Immersive Explorer
version 1.0.5
http://www.immersive-explorer.com
Created by Julien MANICI (jmanici@outlook.com)
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Immersive Explorer is an alternative to the default file explorer included in Windows (known as Windows Explorer).
It is designed to provide an "immersive" experience to the user by focusing on the content rather than hiding it 
behind icons and large window chrome and borders. It allows the user to avoid opening different applications and 
switching between multiple windows when doing tasks as simple as viewing a picture, thanks to the built-in viewer.

Although it is not a Windows 8 "Metro application", Immersive Explorer is designed around the "Metro" user interface 
guidelines. It is optimized for tablets and computers with touch-screens, but it also offers a great experience for 
mouse/keyboard users (with features like scroll-to-zoom, keyboard navigation).

Immersive Explorer is based on Win32/.NET/WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). It uses graphical hardware 
acceleration to display fluid animations and transitions, making it look more modern than the default Windows 
File Explorer. Note that it's not a complete replacement for the Windows Shell (it's just an alternative to the
Windows Explorer) and it doesn't even need administrator rights to be installed.

As Immersive Explorer is not based on WinRT, it means that it can't run on Windows RT devices such as Surface RT 
(but it works great on Windows 8/8.1 tablets like Surface Pro).


Configuration required : 
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-Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1
-If you're using a tablet : 
   -At least an Intel Atom Bay Trail CPU (most tablets released with Windows 8.1). 
   -Also works with an Atom Clover Trail CPU (most tablets released with Windows 8.0) but requires further improvements to run smoothly.
-If you're using a desktop/laptop : At least a Dual Core CPU (Core 2 Duo, Core i3/i5/i7, Athlon 64 X2, ...)
-At least 1 GB of RAM
-The .NET Framework 4.0 or 4.5 must be installed (it is already installed by default in Windows 8 and 8.1, but not on Windows 7)


Release notes for Version 1.0
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Finally! One year and a half after the release of its first beta version, Immersive Explorer is now available in version 1.0!
This 1st stable version should be good enough for daily use on desktops, laptops, or tablets. 
I hope you'll enjoy using it, and that you'll find it useful! And if you do, please consider sharing it with your friends :)
(Having more people who use my application motivates me to spend more time working on it!)

Immersive Explorer is free, and will stay free. The source code will also be released at the same time as the version 1.0.2.
However, I've decided to keep using timebombs in the stable release. While I know that a few users will dislike this practice, 
I think it's a reasonable choice to ensure that people always use the latest version of my application.
This decision is based on my experience with my previous projects: I still see a lot of web sites offering 5-years old outdated versions 
of my apps for download, and many people who download these very old versions don't take the time to download the latest version. 
When they encounter a bug, they just stop using the app (and sometimes, they even write a negative comment about it!).
I hope you'll understand that, for me, it's important that people don't judge my work based on bugs I may have fixed months (or years) ago.

Also, I want to say thanks to all the people who have used the beta releases during all this time. Your feedback (especially bug reports) 
has been very valuable! Keep sending me emails or posting comments on my web site about suggestions and bugs you encounter!

What's next?
There are still a lot of features that are missing from Immersive Explorer 1.0, but here is what I plan to implement in the coming weeks:
-Version 1.1 will include an Image Resizing feature (with live preview of the result and comparison with the original image)
-Version 1.2 should add support for automatic refresh of drive list and folder content
-Version 1.3 should add support for favorite folders, and custom folder wallpaper
-Later versions will implement audio playlists, improve the picture viewer's touch support, folder content load time, ...


What's new :
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Version 1.0.5 (2014/05/22) :
-set the expiration date to 2014/06/20
-new: images can be stretched to fit the screen in the built-in image viewer (disabled by default)
-new: when using the Chinese (simplified or traditional) translation, text is displayed using the "Microsoft YaHei UI" font instead of "Segoe UI" for better readability
-improved: the folder content preview animation is less annoying (fading instead of sliding)
-improved: scrolling performance in folders containing images
-improved: folders thumbnails load time
-fixed: "Immersive Explorer Optimizer.exe" crash

Version 1.0.2 (2014/04/30) :
-set the expiration date to 2014/05/20
-new: animated GIF support in the image viewer
-new: images smaller than 400x400 are no longer streched by default in the image viewer
-new: "Immersive Explorer Optimizer.exe" will start right after you close Immersive Explorer for the 1st time
-new: "Immersive Explorer Optimizer.exe" has 2 execution modes (the standard mode will no longer force a complete NGEN rebuild)
-fixed: after scrolling forward then backward, the animation previewing the content of the subfolders was no longer displayed

Version 1.0.1 (2014/04/10) :
-set the expiration date to 2014/04/30
-file type descriptions are no longer hardcoded
-bug fixes

Version 1.0 (2014/03/19) :
-set the expiration date to 2014/04/10
-improved: image cache management
-fixed: some minor bugs

Version 0.9.2 (2014/03/17) :
-fixed: bug accidentally introduced in v0.9.0 that may cause the application to crash when clicking on a tile

Version 0.9.1 (2014/03/15) :
-set the expiration date to 2014/03/22
-added: shortcut files (.lnk) support
-added: for touch screen users: multiple items can be selected by touching them in EDIT mode (it's no longer needed to do a long press on the screen to simulate a right click)
-improved: keyboard navigation and scrolling
-improved: checkbox/radiobutton controls on WinVista/7 now look like native Win8 controls

Version 0.9.0 (2014/03/05) :
-set the expiration date to 2014/03/12
-added: sort by name, size, date modified, date created
-added: display hidden items and operating system protected items
-improved: the "en.lang" translation file has been updated
-improved: Immersive Explorer optimizer can detect when optimization is not required
-fixed: various bugs
