Continuing its recent "opening the kimono" trend, Microsoft's Steve Sinofsky last night posted about some changes to file management--i.e. copy, move, rename, and delete--in Windows 8.
"We wanted to do an early Windows 8 post about one of the most used features, and one we have not improved substantially in a long time," he writes. "With the increasing amount of local storage measured in terabytes, containing photos (in multiple formats and very large files), music, and video, these common operations are being taxed in new ways. These changes, along with consistent feedback about what we could improve, have inspired us to take a fresh look and redesign these operations."
According to Sinofksy, the changes break down like so:
- Improvements in the experience of high-volume copying
- Improvements in dealing with file name collisions
- Improvements in assuring the successful completion of copy jobs
With this as background, Microsoft has three main goals for improving the copy experience:
- One place to manage all copy jobs: Create one unified experience for managing and monitoring ongoing copy operations
- Clear and concise: Remove distractions and give people the key information they need
- User in control: Put people in control of their copy operations
A bunch of specifics ensue, and you should read the whole post (sorry) for the full story. But some highlights include a consolidated Copy dialog (as on the Mac; currently, Windows uses a different dialog for each copy operation), the ability to pause, resume, and stop any copy job, and a new Details view that provides a lot more information about file copying. There's also a nice new experience for dealing with filename collisions.
This seems like a small thing, I know. But I like what I see here, and I guess this falls under the category of Microsoft reexamining every little piece of the system.