Windows 11 File Explorer is getting a bunch of useful new buttons

Unlike in the old days, Windows 11's File Explorer opens by default not to "This PC" with all your drives, but to the new Home page with quick access to user folders, favorites and shared files. To make this experience more useful for Windows 11 users, Microsoft is working on a bunch of new buttons for File Explorer.

The ever-giving source of Windows insights, @phantomofearth, shared a new discovery in their X account. Future Windows 11 updates will make it easier to open file locations on the Home page, ask Copilot about files, or just open the context menu. All those buttons will appear when you hover the cursor over a file, saving you a click. In the current File Explorer version, you can access those commands by right-clicking a file, but you know how slow those menus are, so not having to open them is a welcome change.

Other interesting changes coming soon to Windows 11's File Explorer include the so-called "AI Actions," a new submenu that lets you quickly access certain file features like search in Bing, background blur, object removal, etc. Of course, if you do not need all that, you can always opt for some cool third-party alternatives like the feature-packed Files or the absolute monster of responsiveness and optimizations, File Pilot.

Despite the new features, existing and upcoming, Windows 11's File Explorer still suffers from slow performance and ridiculous bugs, such as flashing windows when opening new tabs. While you can hardly do anything about performance, you can fix those flash bangs with a simple modification, which we covered earlier in a separate post.

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Posted Sunday 17 August 2025 at 7:11 am AEST (my time).

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