Files — User Guide

Files is a modern, open-source file manager for Windows 10 and Windows 11. It replaces or runs alongside the built-in File Explorer with a fluent, tab-based interface, multi-pane browsing, file tagging, a built-in archive engine, Git and cloud-storage awareness, FTP access, and a deeply customizable layout system.

This guide is written for everyday users: it shows you how to install Files, how to get around the app, and how to use every feature — from the basics of copying a file to advanced workflows like dual-pane transfers, tag-based search, and self-hosting your archive defaults. A complete keyboard-shortcut catalog and a full settings reference are included at the end.

Note

Files is a Windows-only desktop application. It requires Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) or Windows 11. There is no macOS, Linux, web, or mobile version, and the project has no command-line "headless" mode — Files is a graphical app.

Table of Contents

1. Quick Start
2. Installation
3. The Files Window: A Tour
4. Browsing and Navigation
5. Tabs, Panes, and Windows
6. Selecting Items
7. Core File Operations
8. Layouts, Sorting, and Grouping
9. The Sidebar
10. The Home Page and Widgets
11. Searching and Filtering
12. File Tags
13. The Info / Preview Pane
14. Working with Archives
15. Git Integration
16. Cloud, Network, FTP, and WSL
17. Opening Files in Other Apps
18. The Command Palette
19. Item Properties and Security
20. Appearance and Theming
21. Settings Reference
22. Keyboard Shortcut Catalog
23. Troubleshooting
24. Frequently Asked Questions
25. Glossary

1. Quick Start

After you install Files (see Installation), here is the five-minute orientation:

1. Launch Files. It opens to the Home page, showing widgets for Quick Access, Recent Files, and Drives.
2. Open a folder. Click a drive in the sidebar, double-click a folder, or type a path into the address bar at the top.
3. Open a second tab. Press Ctrl+T for a new tab, or Ctrl+Shift+S to split the current tab into two side-by-side panes.
4. Copy a file. Select it (single click), press Ctrl+C, navigate to the destination, and press Ctrl+V.
5. Find anything. Press Ctrl+F to search the current folder, or Ctrl+Shift+P to open the Command Palette and run any command by name.
6. Open Settings. Press Ctrl+, to open the settings window and tailor the app to your taste.

Tip

Files keeps your last session by default — close the app with tabs open and they come back next launch. You can change this in Settings → General.

2. Installation

Files is distributed in several channels. Each channel is a separate installable package, so you can run more than one side by side (for example, the stable build for daily work and the preview build to try new features).

Method 1 — Microsoft Store (recommended)

The simplest way to install the Stable or Preview build is from the Microsoft Store. The Store handles installation, updates, and uninstallation automatically.

Tip

Installing from the Store keeps Files updated in the background. You do not need to check for updates manually.

Method 2 — Sideload (MSIX package)

If you prefer not to use the Store, download the signed package from the official download page and install it directly.

Stable / Preview download

1. Go to https://files.community/download.
2. Download the package for the channel you want (Stable or Preview).
3. Double-click the .msix/.msixbundle file and choose Install.

Important

Sideloaded packages are code-signed. If Windows reports an untrusted certificate, make sure you downloaded the package from files.community and that developer/ sideload installs are permitted on your system.

Method 3 — Build from source (developers)

Developers can clone the repository and build the Dev channel locally. The full build procedure — required SDKs, Visual Studio workloads, and signing — is covered in the Admin Guide. The Dev build installs as a distinct package (FilesDev) and launches via the files-dev: protocol.

Updating

• Store installs update automatically.
• Sideloaded installs are updated by downloading and installing a newer package. Files also checks for updates on its own and will offer to install them.

Uninstalling

Uninstall Files like any other app, from Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps. If you previously set Files as your default file manager, uninstalling restores the built-in File Explorer automatically (see Set as Default File Manager).

