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xpclient
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With Windows 8, Windows Explorer's status bar has taken a major step back. From Windows 95 to Windows XP - Explorer has had this very useful STATUS BAR that displayed very useful information at a glance.
In Windows Vista, two features were removed:
Classic Shell fixed it again.
In Windows 8, again these features are removed and the only feature left now is total number of items, items selected and size of selected items (but only up to 99 files)
I was told this info was removed for performance reasons because calculating size is computationally intensive or some bullshit reason like this but that is unacceptable. Having the status bar show this info from Windows 95 to Windows XP didn't make these Windows versions unacceptably slow or unusable, this is a feature power users need all the time. At most, Microsoft should just disable this info by default but not take it out.
This is the status bar from Windows 7 with Classic Shell installed. (It can fix all of status bar issues on Windows 7/Vista).
And this is the status bar on Windows 8:
Plus, in Windows 8, the status bar control is no longer a standard status bar control but uses some private undocumented control (DirectUI stuff). So Classic Shell is no longer able to fix these issues ever. Also, if Classic Shell wants to add its own bar, Explorer provides no notification when the selection changes.
Even for total size of selected files, Windows 8 Explorer status bar only shows sizes up to 99 files. Select more than 100 files and the status bar doesn't show size any more.
Why is it that Microsoft continually makes changes to Explorer that make users' life more difficult, remove features and now does not even allow third parties to fix Explorer problems by making use of private controls instead of standard Windows UI controls??
The very least expectation is an option to turn this on even if Microsoft chooses by default to not show any of the information (just add all the details back to status bar but keep them off by default).
Every time I need to see free disk space, I don't wish to go to My Computer, nor do I wish to do Ctrl-A, then de-select subfolders, just to simply view size of all files.
Changes like these are what kept me on Windows XP for a long time until Classic Shell arrived and now they will keep me on Windows 7. Please fix the status bar and just turn off the info, don't remove it.
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In Windows Vista, two features were removed:
- Total size of
ALL
files in a folder on the status bar without selecting them all, then excluding folders
- Tooltip information of single selected fileClassic Shell fixed that.
In Windows 7, again three features were removed:
- Free disk space on any volume at the current location
- Computer zone
- Total size of
In Windows 7, again three features were removed:
- Free disk space on any volume at the current location
- Computer zone
- Total size of
selected
files (not total size of all files, but selected files)
Classic Shell fixed it again.
In Windows 8, again these features are removed and the only feature left now is total number of items, items selected and size of selected items (but only up to 99 files)
I was told this info was removed for performance reasons because calculating size is computationally intensive or some bullshit reason like this but that is unacceptable. Having the status bar show this info from Windows 95 to Windows XP didn't make these Windows versions unacceptably slow or unusable, this is a feature power users need all the time. At most, Microsoft should just disable this info by default but not take it out.
This is the status bar from Windows 7 with Classic Shell installed. (It can fix all of status bar issues on Windows 7/Vista).
And this is the status bar on Windows 8:
Plus, in Windows 8, the status bar control is no longer a standard status bar control but uses some private undocumented control (DirectUI stuff). So Classic Shell is no longer able to fix these issues ever. Also, if Classic Shell wants to add its own bar, Explorer provides no notification when the selection changes.
Even for total size of selected files, Windows 8 Explorer status bar only shows sizes up to 99 files. Select more than 100 files and the status bar doesn't show size any more.
Why is it that Microsoft continually makes changes to Explorer that make users' life more difficult, remove features and now does not even allow third parties to fix Explorer problems by making use of private controls instead of standard Windows UI controls??
The very least expectation is an option to turn this on even if Microsoft chooses by default to not show any of the information (just add all the details back to status bar but keep them off by default).
Every time I need to see free disk space, I don't wish to go to My Computer, nor do I wish to do Ctrl-A, then de-select subfolders, just to simply view size of all files.
Ctrl+A to quickly see the size doesn't work as it doesn't show the size even if a single subfolder is selected, so I have to specifically exclude folders from the selection.
Some examples of users asking about the status bar:
1.
Some examples of users asking about the status bar:
1.
Explorer Status Bar Needs More Info in Win7
2.
File Explorer's Status Bar lost important size/space info from WinXP
3.
How Can I Enable File Features in Explorer Status Bar?
4.
Drive "free space" is missing in Windows Explorer, why?
5.
How to see free disk space in Explorer status bar?
6.
How do I make the status bar in Explorer work properly?
7.
Free space not displayed in Windows Explorer.
8.
Windows Explorer Status bar... missing file status information
9.
"Disk free space" indicator on status bar in Windows Explorer
10.
Free space in status bar not there in Explorer anymore
11.
In Windows XP Pro, there was folder size stated. Is that available in Vista?
12.
Please include Folder Size in Explorer's "Details Pane"
Changes like these are what kept me on Windows XP for a long time until Classic Shell arrived and now they will keep me on Windows 7. Please fix the status bar and just turn off the info, don't remove it.
More...