Rumored overhaul for Home windows File Explorer would tie into OneDrive, Microsoft 365

Microsoft is engaged on an overhaul of the File Explorer app in Home windows 11, in line with a report from Windows Central. The brand new Explorer will reportedly function redesigned and extra touch-friendly navigation, higher picture viewing with bigger previews, key phrase and coloration tagging for organizing information, and tighter integration with Microsoft 365 and OneDrive.

An inner mock-up of the brand new interface exhibits a brand new “really useful” part of information alongside the prevailing areas for pinned and up to date information, with giant previews of varied paperwork and details about the place the information are situated (OneDrive, SharePoint, and the native Downloads folder are all listed) and about latest modifications. The brand new look will even include “extra fashionable code” below the hood.

The report says Microsoft desires to launch the brand new Explorer earlier than the top of the 12 months. It could possibly be a part of this 12 months’s annual Home windows replace within the fall, however Microsoft has taken a “at any time when they’re prepared” strategy to releasing new Home windows options within the Home windows 11 period—it could possibly be launched at any time, or by no means.

Explorer has been refreshed a few instances since Home windows 11 was launched; Microsoft up to date Explorer with a tabbed design together with a small batch of different additions shortly after releasing the Home windows 11 2022 Replace. And the app was additionally up to date to match the remainder of Home windows 11’s new look within the unique launch of the OS, shedding the previous Home windows 8-era ribbon UI.

Microsoft’s push to combine and bundle collectively its numerous providers continues to be often drawing the eye of presidency regulators, a long time after the Internet Explorer antitrust case. Politico reported earlier this week that EU regulators are near launching an antitrust investigation of the corporate due to the way it has bundled Microsoft Groups with the suite of productiveness apps previously often called Workplace. A model of Explorer that likewise prioritizes and advertises OneDrive and Microsoft 365 might additionally draw the regulators’ ire.