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Super UserReplacement for Windows Explorer?
[+64] [23] Tomáš Pajonk
[2009-07-15 07:33:38]
[ windows windows-explorer file-management software-rec ]
[ http://superuser.com/questions/90/replacement-for-windows-explorer ] [DELETED]

I have been raised on Norton Commander so I could never really get too comfortable with the plain Explorer.

What is your favourite explorer tool and did you completely replace Windows Explorer with it?

Duplicates: superuser.com/questions/20324 and superuser.com/questions/26777. - Peter Mortensen
(2) In my opinion, Windows Explorer gets worse with every Windows version. I just can't do without a replacement anymore. - Dimitri C.
@Peter, those are duplicates of this question, it was asked Jul 15. - jtimberman
(3) Blech! Why does everyone keep all of their folders in thumbnail-mode? Am I the only that uses detail-mode almost exclusively? - Synetech
This whole page should probably just get deleted because it is a mess. There are countless duplicate answers, discontinued programs, and even dead links. In any case, I really like Clover. It uses the Chromium framework to embed Windows Explorer in a tabbed environment. It is a little flaky, slightly unstable, and a little feature-poor, but it is really nice and I fell in love with it in less than a day. Hopefully it can be enhanced. (Sadly, I have given up on Chrome itself, so I’m not sure if if I can have faith in Clover’s future.) - Synetech
[+38] [2009-07-15 07:39:46] Mercer Traieste

You must love Total Commander [1].

It has similar key mappings with Norton Commander, a lot of useful features, it's fast, and has plenty of addons.

It looks a lot like Norton Commander and allows in-place file opening.

[1] http://www.ghisler.com/

(1) There must be an abundance of free alternatives that compare to Total Commander. Free Commander, as suggested in a different answer, would get my preference. - Paul Lammertsma
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[+32] [2009-07-15 07:48:04] jtimberman

I just use Windows Explorer. I see no reason to replace it on Vista and 7. It would be like switching from /bin/bash to /bin/zsh on Linux/Unix. Sure, something else may be better, but its available everywhere, and I don't see any reason to devote cycles to learning subtle nuances of something new that only may increase my productivity.


(5) I wish I could upvote this a million times. Explorer is sufficient, why take the time to get/install/learn something else? - Sasha Chedygov
(4) Win7 explorer+search is awesome. - chakrit
(55) -1 This answer and the first comment are laughable! Using this reasoning, there's no reason to ever use anything other then the commend prompt in Windows. If you don't understand why it's useful to "devote cycles" to learning new things you really haven't got a clue. - Ash
(4) @ashh I have plenty of other things to learn in my usage of computers, how I interact with them on a daily basis is very low on the priority list. And I do use the command prompt on Windows, quite a bit :). - jtimberman
(2) @jtimberman, When I first read this question I thought: great this is something that interests me, and will be really useful to me. Then I see the top answer (yours) is an arrogant non-answer that actually just criticises the value of the question. But anyway, I find it even more interesting as to your motivations for why you felt the need to actually answer in this way. - Ash
(1) @jtimberman, you say: "something else may be better", most of the tools mentioned in real answers to this question are better, that's why many of them have been around for years. "but its available everywhere", I run one of the tools below on my flash drive as a portable application, it's available everywhere. "learning subtle nuances of something new that only may increase my productivity" hmmm... searching, batch renaming, integrated FTP, file filtering, dual windows, tabbed windows, scripting, folder/file quick links. "Subtle nuances that may increase productivty", laughable. - Ash
(2) @ashh You've had your downvote. In fact, I know this answer was downvoted a few times before the question became a CW. That the community upvoted it so much speaks to the validity of the answer. - jtimberman
@ashh - Using what's common, in many ways, makes you more adaptable and marketable. At work, I learned vi while all my coworkers use "easier" editors for one simple reason: vi is guaranteed to be on all Unix/Linux systems. WE is guaranteed to be on all Windows computers. If you use a different one, you won't have your "special file browser". What if you forget your portable apps flash drive? Although, I don't always follow that advice: on my Linux VM, I use fluxbox instead of GNOME, the standard, but it provides tons of features which makes me happy. So I say: to each their own. - J. Polfer
(10) @sheepsim, @jtimberman, all lovely points, but it doesn't change the fact that "Replacement for Windows Explorer?" was answered with "Windows Explorer". - Ash
(1) -1 Windows Explorer gets worse with every new Windows version. When I made the transition to Vista, I decided it became totally unusable. - Dimitri C.
@all: this is like the notepad wars. 90 percent of the people complain notepad is a piece of junk and the other 10 percent are just waiting for them to add so much as an undo stack so they can claim that microsoft is trying to get a monopolistic hold on the market. Fact is, the only people who want an explorer replacement are those that don't have an extra 5 minutes a day to manage with the regular explorer. Granted, it does crash a lot, but you try maintaining what must be a couple million LOC codebase for a few years and still whine about it. Moreover, there's the (continued)... - RCIX
compatibility aspect -- explorer still has to support tape drives for crying out loud! And you lose the task bar, the desktop... But that's not a problem for you uber-geeks that can type 1000 words a minute in vi is it? - RCIX
All that said, ahh has a good point. - RCIX
(2) -1, for the reasons given earlier. When someone asks for replacement of a program, it's stupid to say "I like this program, keep using it". - Gnoupi
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[+21] [2009-07-16 03:53:44] ldigas

QTTabBar [1] - an addon for Windows Explorer which enables tabs and a lot of other useful options.

enter image description here

I don't like using anything but Windows Explorer, because when I use another machine, it is all different. It's better to customize a little - less of a shock that way.

