I wasn’t born when Microsoft’s first File Manager (WinFile) was released with Windows 3.0. Well, that app has now been open sourced—. This will surely induce a feeling of nostalgia among the ones who loved Windows in the 90s.
File Manager was the successor of the MS-DOS executive, introduced as a new way to access files and folders in Windows. It was shipped with Windows 3.0 till Windows NT 4.0 and Windows ME. Later, the Windows Explorer (now known as File Explorer) replaced File Manager.
Licensed under the MIT License, the source code of the File Manager was supported by Microsoft’s Craig Wittenberg. He copied the code from the Windows NT 4 source tree back in 2007 and made some minor changes to make WinFile compatible with the current version of Windows, released as “Original_Plus” version.
The File Manager can be compiled with Visual Studio and also works on 64-bit Windows OS. There is another version called “Current master” that includes the set of changes and improvements made by Wittenberg since 2007.
While you’re waiting for the Spring Creators Update, it would be a great experience to bring back some old Windows components to your PC. You can download the Orginal and tweak File Manager versions and their source code from Microsoft’s GitHub repo.
Also Read: Transform Your iPhone Into A ‘Game Boy Console’ With This Nostalgia-Filled Case
