Release Notes for the WinFile Install Kit
This install kit is intended to run on the Microsoft Windows Vista platform.  It might work on other later versions as well, but this is more by accident rather than design.
The intention of this kit is to provide WinFile.exe for use on the Windows Vista operating system, with minimal modifications required to get it working.  WinFile (and related support files) was produced by Microsoft but targeted for a different version of the operating system.  This kit consists of WinFile.exe plus required support files necessary to make WinFile work with Vista (plus files such as this one to describe the process).  There are no advertisers or sponsors.  There are no cookies.  There are no “visit this site to use it” conditions.  There are no additional things that have to be installed on your computer to use it.
This kit’s contents comprise Microsoft files from previous versions of the operating system which are modified according to details described at:
    <http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~davidsch/vistafm/>
Thanks to David Schneider (mailto:davidsch@ee.ethz.ch) for determining the details necessary to get WinFile to run on the Vista platform.
Having said all that, this kit is provided “as is” with no warranties or guarantees provided or implied.  The original file functionality was provided by Microsoft, which may or may not support it, or even acknowledge its existence.

WinFile History
 WinFile was the main file manager application for several operating systems.  Various 16 bit version were shipped with Windows 3.1, 95, 98, and ME.  Various 32 bit versions were shipped with Windows NT 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0.  The 32 bit version was usable on Windows 2000 and Windows XP by simply copying the executable and support files to the newer operating system.  This process does not work with Vista, some say intentionally.
The 32 bit WinFile version correctly handled long file names, NTFS file systems, ACL editing and properly supported post-2000 year dates (none of which were available with the 16 bit version).  Windows Explorer provided similar functionality and became the advertised and supported means of handling files from user interaction as of Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.
WinFile is credited to Microsoft developers Chris Kuzak (sp?) and  Ian Ellison-Taylor, described in an online video at:
  <http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Dr-Sneath-and-Ian-Ellison-Taylor-Windows-History/>

Why use WinFile?
If WinFile is such an old fashioned interface, why use it?  Here are several items, which completely comprise a personal point of view.
•	The left side and right side track each other correctly, and the visual cues on the left unambiguously display where you are on the right.  Explorer doesn’t do this properly.  In Explorer, you can drill down to a specific file in a directory, which is then displayed on the right.  You can then seemingly navigate to a different directory on the left, which is not updated on the right.  As a software developer, with many situations of similar directory structure, I have manipulated or deleted the wrong files with this serious Explorer UI defect.  Never a problem with WinFile.
•	Ability to sort by file extension.  WinFile will sort files by name, by file extension (described as “by type” but it is really “by extension”), by size or by date.  Sort by file extension is useful in folders with a large number of files where you are looking for a file(s) with a particular extension but don’t know or care what “type” the file extension is.  This is also useful in folders where multiple file extensions map to the same “type”.  With Explorer, Microsoft determines the “type” from the extension, then sorts by the “type”.  To me, this is aberrant behavior akin to sorting a list of numbers alphabetically.
•	WinFile remembers how you want to sort the files and folders in a window.  If you close the app and restart, your sort options are still there!
•	WinFile remembers window size and placement characteristics when you close the application.  More recent programs from Microsoft seem to want you to do a lot of window resizing and moving around, … and then lose track of the changes you made.  This is very important to anyone with repetitive stress issues.
•	WinFile remembers file and folder selections.  Select a file.  Close the app.  Open it.  Hey there it is!  Explorer always opens at the top level of the file system hierarchy and requires you to drill down to your file(s) of interest every time you open the app.
•	All WinFile functions such as searching, sorting, file movement and other processing require fewer mouse clicks to perform the task.  This is very important to anyone with repetitive stress issues.
•	There are a lot of things in Explorer that require you to shift back and forth from keyboard to mouse and back again.  WinFile requires far fewer changes in interaction type.  This is very important to anyone with repetitive stress issues.
•	Keyboard shortcuts are more intuitive and work better in WinFile. Compress a file or folder?  On WinFile: Alt-F-S (or menu File -> Compress).  On Vista Explorer: Alt-F-R, which opens “Properties”.  On the “General” tab, hit the tab key twice, hit “Enter” (or Alt-D), on the “Advanced Attributes”, Alt-C, Enter.  Ha ha ha ha.
•	Microsoft has added folder customizations in Explorer and, in my opinion, has gone way too far with them.  There are times when I want to order the MP3 files in my music folder by something other than name and might be interested in seeing the creation date or file size.  Microsoft has gone to a lot of effort to hide this information from you.  WinFile bypasses all this nonsense and gets this information back.
•	WinFile navigation just navigates.  Looking at something in a folder does not leave droppings in your file system such as desktop.ini or Thumbs.db.

Ways that Explorer is better than WinFile
Alas, it is not perfect.  There are several things that Explorer does better:
•	Starting with Windows XP, drag and drop from WinFile to some applications does not work where it does from Explorer.
•	WinFile was designed as a single-instance app.  While you can open multiple views of a drive in WinFile, you can only have one instance of the whole program.  You can have multiple instances of Explorer open simultaneously.
•	When you delete a file in WinFile, it is deleted.  There is no visit to the recycle bin.  Delete a file – it is gone.  Advantage or disadvantage?  You decide…
•	If you are not an Administrator, settings are not recorded properly under Vista.  This seems to be because the settings are stored in <systemdirectory>\winfile.ini, which is a file protection problem.  I am working on a solution for it.  This worked fine (for me) with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Known Issues with the Install Kit
•	This kit will only work on Windows Vista and later.  If you want to install the kit on another operating system such as Windows 2000, Windows XP etc., you will need to get the files as described on David’s webpage (above).  I may change this in the future, so stay tuned.
•	As mentioned above, preferences, settings and selections for non-Administrator users do not get saved under Vista.  I am trying to figure out how to get this to work properly.  Not so far, but I’m working on it.
•	The help file is in the old ‘*.hlp’ format.  Depending on options and settings on your Vista computer, the help file may not open for you.

Release Details
2008/01/31 version 1.0 - Initial release.