The New File Explorer in Windows 11: Tabs, Home, Gallery & Every Change

The new File Explorer in Windows 11 adds tabs (Ctrl + T), a Home page with Quick Access, Favorites and Recent files, a Gallery for photos, a redesigned Details pane (Alt + Shift + P), a simpler command bar in place of the old ribbon, and a compact right-click menu. It can also open RAR and 7z archives, and on 24H2 or later it can create 7z and TAR files. Open it with Windows + E. Most of the classic options are still there: open View > Show for file name extensions and hidden items, See more (…) > Options for Folder Options, and Show more options on the right-click menu for the full Windows 10 menu. Windows 10's File Explorer does not get these changes.

Ethan's mother upgraded to Windows 11 and called him in a mild panic: "They've broken the folders." The ribbon was gone, the right-click menu had shrunk, and her photos were in something called Gallery. Ethan took the laptop to Jake's shop on Saturday. Jake spent fifteen minutes showing her the new File Explorer: tabs for her Documents and Pictures side by side, Gallery for photos from her phone, Favorites on Home for the three folders she always uses, and View > Show for the options she had relied on for years. "It's the same Explorer," he told her, "with better shelves." By Monday she preferred it. This page is that fifteen-minute tour, plus everything Jake did not have time to show her.

Features arrived over several Windows 11 updates from 2022 to 2025. If something on this page is missing, check your version in Settings > System > About and install the latest updates.

What changed: the new File Explorer at a glance

None of this changes where your files are stored. Documents, Pictures, Downloads and every other folder are exactly where they were in Windows 10; only the window around them changed.

When each feature arrived

Some features rolled out gradually through monthly updates rather than on a version's release day, so two PCs on the same version may briefly differ.

To see which version you have, press Windows + R, type winver and press Enter.

Tabs: several folders in one window

File Explorer tabs work like browser tabs. Press Ctrl + T or select the + button next to the current tab to open a new tab, which starts at Home. Navigate to any folder in it. Press Ctrl + W to close the current tab, and Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + Shift + Tab to move between tabs. Drag tabs left and right to reorder them.

• Open a folder in a new tab: right-click a folder and choose Open in new tab, or middle-click it.
• Move files between tabs: drag files onto another tab's title, wait a moment until that tab opens, and drop them in the folder.
• Tear off a tab: on current versions, drag a tab out of the window to open it in a new window, and drag it back to merge.
• Close other tabs: right-click a tab for options such as closing tabs to the right.

Ethan's mother keeps two tabs open all the time: Documents on the left, Pictures on the right. Moving a scanned letter from Downloads to Documents is now a drag to a tab rather than a juggle of two windows.

File Explorer does not reopen your tabs after a restart unless you turn that on. Open See more (…) > Options, and on the General tab, check Restore previous folder windows at logon. On recent versions, the windows come back with their tabs.

Tabs or windows: when to use which

Tabs suit folders you move between often, such as Downloads and Documents. Separate windows still suit side-by-side work: snap two File Explorer windows to the left and right halves of the screen with Windows + Left and Windows + Right, and drag files across. Since a torn-off tab becomes its own window, you can switch between the two styles at any time. File Explorer has no built-in two-pane view in one window, which is the main reason power users still keep two windows snapped.

On a large monitor, try three snapped windows using Snap layouts: hover over the maximize button and choose a three-column layout.

Home: Quick Access, Favorites and Recent

Home is File Explorer's starting page. It replaced the Quick Access page from Windows 10 and has three parts:

• Quick access: pinned folders at the top, the same pins that appear in the left pane. Right-click any folder and choose Pin to Quick access to add it.
• Favorites: individual files you have starred. Right-click a file and choose Add to Favorites; Office files you star on the web appear here too when you sign in with the same account.
• Recent: files you opened recently, with the folder they live in. Work or school accounts may see a Recommended section with files shared with you.