3. The Files Window: A Tour

When you open a folder, the Files window is organized into these regions:

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  [Tab 1] [Tab 2] [+]                              — □ ✕  (Tabs) │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ← → ↑   ⟳   📁 C: › Users › you › Documents   🔍   (Toolbar /  │
│                                                     Address bar)│
├──────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              │                                                  │
│  Sidebar     │   File list area                  │  Info /     │
│  (Pinned,    │   (Details / List / Grid /        │  Preview    │
│   Drives,    │    Columns / Cards / Adaptive)     │  pane       │
│   Network,   │                                    │  (optional) │
│   Tags…)     │                                    │             │
│              │                                    │             │
├──────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  12 items · 3 selected · 1.2 GB           (Status bar)         │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• Tab strip — one tab per open location. Click + or press Ctrl+T to add a tab.
• Toolbar — Back / Forward / Up / Refresh buttons, the address bar (also called the Omnibar), and the search entry. The toolbar is customizable and can be hidden.
• Sidebar — quick access to pinned folders, libraries, drives, cloud storage, network locations, WSL distributions, and file tags. It can be collapsed.
• File list area — the contents of the current folder, shown in your chosen layout.
• Info / Preview pane — an optional right-hand pane that previews the selected file and shows its details.
• Status bar — item counts, selection size, and quick view controls.

Note

Almost every region can be toggled: the toolbar (Ctrl+Shift+B), the sidebar (Ctrl+B), the status bar, the info pane (Ctrl+Alt+I), tab actions, and more. See the Settings Reference.

The Omnibar (address bar)

The address bar at the top is the Omnibar. It has multiple modes:

• Path mode — shows the current location as a clickable breadcrumb trail. Click any segment to jump there, or click the empty area (or press Ctrl+L) to type a path directly.
• Search mode — type a query to search the current folder and subfolders.
• Command mode — type to run a command by name.

You can type a full path (C:\Users\you\Documents), a shell location (shell:Downloads), or an environment-variable path (%USERPROFILE%) into the Omnibar and press Enter to go there.

4. Browsing and Navigation

Opening folders and files

• Double-click a folder to open it (or a file to open it in its default app).
• Press Enter to open the selected item.
• Press Alt+↑ to go up one level to the parent folder.
• Use Back (Alt+←) and Forward (Alt+→) to move through your history.
• Press Ctrl+L to edit the path in the address bar.

Tip

By default, double-clicking empty space or pressing Backspace-style navigation goes up a level. You can enable Double-click to go up in Settings → Folders so a double-click on empty space navigates to the parent.

Single-click vs. double-click

Files lets you choose, separately, whether files and folders open on a single click or a double click. By default both open on double-click for mouse users and on single-click for touch. Folders shown in Columns view open on a single click by default. Configure all three under Settings → Folders:

• OpenFilesWithSingleClick
• OpenFoldersWithSingleClick
• OpenFoldersInColumnsViewWithSingleClick

Refreshing

Press Ctrl+R (or F5) to refresh the current folder if its contents changed outside Files.

Shell locations

You can navigate to special Windows shell locations by typing them into the address bar, for example:

5. Tabs, Panes, and Windows

Files gives you three levels of multitasking: tabs (locations within one window), panes (two locations side-by-side within one tab), and windows (separate top-level windows).

Tabs

You can also right-click a tab to close other tabs, close tabs to the left, or close tabs to the right.

Tip

Enable Always switch to newly opened tab in Settings → General if you want focus to follow each new tab you open.

Panes (dual-pane)

Split the current tab into two panes to drag or copy files between locations without leaving the tab:

Panes are arranged vertically (side-by-side) by default; you can switch to a horizontal (top/bottom) arrangement. Set the default arrangement with ShellPaneArrangementOption in Settings → General.

Windows

By default, opening a new location reuses the existing Files process. You can change whether new tabs open in the existing instance with OpenTabInExistingInstance (Settings → General).

6. Selecting Items

Tip

Turn on Show selection checkboxes (ShowCheckboxesWhenSelectingItems, on by default) under Settings → Folders to make multi-selection easier with a mouse or touch. Enable Select files on hover to select items just by hovering.

Some context-menu actions only appear when at most five items are selected (for example, certain per-item operations), to keep menus responsive on large selections.

7. Core File Operations

Copy, cut, paste

When a name collision happens during paste/move, Files resolves it according to your conflict resolution setting (ConflictsResolveOption): generate a new name (default), replace, or skip. You can also choose per-operation in the conflict dialog.

Create new items

Rename

• Press F2 to rename the selected item.
• Files warns you before changing a file extension if Show file extension warning is on (default).

Delete and recycle

Whether a confirmation dialog appears is controlled by Delete confirmation (DeleteConfirmationPolicy), which defaults to Always.

Caution

Delete permanently (Shift+Delete) bypasses the Recycle Bin. The files are not recoverable from within Windows afterward.

