The folder-list sidebar in Windows Explorer (now the Navigation Pane in File Explorer) has historically had many tree-node items packed in by using a small row-height value.
By comparing screenshots over time, I've observed the following heights for different OS releases (at 96dpi with default theme / font-size settings):
- Windows 95, Windows 98 - 16px
- Windows 2000, Windows XP - 17px
- Windows Vista - 19px
- Windows 7, Windows 8 - 21px
- Windows 10 - 24px
That's an increase in 8px - 50% - from the first Windows Explorer to the present-day, which represents a one-third drop in information-density. If you have 1152 pixels of vertical screen-space, then if you were running Windows 95 you could see 72 folders at a time, but on Windows 10 that drops to 48 folders.
I appreciate that in the days of Windows 95 typical screen-space was 640x480, maybe 800x600 if you were lucky and that dense cramped text can be hard to read - so I feel the 19px height in Windows Vista was a nice compromise - I eventually got used to the 21px height in Windows 7 and Windows 8, but the 24px height in Windows 10 is excessive - obviously a move towards being touch-friendly, but as I'm a mouse-only user it doesn't benefit me at all, and the 9% reduction in information-density from Windows 7 to Windows 10 just means I have to do more scrolling.
Can the Classic Shell team modify the Navigation Pane so that it has a smaller node row-height, at least 21px but preferably customizable so I can set 19px or even 16px if it takes my fancy.
Thanks!
I've attached a comparison of screenshots.
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