If you would rather File Explorer opened to This PC, showing your drives, open See more (…) > Options and change Open File Explorer to. To stop Recent files appearing on Home, uncheck Show recently used files in the Privacy section of the same dialog; our guide to hiding recent files covers every switch, including clearing the history.

Pin folders to Start and the taskbar

Quick access is not the only place to keep folders handy. Right-click a folder and choose Pin to Start to add it to the Start menu's pinned apps. To pin a folder to File Explorer's taskbar icon, drag the folder onto the File Explorer icon on the taskbar; it appears when you right-click that icon, in the jump list. In Settings > Personalization > Start > Folders, you can also add shortcuts such as Documents, Downloads and Pictures next to the power button on the Start menu.

Pick one place per folder; the same folder pinned in three spots adds clutter rather than speed.

Gallery: your photos in one place

Gallery, in the left pane below Home, shows photos and videos from your Pictures folder, and from OneDrive's camera roll if you use it, as one timeline sorted by date taken, newest first. It is designed for the common case of photos arriving from a phone through OneDrive, and it lets you scroll years of photos without opening folders.

• Add more folders: select Collection on the command bar, then Manage collection, and add or remove folders.
• Filter: use Collection to show only one folder at a time, such as Camera Roll.
• Change thumbnail size: use the View menu or hold Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel.
• Jump by date: drag the scroll bar, which shows dates as you move.
• Open a photo: double-click it to open it in the Photos app or your default viewer.

Gallery does not copy or move photos; it only shows them from the folders in its collection. Deleting a photo in Gallery deletes the real file, so be as careful there as in any folder. If you do not use it, you can hide it from the left pane with a registry change, but most people simply ignore it.

OneDrive status icons in File Explorer

If you use OneDrive, File Explorer shows a status icon next to each file and folder in OneDrive and in folders backed up to it, such as Desktop, Documents and Pictures:

• Blue cloud outline: online-only. The file takes no space on your PC and downloads when you open it. It needs an internet connection to open.
• Green check in a white circle: available on this device because you opened it; Storage Sense may make it online-only again later.
• Solid green circle with a white check: always kept on this device, set with Always keep on this device.
• Two blue arrows: syncing in progress.
• Red circle with a cross: sync problem; select the OneDrive icon in the taskbar corner for details.

Right-click any OneDrive file or folder to choose Always keep on this device or Free up space. Before traveling without internet, mark the folders you will need as always kept. Our guide to finding and opening OneDrive covers checking sync status.

The Details pane and Preview pane

Press Alt + Shift + P, or open View > Details pane, to show the redesigned Details pane on the right. Select a file to see a larger thumbnail, its size, type, dates, location and, for cloud files, sharing status and recent activity. You can share a file from the pane and, for photos, see the camera details. It is useful when you need file information without opening Properties.

The Preview pane, toggled with Alt + P or View > Preview pane, shows the contents of many files, such as PDFs, images, text and Office documents, without opening them. Only one of the two panes shows at a time. If PDF previews stopped working after a recent update, our guide to fixing PDF preview in File Explorer explains the change and the fix.

The Details pane remembers whether it was open, so if you like it, turn it on once and it stays. On small laptop screens, the Preview pane is often more useful, since it shows the document itself; switch between them with their shortcuts as the task changes.

The command bar: where the ribbon options went

Windows 10's ribbon, with its Home, Share and View tabs, was replaced by a single command bar. It holds the actions people use most: New (folder or file), Cut, Copy, Paste, Rename, Share and Delete as icons, then Sort, View and See more (…).

1. View changes the layout: extra large to small icons, list, details, tiles, content, and Compact view, which reduces spacing.
2. View > Show holds the options people miss most: Navigation pane, Details pane, Preview pane, Item check boxes, File name extensions and Hidden items.
3. Sort sets the order and grouping, such as by name, date modified or type.
4. See more (…) contains Undo, Select all, Select none, Invert selection, Properties and Options, which opens the classic Folder Options dialog.

The command bar changes slightly with context: select a picture and you may see options to rotate it or set it as the desktop background; open This PC and you will see options to map a network drive.

