Add option for compact layout

[soraphis]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Its annoying that so much space is wasted in comparison to the default explorer

Describe the solution you'd like
An option to reduce the font size

Describe alternatives you've considered
Changing the windows scale seems not to work on a per-app basis on UWP apps

Additional context
comparison screenshot:
left the old explorer showing 27 items, right the files-uwp showing 16 on the same window size.

Capability	Priority
This proposal will add a setting to turn on the compact layout	Must
This option will use the compact styles for the sidebar and details layout	Must

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[lukeblevins]

Some of the work that is currently in the proposal drafting stage should pave the way for density adjustments to the List control. We adjusted the default font size several months ago, but recognize the padding isn't as suitable as it could be for some users.

[jaigak]

Not needed. Already the size is so small and reducing it will make it unusable with touch. The File Explorer is an old application designed when you only used your PC on a desk with a mouse so that's why it's too small. This application should also work with touch and having it too small will be bad.

[generalguy41]

@Jaiganeshkumaran I disagree that it's not needed. As a primarily desktop user, I think that there should be an option to have a "compact" mode. By default, it could use the more spaced out mode, but I'd like to see the option available at least.

[jaigak]

@generalguy41 I'm a desktop user too and don't have a touch screen but it shouldn't be that small

[generalguy41]

@Jaiganeshkumaran Agree to disagree, I guess. I would much rather have an option to show more items in the window and have a more compact view. Ultimately the decision isn't up to me, but I'd seriously hope it would be taken it into consideration for more "power users" I guess.

[perplexityjeff]

Searched as I am having this issue as well. I find that from a productivity standpoint that the old explorer shows you so much more information at a glance. For me at least an option to tweak this to my liking would be fantastic. Either font settings and/or the padding.

[Gabryxx7]

I feel the same about having the option to customize it at least a few pre-defined choices.
I wrote my own workaround so I can easily adjust padding, margins and font size.
Compiling takes a few minutes so I did not want to go through that everytime I had to make a small change to the padding for the sidebar or the list view so I implemented a quick theme-based workaround. I pretty much just made it look for the padding values in the theme xaml file instead of using pre-defined ones.

In my sample1.xaml file I added these few lines in the default theme:

                            <Thickness x:Key="ExpanderContentPadding">20,0,0,0</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ExpanderMinHeight">1</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="GridViewHeaderPadding">12,8,12,0</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="GridViewHeaderMinHeight">0</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="GridViewHeaderItemMinHeight">0</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewRowPadding">8,0,8,8</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewHeaderGridHeight">38</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ListedItemPadding">10,0</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ListedItemHeight">32</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewMinHeight">1</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewHeight">36</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewItemMinHeight">1</Thickness>
                            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewHeaderItemPadding">12,8,12,0</Thickness>

I also added these lines to default, dark and light in the App.xaml file.

After doing that I changed a few lines to make sure the program was referencing those value from the theme resources.
In SettingsBlockControl.xaml

            <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="{ThemeResource ExpanderMinHeight}" />
            <Setter Property="Padding" Value="{ThemeResource ExpanderContentPadding}"  />
            ...
            <Setter Property="Padding" Value="{ThemeResource ExpanderContentPadding}"  />
            <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="{ThemeResource ExpanderMinHeight}" />

In DetailsLayoutBrowser.xaml

                <Setter Property="Padding" Value="{ThemeResource GridViewHeaderPadding}" />
            ...
                    <ListView.Header>
                        <Grid
                            x:Name="HeaderGrid"
                            Height="38"
                            Height="{ThemeResource ListViewHeaderGridHeight}"
                            Margin="16,0,0,0"
                            Padding="0"
                            Background="{ThemeResource FileBrowserHeaderBackgroundBrush}"
            ...
                             <ContentPresenter Padding="{ThemeResource ListViewRowPadding}" Content="{TemplateBinding Header}" />
            ...
                    <ListView.ItemContainerStyle>
                        <Style BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultListViewItemStyle}" TargetType="ListViewItem">
                            <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch" />
                            <Setter Property="MinHeight" Value="{ThemeResource ListViewMinHeight}" />
                            <Setter Property="Height" Value="{ThemeResource ListViewHeight}" />
                        </Style>
                    </ListView.ItemContainerStyle>

You can now change these values in your sample1.xaml file, this is what mine looks like

            <Thickness x:Key="ExpanderContentPadding">20,0,0,0</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ExpanderMinHeight">1</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="GridViewHeaderPadding">12,8,12,0</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="GridViewHeaderMinHeight">0</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="GridViewHeaderItemMinHeight">0</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewRowPadding">4,0,4,4</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewHeaderGridHeight">38</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewRowPadding">5,0,5,5</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListedItemPadding">10,0</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListedItemHeight">32</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewMinHeight">1</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewHeight">25</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewItemMinHeight">1</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="ListViewHeaderItemPadding">12,8,12,0</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="SplitViewLeftBorderThemeThickness">20</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="SplitViewPaneRootCornerRadius">50</Thickness>
            <Thickness x:Key="NavigationViewContentGridBorderThickness">20,0,0,0</Thickness>

And this is the end result!

You can follow the same process for the font size. I believe the key can be a Thickness as well as that's just a double value container. Then reference it in the code wherever the fontsize is used