstuder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another tip: Shift-Right-Click a file in Explorer and "Copy as path" will appear in the context menu. Puts the full file path in your clipboard.

Da fck. I recently learned you can add this feature to the right click context menu via adding a registry entry. If I’d’a known shift-right click I wouldn’t make bothered.

Shift right click has always been the way to get the "advanced" context menu. Well, at least back to Windows 95. Fun fact: since the shortcut for the context menu is Shift+F10, you'll always get the extended menu since you'll always have shift pressed when the menu appears.

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#38

Post by Joeri »

ptidhomme wrote: post #8

Starting in Windows 8 : > The Ribbon is unspeakably messy, and unspeakably large, and as I said I am not going to attack it in detail because this is a long-running Microsoft hobby horse. Suffice to say I feel it is a usability disaster and does not belong in any program let alone Explorer, however, it has the one saving grace that it is both collapsible, and defaults to that state, so most users almost certainly nev…

I get a sense the ribbon design is a bit aspirational, with emphasis on the things they think you should use instead of what is actually used. For example, I’m sure they feel you should be using styles instead of fonts, and so the styles control takes up a lot more real estate than the font chooser.

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#39

Post by Kuinox »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #11
vbezhenar wrote: post #4

Sorry for offtopic, but I'd like to share a tip I can't imagine living without. You can type cmd in explorer address bar and it'll open cmd in that directory (probably works with any other program in your %PATH%). Also you can type `explorer .` in cmd to open explorer in the current directory.

How did you happen upon this tidbit? I imagine going through an actual book and doing all the exercises, or something similar like a course for Windows or whatever might cover it?

Not the one you asked but i'll answer:

I discovered it myself: Most of the program like this one take a path to know where it should open.

I was searching how to open vscode is current folder ("code .") and figured you could do with a bunch of other tools, like cmd, gitextensions, powershell, explorer...

Re: Windows Explorer Through the Years

#40

Post by edwinyzh »

wronex wrote: post #2

I wish Windows Save/Open dialogues would have links to already open Explorer windows (much like the links to Documents.) Rationale: Project are often contained in a single root folder. I often start by opening this folder in Explorer. Some programs can be started by double clicking files. Others cannot. Saving new files always requires interacting with the save dialog and thus browsing to the project folder again.

I second your rationale because I always do that like you.

And the good news is that, you can achieve that with Listary. I'm using an old version of it due to few years ago I found that new versions do perform as fast as the old ones.

Post reply on HN