If the window is narrow, some command bar buttons move into See more (…); widen the window to bring them back. Hovering over any icon shows its name, which helps while you learn the new layout.

The new right-click menu

Right-clicking a file in Windows 11 shows a compact menu: cut, copy, rename, share and delete as icons along the top or bottom, then the most common commands such as Open with, Compress to, Copy as path, Properties and options added by well-behaved apps. Many older programs' entries appear only in the full menu.

To see the full Windows 10-style menu, select Show more options at the bottom, or press Shift + F10 with a file selected, or hold Shift while right-clicking. Advanced users can bring the classic menu back as the default with a registry change that adds an empty InprocServer32 key under the class ID {86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2} in the current user's CLSID registry branch, then restarting Explorer; deleting that key restores the new menu. Back up the registry before editing it, and expect that a future update could change this behavior.

The compact menu also hides Open with choices behind a submenu. Select Open with > Choose another app to pick a program for one file, and check Always to make it the default for that file type; defaults for every type are in Settings > Apps > Default apps.

Share files from File Explorer

Select a file and choose Share on the command bar or right-click menu to open the Windows share window. From there you can send the file by email, share it to apps such as Teams or WhatsApp if installed, copy a link for OneDrive files, or send it to a nearby PC with Nearby sharing.

To use Nearby sharing, turn it on in Settings > System > Nearby sharing on both PCs, choosing My devices only or Everyone nearby. It uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, needs both PCs close together, and shows the other PC's name in the share window. It is the quickest way to move a file between two family laptops without a USB stick or email. For OneDrive files, sharing creates a link with view or edit permissions, so the recipient always sees the latest version.

For large files, OneDrive links avoid email attachment limits entirely: share a link instead of the file, and the recipient downloads it from the cloud.

Copying, moving and replacing files

Drag files to move them within the same drive and to copy them between drives; hold Ctrl while dragging to force a copy, or Shift to force a move. When a file with the same name already exists, Windows asks whether to Replace it, Skip it, or Compare info for both files, which lets you choose file by file and keep both with a number added to the name. During large copies, the progress window shows speed and time left; select More details to see a graph, and pause or cancel if needed.

Press Ctrl + Z straight after a move, copy, rename or delete to undo it. It is the fastest fix for a file dragged into the wrong folder.

Selecting files quickly

Click one file, then hold Shift and click another to select everything between them. Hold Ctrl and click to add or remove single files. Press Ctrl + A to select everything in the folder, and use See more > Invert selection to swap selected and unselected files, handy for keeping a few files and deleting the rest. With item check boxes on, a box appears as you hover over each file, making multi-select possible with clicks alone.

To select files by type, sort by Type first, then Shift-click the first and last file of that type.

Open and create RAR, 7z and TAR files

For years, Windows could open only ZIP files without extra software. Windows 11 version 23H2 added built-in support for opening many archive formats, including RAR, 7z, TAR, tar.gz and others. Double-click the archive to browse it like a folder, or right-click and choose Extract All.

Windows 11 version 24H2 added creating archives in more formats. Right-click files or folders, choose Compress to, and pick ZIP File, 7z File or TAR File. Additional options lets you choose the compression method and level. For password-protected archives or very large archives, a dedicated tool such as 7-Zip is still more capable, but for everyday zipping and unzipping, nothing extra is needed now.

One limit to know: Windows cannot add a password to a ZIP or 7z archive it creates. For encrypted archives, use a dedicated archiver or encrypt the files another way, such as BitLocker To Go on a USB drive.

The address bar, search and navigation

The address bar shows your location as a breadcrumb trail: select any part to jump there, or the small arrow between parts to see sibling folders. Select an empty area of the address bar, or press Ctrl + L or Alt + D, to see and copy the full path, or type a path to go there. For folders in OneDrive, the address bar shows sync status.

The search box, at the right of the address bar, searches the current folder and its subfolders. Press Ctrl + E or Ctrl + F to jump to it. Results appear as you type, and the Search options let you filter by date, type and size. If search stops returning results, our guide to File Explorer search not working covers the indexing fixes.

