Windows File Manager Performance Praised While Microsoft's Expertise Questioned

BigGo Editorial Team
Windows File Manager Performance Praised While Microsoft's Expertise Questioned

The classic Windows File Manager (WinFile) has been revived as a modern application, running natively on all currently supported Windows versions, including Windows 11. While this nostalgic piece of software continues to find fans, community discussions reveal deeper concerns about Microsoft's current development priorities and expertise.

Windows File Manager Key Information

  • Available for: x86, x64 and arm64 architectures
  • Compatible with: All supported Windows versions including Windows 11
  • Distribution methods:
    • Microsoft Store (Windows 10+)
    • Chocolatey package manager
    • Winget package manager
    • MSYS2
    • GitHub releases

Version History

  • Latest Release: v10.3.0.0
  • Original release: Early 1990s with Windows 3.0
  • Two primary source code branches:
    • original_plus: Windows NT4 version with minimal changes
    • current master: Enhanced version with ongoing development

Speed and Simplicity Winning Over Users

The revived Windows File Manager has garnered praise for its performance advantages over the current Windows Explorer. Community members have noted its impressive speed, with one user directly stating it's faster than the current explorer. This performance difference highlights an ongoing issue in software development where newer, more feature-rich applications often sacrifice speed and efficiency. The original File Manager's lightweight design from the early 1990s appears to maintain advantages even decades later, suggesting that sometimes simpler architecture delivers better performance.

Explorer Criticisms Reveal User Frustrations

While Windows 11's Explorer has received visual praise from some users who consider it a thing of beauty, others point to persistent usability issues and bugs. Community discussions highlight problems like folders randomly enabling grouping features and the simplified address bar that hides full file paths. The addition of tabs in Windows 11 Explorer is viewed as a positive step, though some users note third-party solutions like Stardock's Groupy have provided similar functionality across all applications for years. These criticisms reflect a broader frustration with modern software development prioritizing visual updates over functional stability.

Performance Concerns Raise Questions About Modern Software

The most heated discussions center around performance issues in current Windows components, particularly the context menu system. Users report significant delays when right-clicking in Windows 11, with loading times ranging from one to ten seconds for a simple menu to appear. This has sparked debate about software bloat and inefficient coding practices. Some community members attribute these issues to poorly optimized shell extensions, while others see it as symptomatic of excessive abstraction layers in modern software development.

The amount of bloat in modern software is simply obscene.

Microsoft's Expertise Claims Questioned

Perhaps most concerning to the community is Microsoft's apparent statement about lacking expertise or resources to maintain certain projects. This admission has shocked users who question how the company responsible for Windows could lack expertise in its own fundamental components. Some speculate this might be connected to recent layoffs at Microsoft, suggesting the company may have lost key personnel with specialized knowledge of these systems. This raises broader questions about institutional knowledge retention at major technology companies and how it affects software quality over time.

The revival of Windows File Manager serves as both a nostalgic callback and an unintentional benchmark that highlights how modern software development practices may have strayed from performance-focused design principles. As users continue to embrace both old and new tools, the discussion around software bloat, performance optimization, and development priorities remains relevant for the future of operating system design.

Reference: Windows File Manager (WinFile)