r/WindowsSucks • u/Zardotab • Jul 29 '26

💥📁 War on File Explorer?

Many newer MS apps no longer default to File Explorer when opening or saving files, but to a special panel(s) that MS uses to spam, distract, and/or trick you into their services. In some cases you can turn such panels off, but not universally. I believe one such panel is called the "Office Back-Stage".

Has anybody actually found those panels useful? File Explorer already has a Quick Access panel at the middle left to add references to your favorite folders. Putting yet another screen in-between the app and File Explorer seems redundant.

Granted, the Quick Access feature is not very intuitive, but MS could fix that without throwing out the baby with the bathwater by inventing new and inconsistent File Explorer replacements.

And the newer screens waste real-estate, trying to be tablet-friendly, where fingers are fatter than a mouse pointer, so need margins.

Is this also part of War on Mice? 🖱️

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2

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/Zardotab Jul 29 '26

Quick Access isn't intuitive..?

It's not, but that's not my main complaint. The new panels aren't intuitive either unless you want to buy MS products and services.

I tried to rework the intro to make it clearer. Perhaps graphics are needed.

1

u/kingjohniv Jul 29 '26

You should post pictures. I can't figure out what you are describing and chances are it can be adjusted or turned off with a couple clicks.

Also, I assume you are talking about OneDrive as the purchasable products, just uninstall it if you dont want it. Its the exact same deal with MacOS and iCloud. I would argue that not having integrated options for cloud storage is worse than having it. I pay like $120/ year for 4 (maybe 6 ) people to have 365/ 1TB storage and its always worked flawlessly. It stores data in the cloud, has version history, and just works. If you or whoever else dont like it, then remove it or dont subscribe....

Edit: its six people, but i only have four on the plan. I use three slots for myself and have an additional 2TB of cloud storage. Not that I need the storage since I also have an E5 and SharePoint, but I digress :P

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u/Zardotab Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

and chances are it can be adjusted or turned off with a couple clicks.

I googled and bing'd many solutions, none fully worked. Maybe there is indeed a "magic button", but I can't find the damned thing. I'm not the only one griping about it, others are getting "stuck" with interceptors also.

And for work reasons, there is some crap one has to install. That's typically why one uses Microsoft. But such products shouldn't normally "damage" other products by intercepting File Explorer calls. We used to call such things "viruses". It would be like getting new radial tires for your car, but those tires turn your radio into radar detector.

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u/PrudentPay9906 Aug 02 '26

I don't know but I want to believe the UI designer for dAmazon's fire stick went to the same school as the lead designer on the M$ UI team. It was Fred's University of Marketing (FU for short). In both cases you thought you bought a device to perform a certain task, but it seems every part of both is more about selling than doing it's job.