OldNewExplorer 1.1.9

[Tihiy]

What is it?

OldNewExplorer is the Windows 10 (and Windows 8.1, and 8) shell extension / tweaker which can undo "improvements" to file browsing made in newer Windows version. Everything is optional for your liking.

 

- Restore devices / drives grouping

Everything is 'Devices and drives'. That's stupid! O-N-E can restore grouping which made sense in Win7/8.

- Restore libraries / remove folders

Remove all those folders which were unoptionally added into Windows 8.1 This PC folder and put the libraries back to their place, without registry hacking / breaking apps.

- Restore command bar / remove Ribbon

Because some people consider it an abomination.

- Restore details pane at bottom

Same reason; reclaim useful horizontal space.

- Improve styling

Get rid of some Win7 stuff here and there; improve styling with some built-in visual styles.

For themers / skinners, O-N-E can help to override a lot of hardcoded styling in Windows 8, maybe even Start screen!

 

 

Download

https://tihiy.net/files/OldNewExplorer.rar

TEST VERSION READ BELOW

100% FREE

 

Stupid FAQ

- This is a TEST version, no installer. Potentially dangerous too!

- This is for Windows 8.1. Also should work for Windows 8 as well, though 8.1 options do not apply there;

- No changes are enabled by default. If something does not apply, try logging off / restarting explorer.exe;

- Install is for all users, settings are per-user.

 

For long thoughful posts use email.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Tihiy

[Tihiy]

reserved for dark secrets

[demetris]

Hehe! With one tool you took care of everything. :-)

I am testing now on Windows 8.1 Pro x64 and everything seems to work fine.

[xpclient]

More fixes for a broken OS which aren't so easy to do! Always welcome. Thanks!!

[vinifera]

removing ribbon is best feature one could make

[demetris]

An interesting side-effect:

Enabling the second tweak (“Use libraries; hide folders from This PC”) makes Firefox crash when trying to save a file. The crash happens just right before the point when the Save As dialog is supposed to open.

Happens in both Firefox 26 Beta and in the latest Firerfox nightly, on Windows 8.1 Pro x64.

Can anyone else confirm this?

[Tihiy]

Enabling the second tweak (“Use libraries; hide folders from This PC”) makes Firefox crash when trying to save a file. The crash happens just right before the point when the Save As dialog is supposed to open.

Fixed.

[MrGRiM]

Awesome work mate, this is the best tool Windows 8 could ask for, this will make Windows 8 the best OS of all time

Thought I should show how I managed to use OldNewExplorer without needing to modify a single system file and all completely loaded on the fly at the click of a button in the personalization menu

[ace2]

Could only get it to work when i extract OldNewExplorer.rar to a Folder named OldNewExplorer

[bphlpt]

And what did you expect to have to do? It specifically states in the first post that there is no installer.

Cheers and Regards

[MagicAndre1981]

cool. I'll try it later

[ace2]

And what did you expect to have to do? It specifically states in the first post that there is no installer.

Cheers and Regards

It specifically states in the first post that there is no installer, But it didn't specifically states install to OldNewExplorer Folder did it.

Edited November 23, 2013 by ace2

[YourNumbr1Fan]

It's working 100% flawlessly on my system, love it!----No issues or bugs whatsoever, at least yet. Store apps download/install fine, no black screens, loads quickly after re-boot.....

I hope the final version will include some of MrGrim's additions also.....

Great work Tihiy!

[NoelC]

I applaud your efforts to bring usability back to Windows 8. It's through efforts by 3rd party developers like you and the others here that Windows 8 will actually survive, despite Microsoft's efforts to stop people from taking it seriously. Microsoft has lost the plot.

A minor note: Personally I would suggest avoiding the use of Libraries, because they're not rigorously implemented (by Microsoft). People see failures to have the screen update after file moves/deletions, that sort of thing. Explorer in general always works much better if you just use real folders on the PC.

And a suggestion: As long as you're augmenting File Explorer, figure out the machinations needed to get it to use the List control to display files instead of the implementation it uses by default. A tool called Folder Options X does this now, and xpclient has a set of registry tweaks that can do it as well. An advantage to doing this (among others) is that the items in Details View are closer together, so that you can get more work on screen. That can matter to power users.

-Noel

[PandaX]

Out of curiousity could you add Libraries to This PC instead of the user folder? I'm sure it's possible via the registry but I was wondering if it'd be possible for your app.