Microsoft launchs Original the Open Source Windows File Manager
Microsoft has opened the Windows file manager WinFile under the MIT license and the source code is hosted on Github.
File Manager is a file manager program bundled with releases of Microsoft Windows between 1990 and 1999. It was a single-instance graphical interface, replacing the command-line interface of MS-DOS, to manage files (copy, move, open, delete, search, etc.) Although File Manager was included in Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 and some later versions, Windows Explorer was introduced and used as the primary file manager, with file management via a two-pane view different from that of File Manager, and a single-pane view obtained by clicking a “My Computer” icon. via_Wiki
By CHEF-KOCH’s Technology News Blog [MIT], via Wikimedia Commons
The Windows File Manager lives again and runs on all currently supported version of Windows, including Windows 10.
The source code provided here (in the src directory) was copied from the Windows NT 4 source tree in November 2007. The tag named original_plus contains a very limited set of modifications from the original sources to enable WinFile.exe to run on current Windows. The most significant changes are:
- converted to Visual Studio solution; works on VS 2015 and 2017
- compiles and runs on 64-bit Windows (e.g., GetWindowLong -> GetWindowLongPtr, LONG -> LPARAM)
- added a few header files which were stored elsewhere in the NT source tree (e.g., wfext.h)
- deleted some unused files (e.g., winfile.def)
- converted 64-bit arithmetic from internal libraries to C
- converted internal shell APIs to public APIs (the primary reason the old version would not run)
The help directory contains both winfile.hlp and winfile.chm. Winfile.hlp was in the NT4 source tree, but does not work on Windows 10 anymore. Winfile.chm was copied from a regular installation of Windows 98 and works on Windows 10. As is, WinFile.exe tries to launch winfile.hlp which fails.
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
