Explorer could be accessed by double-clicking the new My Computer desktop icon or launched from the new Start Menu that replaced the earlier Program Manager.

[8] There were two public releases of the Shell Technology Preview, made available to MSDN and CompuServe users: May 26, 1995, and August 8, 1995.

An address bar was also added to Windows Explorer, which a user could type in directory paths directly, and be taken to that folder.

The "Web-style" folders view, with the left Explorer pane displaying details for the object currently selected, is turned on by default.

[9] The Windows 2000 Explorer featured an interactive media player as the previewer for sound and video files.

[13] This feature was abused by computer viruses that employed malicious scripts, Java applets, or ActiveX controls in folder template files as their infection vector.

Microsoft focused especially on making Explorer more discoverable and task-based, as well as adding several new features to reflect the growing use of a computer as a digital hub.

It presents the user with a list of common actions and destinations that are relevant to the current directory or file(s) selected.

Microsoft introduced animated "Search Companions" in an attempt to make searching more engaging and friendly; the default character is a puppy named Rover (previously used in Microsoft Bob), with three other characters (Merlin the magician, Earl the surfer, and Courtney) also available.

[citation needed] ZIP and CAB files are integrated into the user interface so they can be browsed as if they were ordinary folders.

Combined with integrated desktop search, Windows Explorer allows users to find and organize their files in new ways, such as stacks.

[31] Attributes sortable and searchable in Windows Explorer include pictures' dimensions, Exif data such as aperture and exposure, video duration and framerate and width.

A new addition to Windows Explorer in Vista and Server 2008 is the details pane, which displays metadata and information relating to the currently selected file or folder.

The details pane also allows for the change of some textual metadata such as author and title in files that support them within Windows Explorer.

A new type of metadata called tags allows users to add descriptive terms to documents for easier categorization and retrieval.

Support for other file types can however be added by writing specialized software to retrieve the metadata at the shell's request.

[25] File and folder actions such as cut, copy, paste, undo, redo, delete, rename and properties are built into a dropdown menu which appears when the Organize button is clicked.

Windows Explorer can zoom the icons in and out using a slider or by holding down the Ctrl key and using the mouse scrollwheel.

Although still fully available from the menus and keyboard shortcuts, toolbar buttons for Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Delete, Properties and some others are no longer available.

The Menu Bar is also hidden by default but is still available by pressing the Alt key or changing its visibility in the layout options.

The ability to right-click a folder and hit "Search" was removed in Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

By default, a new user account in Windows 7 contains four libraries, for different file types: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos.

In addition to aggregating multiple storage locations, Libraries enable Arrangement Views and Search Filter Suggestions.

For example, if a folder contains many large video files totaling hundreds of gigabytes, and the Window Explorer pane is in Details view mode showing a property contained within the metadata (for example Date, Length, Frame Height), Windows Explorer might have to search the contents of the whole file for the meta data.

Some programs cause the activation of a virus scan when retrieving the icon information from the metadata, hence producing a lengthy delay.

In Windows 7, several features have been removed from Windows Explorer, including the collapsible folder pane, overlay icon for shared items, remembering individual folder window sizes and positions, free disk space on the status bar, icons on the command bar, ability to disable Auto Arrange and Align to Grid, sortable column headings in other views except details view, ability to disable full row selection in details view, automatic horizontal scrolling and scrollbar in the navigation pane and maintaining selection when sorting from the Edit menu.

Although hidden, it can be opened by creating a shortcut pointing to "explorer shell:AppsFolder\c5e2524a-ea46-4f67-841f-6a9465d9d515_cw5n1h2txyewy!App" [46][47] A Dark mode was added to the software in 2018, to match similar themes available for other inbuilt Windows applications.

In March 2022, Microsoft introduced adverts into File Explorer, but later stated that these were "not intended to be published externally" after significant negative media coverage.

This feature can be exploited by a any hierarchical data source that can be represented as a file system like the Windows one, including Cloud-based implementation.

This behavior will cause conflicts if multiple managed add-ins, targeting different versions of the CLR, are attempted to be run simultaneously.