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microsoft / PowerToys

Windows system utilities to maximize productivity
MIT License
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Enhance Windows Recent #26265

Open alanosman opened 1 year ago

alanosman commented 1 year ago

Description of the new feature / enhancement

One of my major gripes about Windows File Explorer is that it could do better at surfacing things that you saved or modified recently from other applications. I'd love to see a powertoy that gives us this ability to find recently saved or modified files far more easily from any desktop application. I know there are a lot of system files that change, so it would be based on folders or drives of my choosing.

Scenario when this would be used?

Say you save a PDF from the web and you want to find that in Adobe Explorer; when you open the Windows file dialog, there is no clue to finding it except you remembering which drive and folder you saved it. I'd like to see a more convenient way to find the last path I was in across all local system folders.

Supporting information

yeah, I have nothing here, except my own years and years of being a constant PC user. I mean who wouldn't want a more convenient way to find things they recently saved? Less clicks, less to remember.

TheJoeFin commented 1 year ago

I thought Quick Access in File Explorer solved this exact problem. Can you expand on how Quick Access does not solve this need for you? /needinfo

alanosman commented 1 year ago

Hi @TheJoeFin - yes, you are right, quick access does let you pin links to folders, but you have to remember to do this. I'm referring to the times when you are switching folders constantly between apps. The apps themselves, when you say, save from the web, it defaults to downloads. But I want to say download a statement of my bank account to a different folder that is organized. When I open Adobe PDF, and do a file open, I'd like to see that folder path easily findable in an area where I had "the last folders I saved something in". Quick access is a bit useless to someone who is constantly working across different sets of folders based on the project focus of the week. I'd prefer Folder history instead. One click, and you shift to that directory. All desktop apps would have access to this making it easy to focus and share files around common folder structures. Hope this makes sense. I can mock it up if you are still interested in pursuing this concept.