Hold onto your socks Windows 8 fans, because Microsoft is adding some new enhancements to its file manager application, Windows Explorer, in the next version of its popular operating system. And the first Explorer feature Microsoft wants to show off is: the new copy dialog. Huh?
WE KNOW, we know, copying functions may elicit yawns from many of you, but copying, moving, renaming and deleting files are the most oft-used features of Windows Explorer. Microsoft says these four basic functions account for 50% of all Explorer usage in Windows 7. That means a lot of file management going on for the average Windows 7 user every day.
So while these changes may not be as exciting as say, a brand new touch-centric overlay, improvements to the way Windows handles copying could improve your overall OS experience - as long as you're into copying multiple files, that is.
Instead of having multiple windows open for each file, Windows 8 will automatically merge all copy jobs into one central window. The basic view shows you how many items are being copied in each job, their source and destination folders, and a progress bar. There are also pause and cancel buttons if you'd like to speed up one copy job by putting the
other on hold or cancel one altogether. The source and destination folders are also clickable so you can open up those folders directly from the copy dialog.
If you want more details about your copy job, click on the "More details" disclosure button at the bottom of the window. Opening this up shows you a new real-time throughput graph, speed of data transfer, time remaining and how much data is left to transfer.
Microsoft also says it has improved its time estimates for how long it takes for a copy job to finish, but didn't go into detail about what those improvements are.
Windows 8 has a new way to handle alerts when you are about to copy a file with the same name as another file in your destination folder, a problem Microsoft calls a filename collision. This can happen if you maintain a separate folder for editing photos and don't bother to change the filename. Or, you receive a revised copy of a contract via email and dump it into your contracts folder.
Before Windows 8 lets you overwrite your old file, you'll be met with three choices that are somewhat similar to Windows 7: replace all the old files in the destination folder, skip copying the new files or choose the files to keep in the destination folder.
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