Windows Explorer Gets Ribbon Interface in Windows 8
by Andrew Cunningham on August 29, 2011 2:35 PM ESTThe Windows 8 details continue: Today on the Building Windows 8 blog, Alex Simons takes us through some changes to the Windows Explorer, chief among them the fact that Explorer will now be using Microsoft's Ribbon interface.
Love it or hate it, more and more Microsoft applications have been picking up the Ribbon interface since it was introduced in Office 2007 - proponents say it organizes features intuitively and exposes previously buried functionality, while detractors say it contradicts years of learning on the part of its users and takes up too much space on screen. If you don't like the Ribbon, I've got more bad news for you: Simons notes, among other things, that users will not be able to switch back to any sort of classic interface.
For a complete list of changes as well as the thinking behind this change, the blog post is very long and very informative as always - just know that it's probably not going to change your mind about the Ribbon if you've already made it up.
Source: Building Windows 8 Blog
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DanNeely - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - link
Glossy is marginally brighter than matte; and in excessively overlit areas (ie 99% of boxmarts) brightness is the single biggest determiner in how good a screen looks.tayb - Monday, August 29, 2011 - link
So you prefer covering up information via a dropdown as opposed to just pushing the information down, while still visible, by expanding the ribbon? Oh the horror.B3an - Monday, August 29, 2011 - link
Why dont you read the MS blog post before commenting?? This is the whole purpose of these posts, to inform people like yourself that always moan about things they know nothing about and then assume stuff that isnt true.MS have removed the "details" pane at the bottom of explorer. So even with the ribbon open you still have the same vertical space to view files. Infact you have slightly MORE space, you can fit two more file lines in. With the ribbon collapsed you get way more vertical space.
The details pane has been moved to the right and is now vertical. In many screenshots the details pane does not appear though, so i suspect it disappears when the ribbon is opened or or something else. Either way it will nicely fill the big empty white space to the right side of Explorer that appears on widescreens. Things have been clearly improved.
Arnulf - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - link
If customers were smart they never would have jumped on the widescreen bandwagon, the fad would simply die and you'd still have comparatively larger real estate screens today.It has become a real pain to find a 4:3 (or 5:4) monitor as of lately :(
UMADBRO - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - link
4.3 and 5.4 aspect ratio monitors need to go die in a fire. Widescree or bust! UMAD?dcollins - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - link
Read the blog post before complaining. The new explorer actually uses less vertical space than the explorer in Windows 7 (two extra files for the same resolution). They compensated for the extra pixels used by the ribbon by moving the details pane from the bottom of the window to the right.mino - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link
Except some are comparing to the explorer which they consider the "useable" version - i.e. the NT 5.x one.As a sidenote, people complaining about vertical estate were most likely not using the details pane in the first place.
sigmatau - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - link
This is so dumb (not your comment but the idea that people are being forced to use 1366 x768). I really can't believe how horrible this has become. I have to read service manuals with a laptop on the field and it is a complete nightmare.You know what's really crazy? Lenovo did a survey about 3 years ago about what screen their customers wanted; matte or glossy. Guess which one got 86% of the vote? It sure in hell wasn't the glossy POS. 8% voted for glossy while the remaining 6% didn't care.
So how in the world did we go from 86%+ not wanting a glossy crap screen to Lenovo not offering one matte screen in their consumer lineup?
Cost anyone?
MrSpadge - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - link
Why we've got glossy:1. Consumers buy it.
2. With glossy manufacturers can extract somewhat saturated colors from cheaper panels - cost down.
sigmatau - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - link
OK, so what are the reason to have a glossy screen? You haven't said anything I haven't already: it all has to do with saving the cheap ass manufacturer some pennies.