Navigation buttons at the top left go back, forward, up one level and refresh. Alt + Left goes back, Alt + Right forward and Alt + Up up one folder.

Search smarter with filters

File Explorer search understands simple filters that narrow results quickly. Type them in the search box, alone or with words:

• *.pdf finds every PDF in the folder and its subfolders.
• kind:picture or kind:video filters by type.
• datemodified:this week finds files changed this week; datemodified:last month works too.
• size:>1GB finds large files, handy for freeing space.
• name:invoice matches only file names, not contents.
• invoice AND 2026 or invoice OR receipt combine terms.

Start a search in the most specific folder you can; searching all of This PC is slower, especially for folders that are not indexed.

Saved searches are possible too: after a search, select See more > Save search, and the search appears in a Searches folder you can pin to Quick access.

The left navigation pane

The left pane shows Home and Gallery at the top, then your OneDrive account if signed in, then pinned Quick Access folders, then This PC, network locations and, on some PCs, Linux distributions installed with Windows Subsystem for Linux. Right-click an empty part of the pane to choose Show all folders, which adds Desktop, Control Panel and the Recycle Bin, and Expand to open folder, which keeps the tree in step with where you are.

To hide the pane entirely, use View > Show > Navigation pane. Pinned folders can be reordered by dragging them in the pane.

This PC, drives and network locations

This PC shows your drives with free space bars, any connected phones or cameras, and mapped network drives. To connect a shared folder on another PC or a network storage device as a drive letter, open This PC and select See more (…) > Map network drive, choose a letter, and enter the share's address, such as \\NAS\Photos. Check Reconnect at sign-in to keep it.

For a quick one-off visit, type the network address straight into the address bar instead. Network in the left pane lists other devices sharing files on your network, if network discovery is on for a private network. Libraries, a Windows 7 feature that combines several folders into one view, are hidden by default but still available: right-click an empty part of the left pane and choose Show libraries.

Phones, cameras and USB drives

When you connect a phone, camera or USB drive, it appears under This PC. For an Android phone, choose File transfer in the phone's USB notification so its storage shows up. For an iPhone, unlock it and select Trust on the phone; File Explorer then shows its photos in the DCIM folder. To import photos neatly into dated folders, right-click the device and choose Import pictures and videos, or use the Photos app's Import button. Before unplugging a USB drive, select the eject arrow next to it in the left pane, or use the safely remove icon in the taskbar corner, so writes finish.

If a phone does not appear at all, try a different cable; many cheap cables charge only and carry no data.

File Explorer keyboard shortcuts

Two shortcuts make the biggest difference for most people: Ctrl + T for tabs, and Ctrl + Shift + N for a new folder without hunting for the New button.

Columns, grouping and sorting in Details view

Details view, chosen from View > Details or with Ctrl + Shift + 6, shows files in columns: name, date modified, type and size by default. Right-click any column header to add others, such as Date created, Dimensions for photos, Length for audio and video, or Authors for documents; choose More for the full list. Drag column headers to reorder them, and drag the dividers to resize.

Select a column header to sort by it, and select it again to reverse the order. Use Sort > Group by on the command bar to group files, for example by type or by date modified, which splits a crowded Downloads folder into Today, Yesterday, Earlier this week and so on. To apply the same columns to every similar folder, use Apply to Folders in Folder Options.

Group by is saved per folder, so a grouped Downloads folder does not affect how Documents looks. To remove grouping, choose Sort > Group by > (None).

Folder Options still exist

The classic Folder Options dialog is unchanged from Windows 10. Open it from See more (…) > Options. The General tab sets what File Explorer opens to, whether each folder opens in the same window, single- or double-click to open, and privacy options for Home. The View tab holds dozens of advanced settings, such as showing full paths in the title bar, hiding protected operating system files, showing drive letters and launching folder windows in a separate process. The Search tab controls how searches handle file contents and system folders.

