Feature: Ability to customize the way file sizes are displayed (units and decimal/binary bytes)

[Cleridwen]

What feature or improvement do you think would benefit Files?

Being able to configure Files so that the unit for the file sizes is accurate to the way Windows measures file sizes (eg. GiB instead of GB), or even to customize the way file sizes are displayed entirely: letting users choose between Decimal bytes (1kB = 1000B, universal standard) and Binary bytes (1kiB = 1024B, which windows has been using forever, despite displaying the units for Decimal bytes instead).

Requirements

I'm not exactly sure how to use this field, but here goes

• New options in the "Preferences" settings for changing the way file sizes are displayed: either "Use windows default" (combination of binary bytes and decimal units, which should likely be the default option, as to not confuse new users); "Decimal"; and "Binary"
• Changing this setting would then reflect on the drive sizes in the "Drives" view, file sizes anywhere when browsing, as well as when opening "Properties", and folder sizes if enabled.

Files Version

Version: 2.3.12.0 OS Version: 10.0.22622.601

Windows Version

Edition Windows 11 Pro Version 22H2 Installed on ‎07/‎08/‎2022 OS build 22622.601 Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22634.1000.0

Comments

I don't know how possible this actually is to implement. I've seen programs use the correct units (KiB instead of KB) when on Windows, but I don't remember seeing any that uses decimal bytes, or gives users the option to do so.

I'm having a lot of fun using "Files" so far (about a week), and while it's generally a bit slower than the default Windows 11 file explorer when fetching large files/folder lists (although the Windows Explorer tends to freeze and crash quite a bit in the insider Betas), it's made up for it in appearance, layout, and features. This app makes so much sense, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Thank you for creating and maintaining it!

[yaira2]

Thank you for the feedback, we're going to leave this open as a discussion to gather additional feedback but on the topic of speed and performance, you might be interested in trying the preview version of Files which has a number of improvements in this area (https://files.community/download/preview).

[Cleridwen]

Thanks! I think I was too harsh with the performance side of things, it's mostly because I'm somewhat new to the app, and I'm guessing it had to generate some thumbnails and such…? Regardless, it's been better, and indeed, the preview version is quicker at opening things up.

[yaira2]

Thank you for the positive feedback on the preview version (we're currently focused on performance so expect more improvements over the coming months).

[hecksmosis]

Is this ready to be worked on?

[yaira2]

Not yet, we still need some time to review the requirements

[RenegadeScooter]

It's been over a year since the last comment and this issue is still open. How is this coming along?

[Josh65-2201]

No one has looked into implementing this yet.

[yaira2]

This feature will be included in the next release.