MacOS users have long enjoyed a simple but useful feature: Quick look. This allows you to select a file and press the spacebar to preview it. It can be used in almost anything including videos, PDFs, Word Docs and pictures. Better yet, when the file appears you press the arrow keys to cycle the remaining files in the folder. This makes it easy to quickly find a specific file when lost in the sea of icons. This feature was first introduced on Mac in 2007, and now 15 years later Microsoft can add it to Windows 10 and 11. Probably a factor as to why they’re doing so poorly
According to Windows Latest, the PowerToys feature has already been added to Microsoft’s internal builds. It’s called Peak and it works just like the MacOS version. Press Shift + Spacebar to preview it with a selected file in Explorer. Once the preview pops up, you have the option of what to do next For photos you will be able to zoom in and out and edit them in the Photos app The site says the feature was created during a “hack week” of the company. It was originally designed as a prototype, but was appreciated enough to make its way into PowerToys. For the uninitiated, PowerToys is a repository of system utilities created by Microsoft. Companies seem to be too hardcore for their noobs, so they’re tucked away for those who know what they’re doing.
Windows Pick via PowerToys. (Photo: Windows Latest)
As you can see above, Windows Pic looks exactly like the MacOS Quick Look. It doesn’t give you a full-screen image, just a small preview. Although it is enough to understand what is in the file you are looking for. Unlike Quick Look, which is baked in the OS, you need to run PowerToy in the background to make it work. Windows Latest indicates that it integrates with the Windows Photos app, but it’s not clear if it works with other types of media, such as Pick Video, Documents, and Mac. It should be noted that you can now preview the files on a panel next to Explorer, but the images are usually the size of a stamp.
The preview pane of Windows Explorer is working but not very useful.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Microsoft’s cribing from Apple lately. It was reported last week that Microsoft would also bring tabbed browsing to Windows 11. It has been a mainstay of the Mac platform since 2007, with the same timeline as Quick Look. Microsoft is generally overhauling Explorer to make it easier to work with files and folders, and we can’t be happy about that. As the years go by it always seems a bit old, because it has received very little attention from Microsoft. That is, in addition to making it more difficult to use. Case in point: In Windows 11, when you right-click on a file, you often have to scroll “to show more options” to get the shortcut you’re looking for. Personal beef aside, we really hope Microsoft will add this feature to Windows. This will make file management significantly easier with tabbed browsing.
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