Select Apply to Folders on the View tab to use the current folder's view, such as Details with certain columns, for all folders of the same type. Select Reset Folders to undo it.

File properties: Unblock and previous versions

Press Alt + Enter or choose Properties to see a file's details. On the General tab of a file downloaded from the internet, you may see a Security note with an Unblock checkbox. It marks files from the web so Windows and Office treat them cautiously; only unblock files you trust. The Details tab shows and edits metadata such as titles, tags and photo information, and offers Remove Properties and Personal Information to strip details before sharing.

The Previous Versions tab lists older copies of a file or folder if File History or restore points captured them. It can rescue a document you overwrote by mistake, but only if one of those features was on before the change.

Dark mode, text size and accessibility

File Explorer follows Windows' color mode: choose Dark in Settings > Personalization > Colors > Choose your mode to make it dark. To make text larger everywhere, including File Explorer, use Settings > Accessibility > Text size; for larger icons only, use the View menu or hold Ctrl and scroll. Our guide to changing icon size covers all three places icons appear. Item check boxes, from View > Show, help anyone who finds Ctrl-clicking to select several files awkward, especially on touchscreens.

High contrast themes, under Settings > Accessibility > Contrast themes, also apply to File Explorer and can make folder outlines and selections far easier to see.

Windows 10 users: what you have instead

Windows 10's File Explorer keeps the ribbon, Quick Access as the start page and the full right-click menu, and it did not receive tabs, Gallery or the new archive support. Windows 10 reached end of support in October 2025; PCs enrolled in Extended Security Updates get security fixes only, not new features. If your PC can run Windows 11, upgrading brings every feature on this page. Our guide to opening File Explorer covers both versions side by side.

Most of the keyboard shortcuts on this page, such as Alt + P, Ctrl + Shift + N and Alt + Up, work the same on Windows 10, so learning them now pays off on both versions.

The 2016 "new File Explorer" this page first described

When this page was first written in 2016, Windows 10 contained a hidden, touch-friendly File Explorer built as a modern app. It could be opened only with a special shortcut to its app ID, and it was very limited: basic browsing, copying and sharing, with large touch targets. Enthusiasts hoped it would replace the classic Explorer. It never shipped as a finished app. Instead, Microsoft modernized the classic File Explorer step by step in Windows 11, keeping its power and adding the newer design, which is the version this page now describes.

The lesson Microsoft drew from that experiment shows in today's design: rather than a separate simplified app, it kept one File Explorer and made the everyday actions easier to reach, leaving the advanced options a click deeper for people who need them.

Ten tips for getting comfortable quickly

1. Turn on File name extensions in View > Show, so you can tell a PDF from a program.
2. Pin your three most-used folders to Quick access.
3. Use tabs instead of several windows.
4. Star important files with Add to Favorites.
5. Turn on the Details pane while you get used to the layout.
6. Learn Shift + F10 for the full right-click menu.
7. Use Gallery for phone photos instead of digging through Camera Roll folders.
8. Try Compact view if items feel too spread out.
9. Use Copy as path from the right-click menu when you need a file's full location.
10. Restore previous folder windows at logon if you like picking up where you left off.

Recycle Bin and recovering deleted files

Deleting a file from File Explorer moves it to the Recycle Bin, from which you can restore it: open the Recycle Bin from the desktop or by typing it into the address bar, select the file and choose Restore the selected items. Pressing Shift + Delete skips the Recycle Bin and deletes permanently, so use it with care. Files deleted from network drives and some removable drives do not go to the Recycle Bin at all. Files deleted from OneDrive go to OneDrive's own recycle bin online, where they can be restored for 30 days with a personal account.

The Recycle Bin's size limit is set per drive in its Properties; when it fills, the oldest files are removed first.

PowerToys add-ons for File Explorer

Microsoft's free PowerToys utilities, installed from the Microsoft Store, add several File Explorer features that Windows itself lacks:

• PowerRename: rename many files at once with search and replace, including patterns.
• Image Resizer: resize photos from the right-click menu.
• File Locksmith: shows which program is locking a file you cannot delete or move.
• Peek: a quick full-size preview of the selected file with a shortcut.
• Extra preview handlers: preview more file types, such as SVG images and code files, in the Preview pane.

