Show HN: Modernized file manager and program manager from Windows 3.x
7 comments
·July 6, 2025JdeBP
When I see a commit like https://github.com/brianluft/heirloom/commit/445ea8ef7018ef0... , I am convinced that yes, this is the original source code. (-:
https://github.com/brianluft/heirloom/commit/3001b284130c399... is rather interesting. Not only for all of the implicit type conversions that the code turned out to be doing, but also for all of the things that were dropped.
It is not totally "modernized", though. Its idea of "Unicode only" is using WTF-16 rather than UTF-8 (which is possible on Win32 nowadays with code page 65001).
jeroenhd
Code page 65001 comes with a caveat, though:
> GDI doesn't currently support setting the ActiveCodePage property per process. Instead, GDI defaults to the active system codepage. To configure your app to render UTF-8 text via GDI, go to Windows Settings > Time & language > Language & region > Administrative language settings > Change system locale, and check Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support. Then reboot the PC for the change to take effect.
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/global...
I don't think changing the system settings for one application to work is a great idea, especially as that setting can break other applications. Until Microsoft fixes GDI, I think it'll be a while before UTF-8 is a viable option.
JdeBP
Not any more, it does not. You are reading a warning that was put on that page a few years ago. Things have changed over the 6 years since Windows 10 release 1903. In particular, a couple of years later Microsoft was (interestingly, not always but sometimes, and no-one has really pinned down in what exact circumstances) turning that setting on by default in Windows 11.
arandomhuman
yikes
M95D
Why would anyone create another file manager and program manager when we have Total Commander and Calmira?
Narishma
Because they can.
fuzzfactor
Well with recent versions of Windows 11 there are breaking changes in the File Explorer that are sometimes unsurmountable if you are using the Basic Display Adapter.
This might just be a quick and easy substitute.
Coming from Microsoft it looks really up-to-date, showing the recognizable "inetpub" folder in the example screenshot.
It is a little disappointing they have not posted an exe though.
This is a fork of Windows File Manager combined with a from-scratch remake of Program Manager. Fast, lightweight, and suitable for daily driver use.