Maybe you haven’t heard of Vista’s preview pane. It displays previews of files directly using DWM APIs, no lag in opening another window or another app.

That was mentioned in the article, but we’ve found that it doesn’t natively support as many filetypes as Finder.

Tabs. That’s all I want to see, tabs. Despite both companies copying tabs from other web browsers into their own neither have put 2 and 2 together and given their file browsers tabs.

No kidding. I think it’s something that should definitely be optional, but having tabs when exploring files would be unbelievably handy in both operating systems.

I know that there’s a program for Vista that can be used to force the OS to not remember any views, but I don’t know if you’re running Vista.

I’m running XP, so no problems with views in Explorer, but the experience I described was the one I had with Finder in OSX 10.3 (I believe, maybe 10.2).

Ryan wrote:

Huh, it doesn’t have that problem for me. It always remembers the last view/size I used.

Exactly! It doesn’t return to the default view, but the last view/size you’ve used. Temporary changes become permanent..

On networked drives it was even more annoying: it would revert to the last view/size of *anybody* who had accessed it (so I would see someone else’s preference..).

Ahh, I see what you’re saying now. I could see how that would get annoying.

I know that there’s a program for Vista that can be used to force the OS to not remember any views, but I don’t know if you’re running Vista.

Huh, it doesn’t have that problem for me. It always remembers the last view/size I used.

Exactly! It doesn’t return to the default view, but the last view/size you’ve used. Temporary changes become permanent..

On networked drives it was even more annoying: it would revert to the last view/size of *anybody* who had accessed it (so I would see someone else’s preference..).

What I really disliked about Finder when I was using OS X, was that you couldn’t make it have a default view (for ALL folders, also networked, harddrives, dvd drives etc.) & window size. It drove me crazy to see a different view/size everytime I had to open the Finder.

Huh, it doesn’t have that problem for me. It always remembers the last view/size I used.

Actually in both Vista Windows Explorer and Finder you can use the breadcrumbs to navigate up a folder easily.

I don’t think I ever knew that shortcut! I looked it up on a Mac and the corresponding keyboard shortcut is Command+Up. Nifty.

For me I cannot use a mouse, it’s way too slow. So the keyboard shortcut for explorer to go back one previously viewed folder is backspace. Easy eh?

to go up one level is not too shabby alt+up.

Good thing about keyboard short cut is that it allows for absolute confidence of what you are doing “going one level up”, “going back to previous folder I was in” by pressing those keys as long as you are in an explorer window. Where as with a mouse, you need to find the mouse, not too hard, find the button, not too hard, aim, not too hard either, and click , not too hard either. But there are these four steps that must require your eyes.

alt+left arrow /right arrow is to go back/forward folders you’ve viewed just now.

Although, I believe there is a way to get it back in Vista. I don’t use Vista very often though.