For my own machine, this works beautifully and speeds up things a lot.

[1] http://qttabbar.sourceforge.net/

I had this installed for a while, but it seemed a little unstable to me. Also, I didn't like how the tree view was shared between tabs. - Scott
Never crashed down on me yet. I don't understand the second comment - the tree view ? Could you explain ? - ldigas
(1) If only this worked for Windows 7 - Umber Ferrule
(3) The project's been revived and working nearly perfectly on windows 7, could the OP edit the post to reflect that? sourceforge.net/projects/qttabbar - Raveren
Can confirm working for Windows 7 now - no problems in past few days! - Umber Ferrule
Just installed it today, running Windows 7. One word, awesome! Thanks! +1 - l0c0b0x
Try Clover for something more awesome/aesthetically beautiful. - muntoo
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[+18] [2009-07-15 07:46:03] MicTech

FreeCommander [1]

FreeCommander can show previews of images.

[1] http://www.freecommander.com/index.htm

I like FC's 2-pane and builtin ftp support. It's my second fav explorer replacement. First goes to Xplorer2. - funbi_grace
what more do you want, its free. - Ibn Saeed
FreeCommander now comes as FreeCommanderXE - new and improved, but still in beta - but even in beta it is better than any other file browser out there. Absolutely wonderful! And it's free. - BGM
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[+17] [2009-07-15 07:41:02] Leonardo

If you liked Norton Commander, you should have a look at Far Manager [1], from the creators of WinRAR. It's free, open source, and it has x86 and x64 versions.

Looks just like Norton!

[1] http://farmanager.com/?l=en

(1) You're absolutely right. Didn't know it was open source now. Well that makes it even better, doesn't it? - Leonardo
Yep, Far is awesome, it has a lot of various plugins which allow you to uninstall soft, manage services, edit registry, pack and unpack archives, etc... .Built in support fot SMB and FTP browsing... . - Serge
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[+14] [2009-08-23 04:05:05] Andrew Moore

Directory Opus [1]

A great file manager made to replace Windows Explorer. The reason why I like it so much is that:

  • Built-In Preview Pane (Windows Vista+ has that)
  • Dual-Pane View
  • Highly Customizable
  • Favorites
  • FTP/SFTP/FTP-SSH support
  • Text Thumbnails
  • Custom Key Shortcuts
  • Extensive use of keyboard shortcuts
  • and much more... [2]

enter image description here

[1] http://www.dopus.com/
[2] http://www.gpsoft.com.au/program/pro-lite.html

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[+10] [2009-07-15 09:05:13] luapyad

I quite like xyplorer [1].

alt text

Pros:

  • Very fast, extensive and user friendly search functionality
  • Very good "favorite directories" features
  • Remembers a lot of "recentlty used" things. For example, for every directory it keeps track of your last selection. I learned this is very handy.
  • Very customizeable
  • Has multi tabs
  • Very fast folder size calculation
  • Timestamps can be expressed as age (for example "3 days old" ). This is much more useful than something like "11/09/2009 12:23".

Cons:

  • Not free
[1] http://www.xyplorer.com/

+1 XYPlorer is a great time-saver and productivity improvement. I heard (at least to version 7) that it was written using Visual Basic. - Ash
+1 XYplorer is very good - Dimitri C.
This file manager app looks like a bloated torrent client. - Hassan
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[+9] [2009-07-15 09:32:51] OscarRyz

heheh I use the command line. It's pretty good. 

cd C:\someplace; 
copy file target
erase file
rename filename

In UNIX/Linux gets even better :)


(9) It's good to see there are still masochist around ;-) - funbi_grace
(5) 6 letters for a command when you can use 2 - masochist - Martin Beckett
> 6 letters for a command when you can use 2 I prefer three letters because it is more contextual. Three letters for the five as well. - Synetech
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[+8] [2009-07-15 07:39:48] Mark Turner

When I used to use Windows I was quite a fan of xplorer2 [1].

