File managers

[JohnFredC]

UnrealCommander: I've been following this project for a while. It is promising, but UC is still in beta and has many bugs/quirks, so use at your own risk. Functionality is about the TC level of the late 90's but with the useful addition of folder tabs.

Currently UC is unable to show thumbnails, has no folder trees, apparently cannot show file attributes or other metadata (except for comments, which override display of file size and date).

It does partially support TC's WLX (viewer) and WCX (compactor) plug-ins, but not all will work. Too bad it doesn't also support the WDX plug-ins (columns).

IMO FreeCommander is much further along in the development cycle, both functionality- and stability-wise.

[Lesmo16]

Wise words! Only one issue to disagree:

... apparently cannot show file attributes ...

It can - but to be honest I've found it accidentally:
Move the vertical window divider almost to the right and play a bit with the columns widths - there you'll find the Attribute column.

[XnTriq]

CodePlex: Windows Double Explorer for Windows 7
Windows Double Explorer manages two or more Windows Explorer in one application. Also you can add your favorite folders with drag and drop to the toolbar for quick access. It's easyier to manage your disc structure. (A kind of Norton Commander or Total Commander)

[Tommy]

you guys should try latest version of CubicExplorer

http://www.cubicreality.com/

it really rocks!!!

[XnTriq]

XYplorer v10.80 @ Giveaway of the Day (06/Feb/2012)

[budz45]

XYplorer is the way to go. I tell ya's.

XYplorer is without a doubt the best file manager on WIndows. A personal favourite and regularly used app is XYploere to me.

I hear Total Commander (TC) is for the 'elderly' and 'old skool' software users

budz45

[JohnFredC]

Geez budz45, despite your enthusiasm, I respectfully disagree. That's quite a bit of hyperbole, there.

XYplorer is highly configurable and has many useful UI tweaks and options. I like the undo functionality, for instance. The tabbed file preview/info panel is really great. The new scripting capability finally catches XYplorer up with SpeedCommander, Dopus, and Salamander, among others.

But Total Commander is so much more powerful overall, there is really no comparison!

Here's why: TC has an open architecture that supports four types of 3rd-party plugins:

• WFX: File system plugins.
  WCX: Compression/encoding ("packer") plugins
  WDX: MetaData plugins
  WLX: Lister (TC's file content viewer) plugins

The TC developer has published APIs and example code for these plugin types and many (many, including even me!) users have written to the specification to allow TC to work with virtually any file system, see into any document, and integrate everything into one virtually seamless tool.

As just one example of the power of TC's open architecture: consider the range of possible file metadata and what a user might wish to do with it.

Yes XYplorer does display a few metadata columns also available in Explorer (right click on a column header and select "Show columns..." to see XYplorer's limited selection). But that's it! It makes no further use of that data beyond passive display and is limited to the metadata that is hard coded into it by the developers.

In TC, file system metadata is collected/accessed via internal and external content ("*.wdx") plugins. For instance, plug-ins enable TC to display all Explorer metadata as columns in the file panels. But TC will also populate the columns with any additional values recoverable or created by any WDX plugin. There are plugins to extract media tags, extract image data from EXIF or XMP, perform calculations, generate conditional values, reformat other metadata... the list goes on and on. Someone wrote a metadata plugin that will populate each column using different plugins according to user-defined file masks... (a "metadata-metadata" plug-in). Another developer wrote a plugin to link to user-defined VBScripts to generate the values to display in a column.

Not only that, the piece de resistance, TC integrates any and all file metadata available to it everywhere else in the UI that a user might conceivably want to use it: in filter definitions, selection definitions, search definitions, renaming rules, attribute management, thumbnail labels...

And that doesn't even address the other, equally powerful, plugin types. Scroll through those TC plugin pages (see links, above) a little bit. The vast numbers of TC plug-ins speak for themselves. And that is just one site!

At first glance, indeed, TC does look a bit "old school", it misses scripting, has no undo, and some file managers have more flexible GUIs in some ways, but if you really need to "get things done", TC has absolutely no peers. I've tried them all.

[XnTriq]

• BitsDuJour
  • Directory Opus 10 Light $29.62 $15.32
• GPSoftware
  • Light vs. Pro
  • Directory Opus 10.2.0.0 + Directory Opus Light + Video Guide

[mrwul]

I know, this thread is old, but still:

it is Directory Opus for me.

Very flexible - a lot of userdefined commands can be added, but above all - the guys on the forum - very fast responses.

For me, when deciding to buy/use a product, a good forum is essential.
No support forum, or one with just a few old postings, well, likely I will choose another product.

Software reviewers usually donot consider support forums.

Anyway, it is Directory Opus for me.
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[XnTriq]

09/May/2013: 50% discount ($89.00 $44.50) on Directory Opus 10 Pro at BitsDuJour

[mrwul]

Thanks!
I'll keep that site in mind ...
Interesting.
I do have Opus and it goes with a lifetime support.
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