Microsoft is making File Explorer more powerful with version control and 7z compression

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The Windows file navigator will natively interface with your Git and offer more file compression.

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

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Illustration of Microsoft’s Windows logo

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Here’s one more way to stay on top of your favorite programming projects: have them sync to the same File Explorer you already use to navigate your hard drive in Windows.

At Build, Microsoft now says it’s adding native version control to File Explorer by integrating systems like Git, letting you see new changes and comments directly from the app.

A picture of File Explorer being used as a git repository.

A picture of File Explorer being used as a git repository.

Here’s a cropped and zoomed version of the provided screenshot so you can get a better look:

I wonder if this would also let non-programmers keep the latest copies of a project they like synced to their hard drive. I can think of a few projects I like where that’d come in handy.

Microsoft says it’s also letting File Explorer natively compress files to 7-zip and TAR; currently, the right-click context menu has a “Compress to ZIP file” option, but ZIP is thought to be a bit antiquated in terms of how much compression you get.

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