Microsoft improves File Explorer in Windows 11 testing, but seems to have doubts about some Copilot ideas
Windows 11 has just received a new preview build and some major changes have been made to the central pillar of the operating system’s interface, File Explorer – and there’s an interesting announcement about Copilot here too.
As you may know, you use File Explorer when opening folders on your desktop, and Windows 11 got web browser-style tabs in these folders thanks to the first major update to the operating system (late 2022).
In the new build 22635 in the beta channel, Microsoft has introduced the ability to easily duplicate a tab in File Explorer.
All you have to do is right-click on an existing tab and there will be a new option to duplicate it. Click on that and a second copy of the tab will open. It’s a handy shortcut if you want to delve deeper into other folders within a given folder, while keeping that original folder open.
Additionally, the preview build ushers in several fixes to this part of the interface, including the fix for a memory leak when working with ZIP folders in an Explorer window. A fix has also been implemented for an issue that causes the spacing between icons in File Explorer to become very large.
There’s also a fix for a bug where a search wouldn’t work the first time you tried it and returned no results. Microsoft also notes that it has: “Fixed a few issues impacting the reliability of File Explorer.”
Not much else happening in build 22635 β check out the blog post for the full list of other tweaks β but Microsoft has taken a notable step back with Copilot.
The company notes that it has been trying out some new ideas with the AI ββAssistant in Windows 11 preview builds in recent months, noting that: βSome of these experiences include the ability for Copilot in Windows to act as behave like a normal application window and the taskbar icon moves to indicate that Copilot can help copy text or images. We have decided to pause the implementation of these experiences to further refine them based on user feedback.β
Analysis: Careful thought is needed for Copilot’s visibility
It’s interesting to see that feedback has resulted in those Copilot experiments being halted, although Microsoft is obviously careful not to say exactly why these changes have been withdrawn (for now).
We were particularly skeptical that Copilot was effectively waving its hands at you from the taskbar, with that animation declaring that it could help with something, so we’re not all that surprised that Microsoft is carefully considering how to proceed.
If there is any behavior along these lines, it will have to be subtle and users should have the option to disable it if they don’t want animations on the icon (which also happens with widgets on the taskbar, too). We will be closely watching Microsoft’s moves in this area.
The work on File Explorer is good to see and should make it more stable and reliable overall. Duplicate tabs are also a useful shortcut and were only recently discovered hidden in test builds, so Microsoft has moved quite quickly to make this change official.