Immersive Explorer: An Intensively Well Designed File Manager Inspired By Windows 8 UI [Windows7/8]

With the announcement and the launch of test versions of Windows 8, the Metro interface is gaining more space each day. And so, at this moment, developers are thinking to adopt and create something depending on that Metro UI. The number of Metro adapted software are increasing daily and here comes an impressive File Explorer with Metro inspired interface. We are talking about Immersive Explorer, an amazing and elegant Windows Explorer replacement tool. It’s currently under heavy development and on Alpha stage (on the time of this review). However, you can now try the application on your Windows 7 or 8 and check how the tool is running. This tool is completely different then any other tool we have tried so far. After all, it took the Metro UI to let to explore through all your files and folders. If you are a fan of Microsoft’s new Metro UI, then surly you will like to adopt Metro UI in everywhere, even on File Explorer. Immersive Explorer can be a great tool for this in future bringing the lightness of the Metro UI as a File Manager. More to read.

As we are still in pre-release testing, the tool is susceptible to many errors and crashes. Well, we did find that it works slowly, mouse/keyboard shortcut doesn’t work and hangs sometime although this happens rarely. However, the overall interface and organization of Immersive Explorer deserves praise. It brings only the essentials for anyone who opens the application for the first time in days and eliminates the excessive content. Otherwise, we note that the color scheme for each "Library" is distinguished, which can help you find what you need easily.

The tool, during the beta phase, is available as a portable version and so to use this tool you need not to go through and installation process. Just download and open/run it. Finally, we can say that Immersive Explorer really suits with Windows 8 and it promises to be a good file manager when the final version will integrated into the new OS. However, the fact that it replaced all the icons of files by frames exactly alike tools which may repel some people. Still, those who want to check how this tool works, Immersive Explorer will not disappoint. However, it is advisable not to replace your default program with this new application, you'll still get fixes and enhancements to the official launch.

Immersive Explorer's proposal is to be good enough to replace the old Windows Explorer. Thus, the tool affixed to the fluidity and beauty of Windows 8 UI (formerly known as Metro UI) to leave your experience with the system directories more enjoyable. As the home screen of Windows 8, everything was built from tiles or squares that show an animated preview of the content they are representing. That way, your picture folder will turn into a tableau that shows thumbnails of archived photos. For other types of documents, representation is done by a smaller square that bears the name and file extension.

All options and menus that you were accustomed to see in Windows Explorer were redesigned and placed on the bottom of the Immersive Explorer window. The new manager has three main menus that expand and show the options available for each folder or file. You can see the alternatives Browse, View and Edit functions that open folders for browsing, viewing and editing of information, respectively. Otherwise, from the top of the window, you can check the buttons for back, forward, go to the top directory and a shortcut that leads to My Computer.

Once you run the Immersive Explorer, the app shows some shortcuts that can be compared to the old Favorites of traditional file explorer. There is a Common Folders block as well as the Profiles and Drives: the first brings the main folders, the second shows the directories of each PC user's and the last displays all your disks. Finally, it seems that the new file explorer will recover the origins of Windows Explorer and add a mini audio player directly into the application window. With it, you can listen to some music without having to open your standard player.

Pros:

• Beautiful interface
• Reorganized home
• Fluid navigation
• Dynamic color scheme
• Preview the content folder icons

Cons:

• No search tool
• Needs massive improvements

Immersive Explorer tends to real promising and I do accept massive updates which can make this tool a breakthrough in the file management view. Immersive Explorer works on Windows 7 and Windows 8 and is available for free.

Download Immersive Explorer