This stunning Windows 12 File Explorer concept makes the current one look ancient

What if File Explorer was rebuilt for Windows 12? One YouTuber's concept is turning heads with a bold redesign and features Microsoft never tried.

Over the past few years, we have highlighted several futuristic Windows concepts such as Windows 12, Windows 12.2, Windows Classic Remastered, and more. Most of these concepts have come from prolific YouTuber AR 4789, who has been sharing his creations with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Now, the concept creator come up has reimagined File Explorer if it was rebuilt for "Windows 12", and it doesn't just contain cosmetic changes.

The revamp follows Fluent Design principles, complete with rounded corners and transparency effects. You'll notice the pretty aesthetics with vibrant colors, along with "zones" for logical separation of views. It gives the overall UX a much cleaner and modern look.

In terms of new functionalities, the YouTuber has introduced a "Collectzone", which essentially allows you to drag and drop related items into a collection that gets pinned to the navigation pane on the left. It's not clear what functional benefits this offers over a traditional folder experience, but the aesthetics are certainly pretty.

Next, we have a Files Panel, which has been described as a "new way to navigate files". It's an optional UX that you'll see on the right side of the File Explorer which surfaces some of your recent and pinned content. It seems to be heavily inspired by the Start menu with its tiled interface.

After that, we have the integration of Widgets in File Explorer. But these are not just any random Widgets, they seem to be tailored to File Explorer itself. Apart from highlighting content and collections, they also contain details about storage utilization.

And as expected, we have a dark mode too, but it seems to follow a more refined color scheme rather than just being black.

The Properties UI has been modernized too, and is a lot more colorful and icon-based, rather than being walls of text.

AR 4789 has also introduced a file restoration experience, but of course, the impact on storage might not make this a feasible implementation in reality.

Meanwhile, the Gallery now has a "Filmstrip" view, which is actually a carousel that allows you to move between images. This could actually be useful.

And, of course, you simply can't have a piece of software in 2026 without AI integrated in some way. So, the concept creator has introduced AI-powered search results, which rely on the semantic meaning of your prompt rather than doing a lexical matching with file names.

There are other smaller changes in tow too, such as colored folder icons and tags. You can check them out in their full glory in the YouTube video below:

All that said, it is always important to keep in mind that concepts are one thing and reality is another. It is relatively easier to photoshop a bunch of pretty interfaces, but a lot more difficult to build an actually functional piece of software that will work seamlessly for over a billion customers without breaking compatibility and without requiring a steep learning curve. As such, it is OK to enjoy and praise these aesthetic concepts, while also being wary that they might be too radical or confusing for the masses, were they to launch in real life.

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Posted Monday 9 March 2026 at 6:12 am AEST (my time).

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