Copy paths

Shortcuts and advanced items

• Create shortcut — make a .lnk shortcut to the selected item.
• Create shortcut from dialog — choose a target with a dialog.
• Flatten folder — move the contents of nested subfolders up into the current folder (enable Show flatten options in Settings first).
• Create alternate data stream — attach an NTFS alternate data stream (advanced; enable Show "Create alternate data stream" in Settings first).

Undo and redo

Files keeps a history of file operations:

Note

Undo/redo covers file-system operations performed inside Files (move, rename, delete-to-recycle, and similar). It does not undo changes made by other programs.

The Status Center

Long-running operations (large copies, deletions, archive extraction) appear in the Status Center, where you can watch progress and cancel if needed. You can choose whether the Status Center is always visible, shown only during operations, or hidden (StatusCenterVisibility, default Always). There is also a request to auto-clear completed tasks — until that ships, clear them manually from the Status Center.

8. Layouts, Sorting, and Grouping

Layout modes

Files offers several ways to display a folder's contents. Switch the layout from the toolbar's layout button, the right-click menu, or with Ctrl++ / Ctrl+- to cycle through sizes.

Each layout has size variants (e.g., Grid: Small / Large). The defaults are set under Settings → Layout (DetailsViewSize, GridViewSize, etc.).

Tip

By default each folder remembers its own layout. Turn on Sync folder preferences across directories (SyncFolderPreferencesAcrossDirectories) in Settings → Layout to apply one layout everywhere.

Details-view columns

In Details view you can show or hide columns and resize them. Available columns include:

Git columns only appear in folders that are Git repositories (see Git Integration).

Sorting

Sort the current folder by Name (default), Date modified, Date created, Type, Size, and more, in ascending (default) or descending order. Additional sort behaviors:

• Sort folders and files together (off by default — folders are grouped first).
• Sort files first (off by default).

Grouping

Group items by None (default), type, date, size, tag, and others. When grouping by a date column, choose the granularity with Group by date unit (Year by default — also Day or Month). Date grouping produces friendly buckets like Today, Yesterday, Earlier this week, Last month, and Year N.

9. The Sidebar

The sidebar gives one-click access to your most-used locations. Toggle it with Ctrl+B. It is organized into collapsible sections:

Each section can be shown/hidden and expanded/collapsed independently — see the Show…Section and Is…SectionExpanded settings under Settings → General.

Pinning

• Pin a folder to the sidebar — right-click a folder → Pin to sidebar, or use the command. Pinned folders appear under the Pinned section.
• Unpin — right-click the pinned entry → Unpin from sidebar.
• Pin to Start / Unpin from Start — also available, to add a folder to the Windows Start menu.

You can resize the sidebar by dragging its edge (between 180 px and 500 px wide) and collapse it entirely with Ctrl+B.

10. The Home Page and Widgets

The Home page is what you see when you open a new tab. It is built from widgets, each of which you can show or hide and expand or collapse from Settings → General:

Note

A drive's free-space bar turns to a low-space warning color when the drive is more than 90% full.

You can set Files to open a specific folder, a new tab, or continue your last session when it starts (Settings → General → startup options).

11. Searching and Filtering

Search

Press Ctrl+F (or use the search box / the Omnibar's search mode) to search the current folder and its subfolders. Type your query and press Enter. Files remembers your recent search queries.

The filter header

Enable the filter header (Ctrl+Shift+F) to narrow the current folder's listing in place — useful for quickly filtering a long folder by name without a full search. Show it permanently with the Show filter header setting (ShowFilterHeader).

Tip

Search looks into subfolders; the filter header narrows the current listing. Use search to find something you can't see, and the filter header to thin out a folder you're already looking at.

12. File Tags

File tags let you label files and folders with colored tags and find them again quickly, regardless of where they live on disk.

Files ships with four tags out of the box:

Using tags

• Tag a file — right-click → Edit tags (make sure Show edit tags menu is on in Settings), then check the tags to apply.
• Find tagged files — expand the File Tags section in the sidebar, or show the File Tags widget on Home, then click a tag to see everything carrying it.
• Open all tagged items — there is a command to open every file that has a particular tag at once.
• Remove tags — clear all tags from the selected items with the Remove tags command.

Managing tags

In Settings you can create new tags, rename them, change their colors, and delete tags you no longer need. Tags are stored in your settings and can be exported and re-imported.

Note

Tags are stored as metadata associated with the file path. Moving a file within Files preserves its tags; moving or copying it with another tool may not.

13. The Info / Preview Pane

The Info pane (also called the Preview pane) is an optional right-hand panel that shows details about — and a live preview of — the selected item.

