To begin, one of the issue for many users was the Ribbon style menu that appears atop of Explorer in Windows 8. The software maker has said in many occasions that the Ribbon is just necessary to expose features that otherwise will remain hidden and never be used by most users, and for tablet users. Many tech-savvies were not very happy with the Ribbon taking so much screen space. Moving forward, Microsoft will keep the Explorer’s Ribbon minimized by default in Windows 8. Additionally, users who utilize the Ribbon menu will notice that a new tooltip appears next to the button with the keyboard shortcut for that action, that way in the future users will learn and use the keyboard shortcut instead of finding and clicking the button — at least that is the plan. In a new article the Ilana Smith from Microsoft said “we will be reducing distractions and trusting users to discover functionality on their own, by minimizing the ribbon by default”.
In addition, Microsoft is making some other changes thanks to users feedback: From Windows Explorer, users will now be able to pin shortcuts, executable files and folders to the new Metro style Start menu, “which can be very useful for applications that don’t add themselves to the Start screen by default” Ilana said.
Furthermore, Explorer in Windows 8 will respect EXIF orientation information for JPEG images. This means that if your camera is set correctly, you’ll hardly need to rotate your photos. In Windows 8, Microsoft is improving how the OS handles copy operations when the computer sleeps or hibernates. Originally a copy job was going to resume after the computer wakes up, but to avoid errors users will have to click a depressed pause button to resume the copy job.
In the upcoming release, Windows will have a better way to deal with file conflicts. The software maker is including a new check box that will let the OS automatically skip files with the same date, size and time (duplicates). Also Windows 8 will be able to increase the network throughput on the fly, when copying a large amount of data, if a new network connection is added. Finally, Windows 8 will incorporate a new feature that will allow the sync of all Explorer settings across PCs. This new option can be found in PC Settings, under Sync your settings as Other Windows settings.
If you are getting excited about all the new changes that are coming in Windows 8 beta, you should check the complete list of changes that Microsoft is incorporating from users feedback and you can always check all our Windows 8 coverage here. Remember that Windows 8 beta is set to be released in late February. Let us know what do you think so far are about Windows 8 in the comments below. All content on this site is provided with no warranties, express or implied. Use any information at your own risk. Always backup of your device and files before making any changes. Privacy policy info.
