A little less than one month since the last update, Files received another big feature update. This third-party file manager offers a tremendous amount of advanced features, and with version 3.7, it gets even more.
Files 3.7 introduces quite a lot of significant changes, such as improved navigation, better address bar breadcrumbs, file compressing improvements and more. Here are the highlights.
- Turn off tray icon. You can finally toggle off the Files icon in the tray area. Head to Settings> Advanced Settings to hide it.
- Navigation improvements. First, Files can now switch the focus to your current tab if the location that you try to open from an external process (such as another application) is already open in Files. Also, you can right-click the back and forward buttons on the toolbar to display the navigation history, i.e., recently viewed folders. If you have a tablet or touchscreen-enabled laptop, tap and hold the button to view the history.
- Better breadcrumbs now display folder icons when pressing arrow buttons in the address bar.
- Home button. You can now have a Home button on the toolbar for quick navigation. To toggle it on, head to the Appearance settings section. In addition, you can assign a keyboard shortcut for this action.
- Archive improvements. Did you know that Files can compress files to archives using various formats and compression ratios? With the latest update, you can specify how many CPU threads File can utilize when compressing files. This feature will help you optimize performance and prevent compressing from taking too much horsepower from other tasks.
- A new experimental feature. Files now has a new experimental feature that allows "flattening" folders. In other words, moving all files from subfolders (or nested folders) into the root directory.
- Better Google Drive detection. Files now works more reliably if you have the Google Drive client installed. Thanks to refactored code, Files better detects the app and provides a better experience.
Here is the rest of the changelog with smaller changes, fixes, and improvements:
- Removed the loading animation from the home page.
- Added an action to open File Explorer’s property window. You can also hold the shift key while pressing the properties button for the same result.
- Added support for opening the breadcrumb dropdown via keyboard navigation.
- Added support for Infomaniak kDrive.
- Added an option to close the active pane from the right-click context menu.
- Corrected inverted scrolling behavior for icon size adjustment.
- Fixed an issue where shortcuts couldn’t be created for commands.
- Fixed an issue where resuming from background didn’t bring Files to the foreground.
- Fixed an issue where context menus didn’t follow the custom font setting.
- Fixed an issue where a shortcut to a folder couldn’t be created.
- Fixed an issue where Google Drive wasn’t displayed when mounted as a folder.
- Fixed an issue where layout settings didn’t persist across updates.
- Fixed an issue where folders with file extensions were sometimes treated as files.
- Fixed an issue where ejecting drives would sometimes fail.
- Fixed an issue where double-clicking a file would sometimes navigate up.
- Fixed issues with opening certain file formats.
The Files app is available in the Microsoft Store for $7.99. You can download it there to support developers financially. If paying is not an option, head to the official Files App website and get the installer for free. Another way to help developers is to sponsor them on GitHub.