Chromium Edge Dev - View in File Explorer

Copper Contributor

We use Office 365 for all staff - when there is a large document library we recommend that users click on the Documents menu and select the option to View in File Explorer. This option was not available in the original Edge browser, it exists in IE. This is one of the main reasons we force staff to use of IE. We have tried Google Chrome and Firefox, neither support this command.

 

Will this functionality be brought to Chromium Edge?

 

IE is becoming irrelevant and the Windows 10 Edge browser lacks the functionality we need. This seems to be a fundamental function omitted in the new version of Edge. With the use of Office 365 and SharePoint online, now more than ever we need these tools to integrate tighter with Windows.

 

Thanks

 

Scott

12 Replies

Thank you so much for raising this question @ScottGerber , we do the same at our company. Users get so frustrated for being forced to use IE so that certain SharePoint features can work properly.

 

Another thing I would like to point out is: With IE we can open a file in the client and then choose to check out and check back in. So the connection to SharePoint stays. This feature does not work in Chrome/ Firefox or Edge, when a user clicks to open a file using the browsers named, then the file gets downloaded instead. 

 

Could this be looked into as well, because these are the things that are preventing us from using Edge.

 

Thanks

Carike

@ScottGerber 

That is a function of ActiveX which as far as I understand is dead. We use this same functionality as well with our SharePoint Foundation Server 2013. I had thought that later versions were not tied to ActiveX, what versions are you guys running?

@GilesBrule Hi Giles - I had read that this may not be possible. I am not sure which version of Active X we are running; the functionality mentioned works in IE under Windows 10.

 

I suspect my question will be met with the MS saying that this dead as MS moves to new technologies.

 

Thanks

 

Scott

@ScottGerber 

Oh sorry I meant what version of SharePoint are you using not what version of ActiveX, I know that IE in Windows 10 still has ActiveX enabled in it but I’m pretty sure that once they finally kill off IE ActiveX will be gone too.

@GilesBrule 

 

We have just moved from SharePoint 2010 to Office 365 SharePoint. The View in File Explorer has always been one of the tools we used all the time with staff.

 

I suspect you are right - I believe many will miss this functionality once it is gone.

 

Thanks

 

Scott

@ScottGerber 

Thanks for the update. That’s a bummer, I had always thought that they would have ported that function to work with modern browser in SharePoint 365 and that we just were out of luck because we were running such an old version. This needs to be updated to work with other browser, it makes moving files and folders around so much easier. 

Thank you Scott for giving us this feedback. I will let the enterpirise feature team know about this feedback, and they will likely share it with the SharePoint team.

Same here, we currently use the AddOn "IE TAB" in Chrome.

Mainly we need IE for SharePoint to use the "Open with Explorer" DocLib Function, but also for the List function "Export to Excel". It's not acceptable that the only Solution is to use IE11, even with SharePoint Online the behaviour on "View in File Explorer" is the same. Also Sync to OneDrive isn't a good idea with gigantic DocLibs and many Users.

 

SharePoint is from Microsoft,

Windows is from Microsoft,

Edge is from Microsoft.

-> We need a Solution from Microsoft.

 

 

@ScottGerberI'm agree with you. The only way to use explorer view is using Internet explorer browser. But if you use internet explorer then you don't have the posibility to upload a folder in libraries moder sites. So in my case, I have to use two different browsers depending of the thing I need to do and this is a bit annoaying.

@ScottGerber - Edge Beta had it for a while, but the File Explorer option is gone now. Now half the time I shut down Edge Beta and go back to IE so I can open Doc Libs with File Explorer.

This thread seems to have gone silent but I still don't have the functionality in Edge that I know of. Has MS supported the functionality with an option in Edge that everyone  heard about except me? I  have (and frequently use) links to local and network directories and files. I want the directories to open in File Explorer where I can do things! And likewise would like to open the files where they are rather than downloading them. IE can do this. I can't get Edge to do this. And while there's some roundabout way to open sharepoint files in place (rather than downloading) the sharepoint directories always have garbage characters in their links - so you can't traverse a directory heirarchy in any dependable way! IE could do it. Why can't Edge? And if it can - please let me know how.

I know that this is still an issue with the On-Premise SharePoint sites, but if you have migrated to SPO  (SharePoint Online) then you can select the folder and then use the "Add Shortcut to OneDrive" option which will place a pointer to the folder in your OneDrive folder.  This also works with folders that are shared with you via OneDrive, but you need to access your OneDrive through the browser and then select the "Add Shortcut to My Files" button.  You can tell folder is from one of the sites because the icon looks like a folder with a picture of a blue arrow going around in a circle in the bottom left-hand corner of the folder.