in Windows 8, one thing I really like is the new ribbon interface in Explorer. I know there are a lot of people that probably hate it, but for some reason I do like the ribbon look in Office and now in Explorer on Windows 8. It’s just easier to click on those buttons than having to use keyboard shortcuts or going through menus.
If you’re like me, you might be wondering if there is a way to get the Windows 8 ribbon Explorer interface on Windows 7? I personally find the above screenshot way more useful than the one below:
Well, you’re in luck! Some nice guys having been working on a program called Better Explorer that aims to replace the Windows 7 explorer interface with the one from Windows 8. It’s still in beta right now, but it does a pretty good job.
You can check out their project page here:
Go ahead and download it and then install it. You may be prompted to install Microsoft .NET 4.0 if you don’t already have it on your computer.
Note that as of right now, Better Explorer will not replace the current Explorer window. Better Explorer is a separate Windows Explorer program that you run on your Windows 7 machine. Once installed and started, here’s what the interface looks like:
Pretty sweet! What I like about Better Explorer is that it actually is better. For example, you can do conditional select and you can create tabs, which you can’t do in Windows 8 explorer. The team is adding a lot of features, so be sure to check the project page often as I’m sure they are shooting to have it ready by the time Windows 8 is released publicly.
So for those of you who want to stick with Windows 7 and avoid the whole Metro gala, you can use Better Explorer to get some of the nice desktop enhancements made in Windows 8. Enjoy!