Windows 8 Explorer will feature auto EXIF rotation

[budz45]

Engadget
After augmenting Windows 8 with some mobile-friendly features, it looks like file management is next to go under the knife. Not the sexiest part of an OS, granted, but one you'll use almost every day -- a fact not lost on Redmond. Based on newsgroup feedback, Windows 8 will sport a stack of tweaks hoping to make some of the more mundane tasks, well, less mundane. For example, if you copy duplicate files to a directory, it'll make decisions based on size, name and modified date to determine if it's the same file or not. For long copy jobs, error messages will be mercifully left until the end, allowing the rest to complete. Other simple touches include EXIF orientation data, which will be reflected in Explorer's preview, updates to the slightly contentious Ribbon, plus a bunch more user-driven goodies. We're reserving judgement until we get hands-on of course, but if you want to know more, there's a full rundown in the source after the break.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/31/wind ... t-listens/

[JohnFredC]

This is just my opinion, but despite my appreciation for the Metro interface (I like it, I can't wait to try it on a tablet), Microsoft's justifications for the various "improvements" made to Windows 8 Explorer (see the MS blog linked above) are specious.

They (meaning the MS team as expressed in the blog) seem to interpret usage data according to the UI paradigm that management is currently pushing (AKA the "ribbon", first forced on Office users). For instance, much is made in the blog of the data that says Explorer users resort to the context menus instead of the toolbar for the most frequently functions... and this is somehow a bad thing?

The blogger is right to claim that one reason for the heavy use of the context menu (vs. the toolbar) is that the appropriate functions are simply not present on the toolbar (well, duh)... hence the justification for incorporating the ribbon into Explorer. But perhaps the real reason is that the context menu is simply more efficient to use. After all, one does not have to move the mouse to access it.

Here is my thinking, ribbon vs. context menu for mouse users:

Context menu

• 1. Use mouse to select file(s)
  2. Right click
  3. Scan linear list of functions (in menu)
  4. Move mouse down through list to select one item
  5. Click left mouse button
  6. Perform function

Ribbon

• 1. Use mouse to select file(s)
  2. Scan ribbon surface looking for icon of needed function
  3. I know it's in there somewhere
  4. Damn, let me look again
  5. Is that it?
  6. Move mouse toward icon
  7. Miss the icon by a small amount, click on incorrect icon by mistake
  8. Press [esc], or move mouse to undo (where is undo?) and...
  9. Rescan ribbon
  10. Oh, maybe it's on another ribbon tab...
  11. Scan ribbon tabs/categories
  12. Move mouse to select a ribbon tab
  13. Scan new ribbon for function
  10. Ah, there it is, finally!
  11. Move mouse toward icon
  12. Careful, now
  13. Click left mouse button on icon
  14. Perform function