Much familiar Ribbon in Office and Windows Live application comes to Windows 8 Explorer, where Home tab offers most of the file management commands like copy, Paste, Move etc. for user’s convenience, some people hate it, some love it and use it. It’s true that ribbon occupies most space on the Explorer window, you can minimize/hide Explorer ribbon in 2 ways.
#1. Use the shortcut Ctrl + F 1 or click the “down arrow” to the left of help icon to minimize or expand the ribbon.
#2. Explorer ribbon offers “Quick Access Toolbar” above the menu from which you can minimize the ribbon easily (check the screenshot below).
3. Use Win +R command to open run command box and enter Gpedit.msc to open Group Policy Editor in Windows 8
Select Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Explorer and double-click on Start Windows Explorer with Ribbon minimized on the right-pane and click Yes and Ok to save the changes.
From now onwards Windows Explorer will open with ribbon minimized by default.