Steven Roselle offers an overview for the Maya 2015 Bonus Tools File Browser, as part of the Bonus Tools available for this current version of Maya. The Bonus Tools File Browser is based on the Maya Layout Tools of previous versions and has undergone some changes.
Bonus Tools File Browser
Layout Tools was initially created to be a prop assembly and placement tool, making it easy to place props to populate a Maya Scene. The Bonus Tools File Browser has morphed into a general purpose file browser that will allow you to visually choose files from rendered previews in a tab based browser. The Bonus Tools File Browser is no longer a separate install from it’s Layout Tools counterpart, it is now included in a standard install of Maya Bonus Tools 2015.
This gives you a more intuitive alternative from opening the standard file browser and searching through nested folders looking at file names. Steven walks through using the new Bonus Tools File Browser including rendering preview icons and how to use the Bonus Tools File Browser for quickly finding files with some really great features behind it.
Bonus Tools has always been a free collection of useful Maya scripts and plug-ins that are offered without support on an as-is basis, extending the capabilities and workflows for Maya, Check out Bonus Tools for Maya 2015 here.