One of the more popular changes in Windows Vista is the Explorer Breadcrumbs feature that lets you easily navigate to folders below the current folder by using the drop-down arrows. We’ve already featured one alternative for Windows XP users, but we’ve come across a much better solution to share with you.

This explorer add-on is written to be as minimal as possible, and is much easier to install. Overall quite a nice solution for those stuck on Windows XP.

Installation

All you really have to do is download and install the utility. Close out all Windows Explorer windows, and then open up a new window, and you’ll see the new toolbar over to the right.

Uncheck “Lock the Toolbars” if checked…

And then drag the toolbar down underneath the other toolbars. You can also hide the regular Address Bar toolbar if you’d like.

Usage

Since we are all running now, you can use the arrows to quickly navigate through the folders.

Or if you click in the address bar it will convert into a textbox address bar (which is why you don’t need the original address bar)

You’ll also notice that memory usage is extremely light, since it’s a plugin for Explorer but written to be as minimal as possible.

Overall this is a much better choice than the other breadcrumbs alternative we featured before.

Download Explorer Breadcrumbs from minimalist.com