The pane has tabs — Details (the default) and Preview — and can be docked horizontally or vertically. It can preview many file types, including images, text, PDFs, and media files (with audio volume control for media).

Built-in preview limits keep the app responsive on huge files:

Tip

Press Space to launch the preview popup — a quick, larger preview of the selected file without opening it in another app.

14. Working with Archives

Files has a built-in archive engine, so you can create and extract .zip, .7z, and other archives without a separate tool.

Compressing

Select one or more items, right-click, and choose a compression option (make sure Show compression options is enabled in Settings — it is by default):

• Compress into archive… — opens a dialog to choose format and options.
• Compress into .zip — one-click ZIP.
• Compress into .7z — one-click 7-Zip.

In the compression dialog and in Settings → General you can set defaults:

Extracting

Right-click an archive (or use the toolbar) to extract it:

• Extract archive… — choose a destination.
• Extract here — extract into the current folder.
• Extract to a subfolder — extract into a new folder named after the archive.
• Smart extract — extract here only if the archive contains a single root folder, otherwise extract to a subfolder.

Files remembers your recent extraction locations to speed up repeated work.

Note

Double-clicking a .zip opens it for browsing inside Files. Some other container formats (for example .jar) are not browsable by double-click and must be extracted — this is a known limitation tracked upstream.

15. Git Integration

When you browse a folder that is a Git repository, Files surfaces Git information and lets you run common Git commands without leaving the file manager. Git support is powered by an embedded Git engine, so you do not need Git installed separately for these operations.

Git status columns

In Details view inside a repository you can enable Git columns (off by default):

• Git status — modified / staged / untracked indicator
• Last commit date, last commit message, commit author, commit SHA

Git commands

Tip

To sign in for private repositories and authenticated pushes, connect your GitHub account in Settings. Files uses a GitHub client integration for authentication.

16. Cloud, Network, FTP, and WSL

Cloud drives

Files automatically detects cloud-storage providers installed on your PC (such as OneDrive) and lists them under Cloud Drives in the sidebar. Cloud sync status is shown as a column in Details view so you can see at a glance what is downloaded versus online-only.

Network locations

Network shares appear under the Network section of the sidebar. You can browse SMB shares and other network places just like local folders.

FTP

Files includes an FTP/FTPS client. Enter an FTP address in the Omnibar (for example, ftp://files.example.com) to connect and browse a remote server as if it were a local folder, with copy/move support to and from your machine.

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

If you have WSL installed, your Linux distributions appear under the WSL section of the sidebar, with per-distro icons for Alpine, Debian, Kali, openSUSE, and Ubuntu (a generic icon is used for others). Browse a distribution's file system directly from Files.

17. Opening Files in Other Apps

Terminal

You can also open a terminal from the Home page or the sidebar.

Code editors / IDEs

• Open in IDE — open the current folder in your configured IDE.
• Open repository in IDE — open the containing Git repository.
• Edit in Notepad — open a file in Notepad.

Configure which IDE to use under Settings → Dev tools. If Visual Studio Code is detected, Files uses it automatically; otherwise set the IDE path and name. You can choose to show the "Open in IDE" option only for Git repositories, always, or never (OpenInIDEOption, default: Git repos only).

Run options

For executables and scripts:

Open with / share / send to

• Open file location — reveal a shortcut's or search result's real folder.
• Share — share the selected item via the Windows share sheet.
• Send to — the Windows "Send to" menu (enable Show "Send to" menu).

Set images as backgrounds

Right-click an image to set it as your desktop wallpaper, lock-screen image, slideshow source, or the Files app background. You can also rotate images left or right in place.

Install from Explorer-style menus

Files supports right-click install actions for certain file types: install a certificate, install a font, and install an .inf driver.

18. The Command Palette

The Command Palette is the fastest way to run any action by name — no need to hunt through menus or memorize every shortcut.

• Open it with Ctrl+Shift+P.
• Start typing the name of what you want (e.g., "compress", "new tab", "toggle sidebar").
• Press Enter to run the highlighted command.

Every command in Files — all the actions listed in the Keyboard Shortcut Catalog and many more without default shortcuts — is available from the palette. Commands also show their assigned hotkey, so the palette doubles as a discoverability tool.

Tip

If a command you use often has no shortcut, you can assign one in Settings → Actions (see Customizing shortcuts).

