[jdrc]

Linux desktop is a very low bar to clear for nearly everything

[number6]

Yes. It's only undermatched by the windows desktop. Who has a file manager that's also the window manager ah and the shell...

[Kwpolska]

Explorer isn’t the window manager. And does it really matter it’s serving as the shell? What technical benefits would a split bring?

[number6]

Right, they changed that 15 years ago.

Splitting would make them more interchangeable and stable - crashing one part does not tears the whole stack down.

What is the benefit of putting all the different functionality in one application?

[awilfox]

Explorer was never the WM; you could kill explorer.exe off in both 9x and NT systems without affecting window management.

I don't remember how it worked in 9x, but NT used CSRSS.EXE for window management until NT 4 moved GDI into the kernel. DWM handles it in Vista and newer.

[jdrc]

Windows is vastly superior

[slater]

[citation needed]