The explorer will be completely transformed, but the change will be invisible. During the February webinar WinUI Community Call namely, people from Microsoft revealed that they are migrating the entire program to another technology. Specifically, the Explorer will be built on the Windows App SDK and WinUI 3. It sounds like a technicality, but the change may affect usability.
The development team did not connect the technological revival with a dramatic change of the program, because the new version looks the same as the old one. It’s coming soon to the Windows Insider program, and to help you recognize it, the new Explorer will add a pizza icon to the navigation bar. So the original Explorer will not have it.
Today’s Explorer in Windows 11, at its core, still pays for an old program, the exterior of which is Paula Thurrotta modified with WinUI 2 to visually fit the system. The announced intention probably means that Microsoft has rewritten Explorer from the ground up. After all, the work lasts over a year.
Microsoft is migrating Explorer to a new technology
(source: Windows Developer / YouTube)
This can be reflected, among other things, in the performance of the program, which with a different chassis can behave more briskly, but also slower. Above all, this will most likely break compatibility with programs that integrate with the Explorer. Typically, these are various cloud storages. Similarly, programs had to adapt to the new context menus in Windows 11.
The technology change may be related to Microsoft needing a more flexible foundation to work on. The explorer has already undergone at least one significant change in Jedenátky, and since autumn it has been offering a panel environment.
However, its home page is also changing, the OneDrive offer has been added to it. We currently know that a brand new sidebar and image gallery are on the way. Overall, the design team wants to eliminate elements from the Windows 7 era and make the file manager more suitable for touchscreens.
Resources: Windows Developer / YouTube via Thurrott.com
