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

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.

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.