This app is what Windows 11's File Explorer should look like, but it's not perfect

The Files app is one I've heard about for a long time, though when it started out, it didn't really feel like it could be a viable alternative. Today, though, the app has a ton of features and has improved to the point where it's actually compelling to use as a replacement for File Explorer. It looks fantastic and much more modern than Microosft's official offering, plus it has some very useful features. However, it's held back by some problems that make it hard to use as a full replacement.

About this review: The Files app is free and the developer provided no input in the content of this review.

Pricing and availability

The Files app has been around for many years, and it's completely free to download if you go through the developer's website. However, you can support the development of the app by downloading it on the Microsoft Store, where it costs $8.

There's also a public preview version if you want to try new features and enhancements. However, we didn't go that route for this review.

What I like

A very modern design

Microsoft redesigned Windows 11 significantly compared to Windows 10, and to the company's credit, File Explorer did also change a lot in order to look the part on this new version of Windows. But really, it's just a modern wrapper on a UI that still feels like it's over a decade old. This is the primary selling point of the Files app, and honestly, it nails it.

The entire app is designed to follow the Windows 11 design language, so every part of it looks modern, from the header, to the navigation tree on the side, to the main area itself. It all looks and feels like it belongs on Windows 11, much more so than the actual File Explorer Microsoft gives us. There are other alternatives that also feel modern, like OneCommander, but this is the closest to Microsoft's design guidelines.

In fact, the Files app goes much further than I'd expect. Even the Properties dialog is completely redone, so it follows the same design language and respects your system theme. You can even change file access permissions and everything, all using this totally modernized UI, it's truly great to see.

There are also some great customization options, with some default color themes to choose from, but also fine-tuning options o you can choose just the right color and transparency for your windows. Windows 11's Mica material is a bit more stringent when it comes to how much of a difference these customizations make, but you can also switch to the Windows 10-style Acrylic material, which is more transparent. I kind of prefer it, frankly, since the Mica material can sometimes look too plain unless there's some heavily contrasting colors on your desktop background.

Tagging files can be very helpful

If I'm being perfectly honest, tags aren't a feature I really thought I needed, but I've heard about how useful they can be if you want to find files in a folder based on something more concise than just the name or a date. File Explorer doesn't really give you a way to tag your files outside of just storing them in different folders, but you can't really do that for everything. For example, if you're modding a game, you might want to tag the files related to that mod, but they still need to be in a specific folder and have a certain name for the mod to work. In these cases, tags play an important role.

Thankfully, the Files app implements tags of its own, with a few default ones but also the ability to create or remove tags as you see fit, so you can associate any file with anything you want. You can also group and sort files by tags, so you can easily find what you're looking for inside a large folder. In concept, this is great, though the execution has some problems, as I'll explain later.

A split view

Moving files between folders is one of the most common things you can do on your computer that somehow feels like it hasn't been accounted for in File Explorer. Sure, you can open two File Explorer windows or tabs, but having two folders visible side by side in the same window makes things so much easier, and that's another big benefit of the Files app.

The app lets you have a split view in each tab, though you can only view two folders at a time. You can't split the window further than that, but this is still a fantastic addition if you want to move files around between different folders, especially if it involves going into different directories in each one. You can even set the app to open in split view by default, so you always have two folders side by side.

There are some ways I think this could be improved, such as having the option to take two existing tabs and turn them into a split view. But overall, this is an excellent feature to have.

It can actually be your default file manager

One little thing worth mentioning is that the Files app also uses a hack that allows it to replace File Explorer as your default file manager. This does require editing the registry since Windows doesn't let you choose a default file manager, but Files does this automatically. Once you do this, whenever an action would open the File Explorer, it will open the Files app instead. However, enabling this means you have to revert it if you uninstall the app, otherwise you may not be able to use File Explorer anymore.

There is a limitation to this, and that's using the file picker when uploading a file. This part can't be replaced, so you'll still see the standard File Explorer window when choosing a file to upload or send somewhere.

Otherwise, though, you're not making big sacrifices with this. It integrates with OneDrive similar to File Explorer, and you can actually see files from a bunch of different cloud providers if you install the respective app, so it's a great way to manage files across platforms.

The compact overlay view

I don't know if I'm alone in this, but one thing that can sometimes be frustrating is trying to upload or move files into an app and have that app cover the File Explorer window, or having the opposite happen and making it harder to drag files into the right location. The Files app helps fix this by using a "compact overlay" view.

Essentially, this allows Files to always be shown on top, so no other apps can cover it. It's a little thing, but it can come in handy sometimes, and you can turn it on or off as needed.

What I don't like

It can be slow

Windows 11's File Explorer isn't the fastest thing in the world, but overall, I've felt like the Files app is generally a bit slower. It takes a little longer to start up, and even longer still to properly load the content of a folder. It may be because it was designed to be a "modern" or "universal" app, with an SDK that's often derided for not having the best performance. Either way, for the end user, this means the experience isn't the best, and I've found myself having to wait a split second longer for something to load properly.

It probably doesn't help that every time you open Files, it also re-opens your previous session by default, so you have multiple folders opening at the same time. Thankfully, this part can be changed, and it does help a bit, but performance is still an issue.

Tag sorting doesn't always work

While tags can be super useful in concept, I've found that it doesn't actually work all that well. If you want to separate files with different tags, you have to choose to group them by tags, which makes sense. The problem is doing this doesn't always work. When you first change the grouping settings, they're applied normally, but if you open that folder again, there's a good chance all the files will be shown under the "Untagged" category, even if you can see a tag right next to them.

This has happened to me very consistently, and to fix it, you just have to change the grouping method and then change it back. However, it's still a very annoying problem, and the fact that it hasn't been fixed months after my initial review is a little frustrating. I'd love to see it fixed, as it would give me reasons to use this instead of another alternative.

You can't rename multiple files

One restriction I've found to be incredibly annoying is that the Files app doesn't let you rename multiple files at once. This is something the Windows 11 File Explorer can do, but it's kind of hidden in the sense that you only see the name change for one file as you type it, so you might think it's only affecting that one file. In fact, all the selected files will have the new name (with incremental numbers).

Missing this feature is a big deal since I use it a lot, and I suspect many people do. I would even say the Files app could have improved upon it by making it more apparent you're renaming multiple files, but instead, it doesn't work at all. It's been a few months since I initially reviewed Files, but this capability still hasn't been added, which is a bummer.

Should you get the Files app?

Being that it's a free app, I can't really think of a reason why you wouldn't at least give Files a shot. The design language is great and it has some genuinely useful features, even if they're held back by some annoying bugs. You can give it a shot and even contribute to the development of the app, since it's open source on GitHub.

However, if you're looking for something to fix all your File Explorer woes, I don't think this app is it, at least not in its current state. I'd love to see that change in the future, though.

You should get the Files app if:

• You want a taste of what File Explorer should look like
• You could use a split-view mode for managing your files
• You want to tag your files to make them easier to identify

You shouldn't get the Files app if:

• You want something faster than File Explorer
• You need tag groupiong to work as intended
• You rename multiple files freequently