19. Item Properties and Security

Properties window

The Files Properties window shows general information, hashes, details, and — for files and folders on NTFS — a Security tab.

Security (permissions) editor

The Security tab lets you view and edit NTFS permissions (the Access Control List):

• See each user/group (principal) and its allowed/denied permissions.
• Add a principal using the Windows object picker.
• Remove a principal's entry.
• Open Advanced security for fine-grained permission control, including individual rights like Read, Write, Modify, Full control, Take ownership, and many more.
• Change owner of a file or folder (Advanced view).

Important

Editing permissions requires that your account can read and change the item's security. If you see "Unable to display permissions" or an access-denied message, you may need to take ownership or run Files as administrator.

Hashes

The Properties window can compute file hashes (checksums) so you can verify downloads. Which hash algorithms are shown is remembered between sessions.

20. Appearance and Theming

Files is highly themeable. Open Settings → Appearance to adjust:

• Theme mode — Default (follow Windows), Light, or Dark. Quick commands:
  • Toggle theme: Ctrl+Alt+T
  • Set Light / Dark / Default theme (command palette)
• Backdrop material — the window's translucency material (Mica Alt by default; also Mica and others).
• Background image — set a custom image behind the file list, with controls for fit, opacity, and alignment.
• Accent colors — customize the background color of the toolbar, address bar, sidebar, file area, and info pane individually.
• Font — choose the UI font (defaults to Segoe UI Variable on Windows 11 and Segoe UI on Windows 10).
• Toolbar / status bar / tab actions — show or hide each.

Window modes

21. Settings Reference

Open Settings with Ctrl+,. The tables below list the user-facing settings by category, with each option's default value. (Setting names match the underlying keys so power users can recognize them when importing/exporting settings.)

General

Folders

Appearance

Layout

Info Pane

Dev Tools

Tip

You can export your settings to a file and import them on another machine to replicate your setup. Session-only data (your tab history, search history) is excluded from exports.

22. Keyboard Shortcut Catalog

These are the default shortcuts. Every one can be reassigned (see Customizing shortcuts). On notation: Ctrl+` is Control plus the backtick/grave key; Ctrl+, is Control plus comma; Ctrl+. is Control plus period.

Navigation

Tabs and panes

Selection

File operations

View

Open / tools

Customizing shortcuts

Open Settings → Actions to reassign any command's hotkey. Each command can have multiple bindings, and you can reset a command to its default at any time. The Command Palette always shows the current binding next to each command.

23. Troubleshooting

Each entry below corresponds to a real, community-reported issue. Where an issue number is shown, you can follow it on GitHub for the latest status.

Files won't start: "A required Windows component could not be loaded"

Cause: The Windows App Runtime that Files depends on is missing or damaged.

Solution: Reinstall Files from the Microsoft Store or from https://files.community/download. This reinstalls the required runtime alongside the app.

Prevention: Keep Windows up to date so the Windows App Runtime stays current.

Files crashes when opening a folder in Grid view (#18543)

Cause: A rendering issue in Grid view under certain conditions.

Solution: Switch the folder to Details or List view (Ctrl+- to cycle sizes, or use the layout button), then reopen. Report your scenario on the issue if it persists.

Icons sometimes have a black background (#14993) / Thumbnails do not render (#18503)

Cause: Thumbnail/icon rendering glitches, often tied to the thumbnail cache.

Solution: Toggle Show thumbnails off and on in Settings → Folders, or clear the thumbnail cache by disabling Enable thumbnail cache, restarting, and re-enabling it.

Opening the Signatures tab crashes the app (#18510)

Cause: A defect in the file-signatures view (resolved in newer builds).

Solution: Update to the latest Files version. If you are already current and still hit it, avoid the Signatures tab and report your build number.

Performance issues, freezes, or crashes on Windows 10 (#18536)

Cause: Some features are tuned for Windows 11; Windows 10 can show slower performance.

Solution: Disable Smooth scrolling and Calculate folder sizes, reduce the thumbnail cache, and keep heavy folders in List/Details view. Make sure you are on the latest build.

Files won't start after changing Details-view columns (#18528)

Cause: A bad saved column configuration.

Solution: Reset your layout. Open the settings file (Ctrl+Shift+, if the app starts, otherwise edit it directly — see the FAQ) and remove the column-width/visibility entries, or reset layout settings to defaults.

A copy/move overlay is stuck on screen and freezes Explorer (#18526)

Cause: A drag-and-drop overlay failed to dismiss.

