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Microsoft Open-Sources Original File Manager From the 1990s So It Can Run On Windows 10 (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the blast-from-the-past dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Microsoft is releasing the source code for its original Windows File Manager from nearly 28 years ago. Originally released for Windows 3.0, the File Manager was a replacement for managing files through MS-DOS, and allowed Windows users to copy, move, delete, and search for files. While it's a relic from the past, you can still compile the source code Microsoft has released and run the app on Windows 10 today. The source code is available on GitHub, and is maintained by Microsoft veteran Craig Wittenberg under the MIT license. Wittenberg copied the File Manager code from Windows NT 4 back in 2007, and has been maintaining it before open sourcing it recently. It's a testament to the backward compatibility of Windows itself, especially that this was originally included in Windows more than 20 years ago.

1 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Still not better than Norton Commander by bigmacx · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...THE reference file management tool for PC geeks

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander

    I still use Midnight Commander on Linux from time to time, especially for quick side-by-side file/dir moves (the viewing of diff's between them is nice) and searching for content inside lots of files

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Commander