Renaming files

Rename a file in File Explorer either by clicking it once and then again, by right-clicking and choosing rename, or by pressing F2. However you do it, you either need to type the name and the extension, or manually select just the file name and start typing (to preserve the extension). No more in Vista, when you select a file with an extension for rename only the filename portion (not the extension) is selected so you can just type the name of the file and hit enter.

Keeping the current folder in View

Something you’d probably notice a bit sooner is the way that File Explorer keeps your current folder in view. Rather than having a very wide folder browser pane on the left, it is fairly narrow (by default) but you can get away with for two key reasons:

1) The new breadcrumb folder selection at the top of the Explorer pane makes navigating windows much quicker than expanding node after node in a tree.

2) The horizontal scroll automatically keeps your current folder in view

For an instant it seems like a mistake; you think “hey, I’m not doing that!” but then you will smile and appreciate this minor enhancement just enough for it to have been worth Microsoft’s time to include.

Making Copies

I was always just a little annoyed that when making a copy of a file in the same directory, File Explorer would name the copy: “Copy of MyFile.txt”, “Copy (2) of MyFile.txt”, “Copy (3) of MyFile.txt”, and so forth. Why? When sorting by filename (which is typical), the copies would not be located alongside the original. I would always end up renaming copies of files for this reason. Well what does Vista do you ask? It leads the renamed copy with the same file name so it sorts properly: “MyFile Copy.txt”, “MyFile - Copy (2).txt”, “MyFile - Copy (3).txt”, and so forth.

No big deal, right? I agree they are “small deals”, but just plain cool little things that speed day-to-day operations. Over time I’ll happily save seconds of time which eventually add up to minutes, and if I can bank up a half hour of time savings, I’ll create enough time to watch one more episode of the Simpsons!