Solution: Cancel the operation from the Status Center; if the overlay persists, restart Files. Ensure you are on the latest build, which contains drag-overlay fixes.

Opening a pinned folder hangs after starting a VPN (#18525)

Cause: A network/cloud path becomes unreachable while a VPN reconfigures the network.

Solution: Wait for the VPN to finish connecting, then retry. Avoid pinning network paths that depend on a VPN if this recurs.

The home page freezes with the Active Tags widget / tag search misses folders (#17128, #18386)

Cause: Tag-widget and tag-search defects under certain groupings.

Solution: Hide the File Tags widget temporarily, and when searching by tag, turn off "group by type." Update to the latest build for the fixes.

Tip

General first aid: make sure you are on the newest version, restart Files, and if a setting seems stuck, inspect the settings file (next section). For persistent crashes, the in-app log file (Ctrl+.) helps maintainers diagnose the problem.

24. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Files free? Yes. Files is free and open source under the MIT License. There is an optional way to support the project financially (sponsorship), but the app is fully functional for free.

Q: Does Files replace Windows File Explorer? It can. Files runs alongside Explorer by default, but you can set it as your default file manager so that "open folder" actions route to Files. Uninstalling Files restores Explorer automatically. See the FAQ entry below and the Admin Guide.

Q: Can I set Files as the default file manager? <a id="set-files-as-your-default-file-manager"></a> Yes. Files installs a small launcher that intercepts folder-open requests and routes them to Files. The setting to enable this lives in the app's settings. When you uninstall Files, the launcher automatically restores File Explorer.

Q: Where are my settings stored? In your per-user app data, under a settings folder containing user_settings.json (your preferences) and filetags.json (your tags), plus companion database files. You can open the settings file directly with Ctrl+Shift+,.

Q: Does Files run in the background? By default (in release builds) Files stays running in the background after you close the window, so it reopens instantly and keeps a tray icon. Turn off Keep app running (LeaveAppRunning) and/or Show system tray icon in Settings → General if you prefer it to fully exit.

Q: Do I need Git installed to use the Git features? No. Files has an embedded Git engine for clone/init/fetch/pull/push/sync.

Q: Can Files connect to FTP servers? Yes — type an ftp:// address in the address bar. FTP and FTPS are supported.

Q: Can I browse my WSL Linux files? Yes. Installed WSL distributions appear in the sidebar under WSL.

Q: How do I preview a file quickly? Select it and press Space for the preview popup, or enable the Info/Preview pane (Ctrl+Alt+I).

Q: Why can't I double-click into a .jar file like a .zip? Browsing inside non-ZIP containers (such as .jar) is a known limitation. Extract the archive instead.

Q: How do I report a bug or request a feature? Use Help (F1) or the links in Settings to reach the GitHub bug-report and feature-request templates, or the community Discord.

Q: Can I run the Stable and Preview builds at the same time? Yes. They are separate packages and do not conflict.

Q: Does Files collect telemetry? Files uses crash reporting to improve stability in release builds. See the Admin Guide and the project's privacy policy for details.

Q: How do I change file-size units to MB instead of MiB? Set Size unit format (SizeUnitFormat) in Settings → Folders. The default is binary units (KiB/MiB).

Q: How do I make folders open in a new tab automatically? Enable Open folders in new tab (OpenFoldersInNewTab) in Settings → Folders.

Q: My layout looks different in every folder — how do I make it consistent? Turn on Sync folder preferences across directories in Settings → Layout.

25. Glossary

Action / Command — a single operation in Files (e.g., "New Tab", "Compress into Zip"). Commands can be run from menus, shortcuts, or the Command Palette, and each can have a custom hotkey.

Adaptive layout — the default layout mode, in which Files chooses an appropriate view for each folder.

Alternate data stream (ADS) — extra NTFS data attached to a file. Files can show and create these when the relevant settings are enabled.

Backdrop material — the translucency effect applied to the window background (Mica, Mica Alt, etc.).

Compact overlay — a small, always-on-top window mode (picture-in-picture style).

Info / Preview pane — the optional right-hand panel that previews and describes the selected item.

Omnibar — the multi-mode address bar (path / search / command).

Pane — one of two side-by-side locations within a single tab (dual-pane mode).

Shelf — an optional staging pane for collecting items via drag-and-drop before acting on them.

Status Center — the panel that tracks long-running operations and lets you cancel them.

Tag — a colored label you attach to files and folders to find them later.