
History Development įile Explorer was first introduced during Windows 95 development, but did not start out looking like its final design.
1.2.1 Shell Technology Preview/NewShell. Windows 11 redesigned the file manager UI again. In Windows 8, Windows Explorer was renamed to File Explorer and received the ribbon UI. Windows 7 added Libraries to the Explorer experience. Windows Vista saw major changes to Explorer, simplifying the UI somewhat, as well as removing features Microsoft thought were under-utilized. Internet Explorer 4 updated Windows Explorer with a new, web-integrated experience, using the Windows Desktop Update which was incorporated in Windows 98 and later. During the development of Windows 95, several Shell Technology Previews were released for Windows NT 3.51, that brought the new user interface to the NT series. Build 180 is the first leaked build to rename Cabinet to Windows Explorer ( EXPLORER.EXE). It was a 16-bit program ( CABINET.EXE) in this build, and became 32-bit in build 73f ( CAB32.EXE).
The first available build to include it was Windows 95 build 58s, under the name of Cabinet for the shell portion and File Cabinet for the file manager part.
Windows 95 Usability Testing Builds (as File Cabinet)įile Explorer is the application responsible for the Windows user interface (shell) and the default Windows file manager since 1995 with the release of Windows 95. File Explorer in Windows 11 build 22621.160 (light mode)