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Comment by 51Cards | Hacker News Reader

I was cringing right through this whole article until I hit the Quick Access Toolbar. In short I hate the Windows Ribbon UI for reasons others have mentioned. But this entire redesign was saved in my eyes by the quick access bar and the fact that you can add any function to it and collapse the ribbon out of sight. Now THIS is what Explorer has needed for years and I am actually excited about using it now. I will never have that ribbon open, it's way too cluttered and a visual mess... but give me 10 minutes and I'll have a QAT bar set up that will (on first glance) make me a VERY happy power user.

Now, we'll see what their attention to detail is when I try my favourite shortcut... Holding CTRL while clicking on the up arrow. This used to open the parent folder in a New Window and it seems that MS forgot this shortcut in recent Windows versions.

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I think I should point out just so it's duly noted- what my parent has just noticed is the Windows team catering to both Regular Joe Users and Power Users, at the same time, without stepping on the toes of either too much.

In 7, you can hold Alt and press up (parent), left (back), right (next).

AFAIK Alt was same since WinXP but can't confirm.

Ctrl is right now used for doing multiple selections in folders.

Thanks for the reply. The ALT-up-keyboard opens the parent folder, yes... but I was referring to the fact that CTRL-click a folder would open a New Explorer Window leaving the current one untouched. The CTRL-{up_toolbar_icon} used to open the parent folder in a New Explorer Window leaving the current window open as well. Was great when you needed to go up a level and open a sibling folder without closing the current explorer window. There is no quick way to do this in Vista / Win7 because you can't CTRL-{open parent} in a new window anymore. What should have worked would have been CTRL-ALT-{keyboard arrow} (up, left, right) to open the parent/previous/next folder in a new window but that doesn't work. Anyhow, I do realize these are just nit-picks of power users.

It's not a nit-pick. There are a limited number of key combinations available and a user interface should try to be as consistent, with what users are expecting, as possible.

Ctrl + Click is one of those shortcuts that should be standardized; in addition to middle click - these "links" should always open in a new tab/window.

In Windows 7, Control-double-click on a non-selected folder works (opens the folder in a new window). If the folder you're clicking on is selected when you double click, it will just become un-selected then selected. What a mess.

Now I see what you mean, I didn't even know that feature.

...this entire redesign was saved in my eyes by the quick access bar and the fact that you can add any function to it and collapse the ribbon out of sight.

I'll like that too, but I have faith that MS will screw this up somehow. Some of the ways you wind up interacting with Explorer (the Open dialog, say) won't use your customizations, or Explorer will forget them every few weeks. Or something else. That's always been their way.

They didn't forget it. Just use ALT.

Note that the QAT functionality is available in all ribbon-based Office applications as well. And I completely agree with you - hate the ribbon, love the QAT.

The menu style seems very close to the style already in Windows 7 for Wordpad. Personally I find that style both confusing and clunky.

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