Last April, Microsoft open sourced the original File Manager that shipped with Windows 3.0, allowing users to make changes and if they want, compile it for use on Windows 10. Now, the firm is making it easier to run the legacy app, as it’s offering the Windows 3.0 File Manager through the Microsoft Store (via Aggiornamenti Lumia) as a UWP app.
It’s definitely neat to play with this – and it works wonderfully. It also has a few updated features, but retains its classic look.
Pfft. It worked so “wonderfully” back in 90-92 that I kept using the MS-DOS Executive carried over from Windows 2. Once Windows 3.1 came out, *then* I switched to File Manager. 😀
I’ve been using the github classic release of winfile for a little while now. Handy to run over the network or something on some Server Core installs, and I’ve hacked up the source to act as a file browser for a single folder on a client’s remote app server (where you don’t get a desktop just individual apps).
It’s good to have it out, though the MS dev in charge seems to be just injecting some random private changes to the code in a non-modular way (the whole “start bash/cmd/etc” thing should be a plugin not in the core for example).
On a tangent though, It’d be interesting to see whether they can do the same for progman.exe too, though the wine version is pretty much equivalent at this point.
> the MS dev in charge seems to be just injecting some random private changes
In his defense, that’s how the project came to be – he’s been doing that for the last 15 years, and eventually it wound up on github.
> I’ve hacked up the source to…
AFAICT, this seems common. My biggest frustration isn’t the private changes, it’s that the project doesn’t seem to accept contributions that go beyond translations. There’s no real vision of where to go. This means that everyone ends up forking and having their own hacks, with no real canonical development. Arguably the “main” trunk is just the original plus one guy’s changes, so it’s not intrinsically better than any other fork. Or maybe I’m just bitter since I’ve had a PR there since last April that hasn’t gotten a thumbs up/thumbs down/serious alternative proposal (see https://github.com/Microsoft/winfile/pull/122 .)
> It’d be interesting to see whether they can do the same for progman.exe too…
There’s a huge list of MS software that’s been obsoleted or abandoned that I’d love to see get this treatment. No idea how to make it happen…
I’m not THAT fussed about the private changes. Just an observation really.
The hacked up versions I’m running aren’t anything I’d ever want to see introduced to the base tho, they’re quick and dirty and single-purpose.
There’s some clever stuff that could be done with winfile though. Not sure it’s going to happen in the MS core though – CLA and all that.. Maybe a full fork is in order, I dunno.
Still, very happy this has been saved from the dustbin of history!