Files, a popular third-party file manager, gets big update with new features

Files, a Microsoft Store App Awards 2022 contest winner, received a major update to version 2.3. Besides introducing new notable features and design improvements, release 2.3 brings "a series of future changes to sustain contributor momentum into 2023."

Here is what is new in Files 2.3:

New Features:

• Compact sizing allows users to view more items on the screen.

  

• The tab control was redesigned to connect with the tab content.

• We added an option to display tags on the sidebar.

• Added support for applying bulk actions in the conflicts dialog.

Other changes:

• Improved the reliability and speed of drag and drop.
• Added a pull to refresh gesture.
• Removed the minimize and maximize buttons from the properties window.
• Added an animation when clicking on the setting and search buttons.
• Added an option to always show icons instead of thumbnails.
• Improved the spacing in the pathbar.
• Added a chevron to the pathbar to better indicate that there is a flyout menu.
• Reduced the spacing between widgets on the home page.
• Double clicking the grid splitter will now reset panes in the dual pane layout to the default width.
• More file types are now displayed in the “new” item context menu.
• Double clicking in a blank space will now go up one directory in the file tree.
• Adding a tag to a file no longer changes the date modified property.
• Added a shortcut to open folders in the default terminal ctrl + shift + '.
• Added a shortcut to play and pause media in the preview pane ctrl + space.
• Reduced the height of items in the sidebar to allow more items to be displayed at once
• Invalid favorites and network shares are no longer removed the sidebar.
• Added a context menu to hide sections when right clicking on the sidebar.
• Added support for renaming items in the conflicts dialog.
• Network shares will automatically refresh when their content changes.
• Auto select first item in user list for permissions.
• Auto select the primary button in the empty recycle bin dialog.
• Deleting an item will automatically move the focus to the next item in the list.
• Resizing the window no longer changes the width of columns in the details layout.
• Added examples to the date format setting.
• Improved behavior when trying to name an item with invalid characters.
• Added a notification when copying or moving an item fails.
• Added the archive name to the extract archive dialog.
• Added support for adding tags to items in the search results page.
• Show which process is locking a file.

As mentioned in the beginning, version 2.3 introduces numerous invisible changes that will help developers modernize the app and offer platform-specific benefits. In addition, they will allow an accelerated transition to the Windows App SDK, which, in turn, will remove some of the longstanding limitations and allow more performance and reliability improvements.

You can download the Files app from the Microsoft Store on Windows 10 and 11. Developers can also check out the project's repository on GitHub.