File Manager (Windows)

The file manager

The file manager is a file manager from Microsoft.

File Manager was the standard file manager of the 16-bit operating systems of the Windows 3.x series and the 32-bit operating systems Windows NT 3.1 and Windows NT 3.51 . With the release of Windows 95 it was replaced by Windows Explorer , but it was still part of the system for years under the file name "WINFILE.EXE". In 2018, the source code was published on GitHub under the MIT license ; as of 2020, it will be available for the ARM, x64 and x86 platforms for Windows 10 and Xbox One from the Microsoft Store.

history

The file manager was introduced with Microsoft Windows 3.0 , it replaced the previously used MS-DOS Executive (in German-speaking Windows: MS-DOS ). It was the standard Windows file manager in all Windows 3.x versions. Windows 95 in the original A version offers the option during setup to continue to use the old combination of Program Manager and File Manager instead of the new Windows Explorer . The file manager on these Windows operating systems is not Y2K compliant , but a patch is available from Microsoft to correct this problem.

With the release of Windows NT 3.1, which used the same user interface as Windows 3.1, a 32-bit version of the file manager was introduced. With Windows NT 4.0 , the file manager was also replaced by Windows Explorer in this series of operating systems. As an alternative file manager, the 16-bit version is still included up to Windows Me and the 32-bit version in NT 4.0, whereby the executable file is apparently completely compatible up to Windows XP (Home).

On April 6, 2018, Microsoft published the source code and versions of the file manager compiled for Windows 10 on GitHub under the MIT license (open source).

Range of functions

The program can be called up as a link via the main group of the program manager. The File Manager window is divided into a drop-down menu for switching between drives at the top, a folder view (the main innovation compared to the otherwise similar MS-DOS window) on the left and a file view on the right . In addition to managing files and folders, the file manager allowed the formatting of drives, the mapping of a network drive and the assignment of file extensions .

Under Windows NT, the extended possibilities of the NTFS file system could be managed, i.e. access rights and data compression . These are also available with the 32-bit version under the Home Edition of Windows XP, which are hidden in Windows Explorer. In addition, Winfile is less susceptible to various protection violations or hidden files and drives and is therefore suitable as a graphical tool for certain repair purposes.

Web links

• Microsoft / winfile on GitHub

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hajo Schulz: Windows: The classic file manager is back - as open source. In: heise online. Retrieved on April 18, 2018 (German). 
2. ↑ Get Windows File Manager - Microsoft Store. Retrieved on August 25, 2020 (Swiss Standard German). 
3. ↑ File Manager Shows Garbled Date for Year 2000 or Later - Microsoft Knowledge Base
4. ↑ ^{a b} Retrofitted: Editor for user rights under XP Home. pcwelt.de
5. ↑ Permissions in Windows XP Home Edition. winfaq.de
6. ↑ Examples are (accessed on December 11, 2016):
   • General protection violation of the Explorer when booting at winfaq.de
   • Hide drives at winfaq.de
   • Directory only shows HTML files (history folder) ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at molgen.medizin.uni-mainz.de