Each tool can be turned on or off separately in PowerToys settings, so you can add only what you need. They are a good answer to "File Explorer can't do X" for many everyday tasks.

PowerToys updates often and adds new tools regularly; open its settings now and then to see what is new, and turn off anything you do not use to keep menus tidy.

What the new File Explorer still lacks

Even after several years of updates, a few things people ask for are not built in: a two-pane layout in one window, batch renaming with patterns without PowerToys, saved tab sessions you can name and reopen, password-protected archives, and folder size shown in Details view. Third-party file managers fill these gaps for power users. For most people, tabs, Home, Gallery and the restored classic options cover daily needs, and PowerToys handles much of the rest.

Microsoft continues to update File Explorer through monthly and yearly updates, so it is worth checking the release notes after each feature update; several items people once listed as missing, such as tabs and RAR support, have since arrived.

How Jake set up File Explorer for Ethan's mother

1. Opened File Explorer to Home, with Documents, Pictures and Downloads pinned to Quick access.
2. Starred her budget spreadsheet and address list as Favorites.
3. Turned on file name extensions and item check boxes.
4. Set Restore previous folder windows at logon, so her two tabs come back.
5. Added her OneDrive Camera Roll to Gallery's collection.
6. Marked her Documents folder as Always keep on this device for times without internet.
7. Showed her Ctrl + Z and the Recycle Bin for mistakes.

Each step took under a minute, and together they turned an unfamiliar window into one she now finds easier than the old one.

If you are helping a relative through the same upgrade, the order matters: pin the folders and turn on extensions first, so the familiar things are visible before you introduce tabs and Gallery.

When File Explorer misbehaves

The new File Explorer is more complex than the old one, and problems with tabs, Home or Gallery usually come down to a few causes. If File Explorer is slow to open or hangs on Home, clear the recent files history in Folder Options. If it crashes or freezes, our guide to File Explorer crashing or freezing covers restarting Explorer, checking for bad shell extensions and repairing system files. If copying to or from a network location fails with a timeout, our guide to "The wait operation timed out" explains the fixes. And if ads or OneDrive suggestions appear in File Explorer, our page on turning off ads in File Explorer lists the switch.

Restart File Explorer without restarting the PC

If File Explorer, the taskbar or the Start menu freezes, restarting the Windows Explorer process often fixes it in seconds. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, find Windows Explorer in the Processes list, select it and choose Restart task. The taskbar disappears for a moment and returns; open File Explorer windows close, so note what you had open. If the problem keeps coming back, look for a recently installed app that adds right-click menu entries, as faulty shell extensions are a common cause.

Questions people ask after upgrading

• "Where is Quick Access?" It is the top section of Home and the pinned list in the left pane.
• "Where are Copy and Paste?" They are icons on the command bar and the right-click menu, and Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V still work.
• "Where is the Share tab?" Share is a single button on the command bar.
• "Where did my libraries go?" Hidden by default; right-click the left pane and choose Show libraries.
• "Why is my right-click menu missing my apps?" Older apps appear under Show more options.
• "How do I see folder sizes?" Open the folder's Properties, or check Storage in Settings.

Windows 11 File Explorer: frequently asked questions

Ethan's mother now uses File Explorer more than she did on Windows 10. Two tabs, Documents and Pictures, stay open all day; her grandchildren's photos arrive in Gallery from her phone without her doing anything; and the three folders she cares about sit at the top of Home. The ribbon she thought she would miss turned out to be mostly buttons she never pressed. Jake's line about "better shelves" stuck: the files never moved, the room just got easier to find things in.

Revision note. Written October 2, 2026, rewriting our 2016 note on Windows 10's hidden modern File Explorer into a complete guide to the new File Explorer in Windows 11. May every file you need be one tab away.