Xplorer2

There is a lite version [2] that's free for non-commercial use, and the pro version adds powerful search feature (Omni-Finder)

Omni-Finder

[1] http://www.zabkat.com/
[2] http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm

The lite version is free. I love it. - Nosredna
Having tried many of these, I'm really surprised xplorer2 doesn't have the votes. This one is definitely worth a try. - Jerph
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[+5] [2009-07-24 08:29:30] pavsaund

Teracopy [1] is a great filecopy utility that integrates with windows explorer and supports pausing / continue functionality. When making multiple copy sessions to the same destination, it queues up instead of starting multiple copies, thus maintaining the speed. Integrates seamlessly into Windows Explorer-shell. It's also fast.

Also supports integration with Total Commander [2] and Directory Opus [3]

[1] http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php
[2] http://www.ghisler.com/
[3] http://www.dopus.com/

This is not a replacement for Explorer, though. - Gnoupi
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[+5] [2009-08-04 18:24:32] Umber Ferrule

I've just started using Q-Dir [1]. Very flexible layout and quick to load too. Don't be put off by the web site (which looks a bit crazy!).

[1] http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=freeware/Q-Dir

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[+4] [2009-08-30 22:16:55] Lara Dougan

I've used CubicExplorer [1] quite often. It's free, tabbed, and very customizable.

CubicExplorer Screenshot

[1] http://www.cubicreality.com/ce/download/

Sadly, doesn't support right-click context menus for 64-bit programs. - Richard Inglis
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[+3] [2009-07-15 07:41:56] Nick

Not free but very mature! SpeedCommander [1]

[1] http://www.speedproject.de/enu/speedcommander/index.html

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[+3] [2009-07-15 09:30:34] ino

This one is very poorly known but for me it's the best: Altap Salamander [1]

[1] http://www.altap.cz/

Agreed; This is the best by far, and I've tried almost all of the others mentioned here. - yalestar
I am evaluating salamander. It's pretty good so far. Very snappy. Seems to be well designed. I was skeptical about the dual panel file managers, but that approach actually works really well. - dangph
You're spot on. I've been using this for years and there is no replacement for it! - lang2
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[+3] [2009-09-02 13:23:48] Vinayak

Without a doubt it is Xplorer2 [1].

Xplorer² allows you to browse more than one folder at a time, using tabs and dual panes. Sorting out and copying files becomes a breeze. You can navigate your shell namespace quickly using favorites, clickable paths (breadcrumbs), easy access to root folders, a tree and a bookmark pane (drop box) etc. You can even save and restore folder groups whenever your workflow deems necessary.

Xplorer2

[1] http://zabkat.com/

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[+2] [2009-08-20 21:28:02] James McMahon

Mucommander [1]

screenshot should be here

muCommander is a lightweight, cross-platform file manager featuring a Norton Commander style interface and running on any operating system with Java support (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, *BSD, Solaris...).

I'm not huge into the Nortan Commander paradigm, but this program is useful enough that I keep it my machines for file transfers, viewing hidden files that I don't want to show in explorer/finder. Did I mention you can use it on Windows and Mac?

It is also open source [2] (GPL).

[1] http://www.mucommander.com/
[2] http://trac.mucommander.com/browser

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[+2] [2010-05-19 18:42:05] Gnoupi

Explorer++ [1] is a free multi-tab file manager.

screenshot

Features:

  • With the option to save to the registry or a configuration file, Explorer++ is portable.
  • Tabbed browsing for easy management of multiple folders.
  • Display window shows previews of files as they are selected.
  • Easy-to-remember keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation.
  • Customizable user interface.
  • Full drag-and-drop support with other applications, including Windows Explorer.
  • Advanced file operations such as merging and splitting supported.
[1] http://www.explorerplusplus.com/

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[+1] [2009-08-20 21:32:40] Molly7244

Total Commander all the way. I've been using this software since the good old days of Windows 3.x (it was known as Windows Commander back then).

If you're looking for a conventional Explorer replacement, then I recommend UltraExplorer [1].

alt text

[1] http://download.cnet.com/UltraExplorer/3000-2248_4-10702384.html

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[0] [2009-07-15 07:41:35] Ehtyar

DirectoryOpus [1] is a great (if a little pricey) choice.

Ehtyar.

[1] http://directoryopus.com/

Pricey yes, but worth the money. - wonea
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[0] [2009-08-07 03:20:24] baudtack

How about bash via Cygwin [1]?

[1] http://www.cygwin.com/

This is really a comment, not an answer to the question. Please use "add comment" to leave feedback for the author. - Diogo
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[0] [2009-08-30 17:50:25] Phoshi

Window's command line, with Cygwin's \bin in my PATH, and a few batch files and c++ programs is my preferred method. I'll never be slower than clicking if I know my filesystem, and 90% of the time, I know what I'm going to find.


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[0] [2011-01-06 15:39:39] Moab

The old Windows file manager ported to 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 for old schoolers that refuse to give it up.

http://www.mdgx.com/bin.htm#FM


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[0] [2011-12-12 09:41:21] dharmatech

Dired [1] is a "directory editor" that comes with GNU Emacs [2] which is available for Windows [3].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dired
[2] http://www.gnu.org/s/emacs/
[3] http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/Getting-Emacs.html#Getting-Emacs

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