What is the best alternative to Avanquest PowerDesk?

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score 13 · Answer 1

Directory Report

Top Pro

Offers good options for quickly dealing with duplicates

Once duplicates are found you can choose to select certain files based on criteria like when was it created, when was it last modified, size, folders they're in or if the folders they're in contain a particular string. See More

Top Pro

Reasonable rules for finding both duplicate files and folders

The program can find duplicate files based on any combination of size, name, CRC. It can also compare files byte by byte. Also, it can compare folders (with or without subfolders) based on any combination of size, name, CRC as well as file count. See More

Top Pro

Gives a clear overview of found duplicates

It shows duplicate items grouped with every second group highlighted. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

License:Proprietary

Interface:GUI/CLI

13 1

score 7 · Answer 2

Direttore File Manager

Top Pro

Column View Superior to Macintosh Finder

Direttore got it right. The other alternatives with a column view option ("miller columns") are unwieldy and ascetically offensive. See More

Top Pro

Totally Themable

I can change colors, button,scrollbars. I also changed the icons for folders and some file-types. Info on Direttore webpage. See More

Top Pro

Color labels

Ntfs drives only, but still very convenient. See More

7 2

score 665 · Answer 3

XYplorer

Top Pro

Extremely configurable

There are literally hundreds of ways you can customize this software. All the settings can be contained in a single configuration file, so you can easily create "profiles" as well. See More

Top Con

Not user frendly

You will spend more time managing the manager than getting work done, and even for basic customization you will suffer a great deal. See More

Top Pro

Lifetime license available

XYplorer probably has the best "bang for the buck". It surely has its cons but considering what one gets for a "small" one-time investment, probably no other comparable feature rich product offers a better license. The lifetime license ($63.95) includes all future updates for free, lets you install on any number of computers, and includes the portable version. See More

Top Con

Single-threaded

Doesn't do internal multitasking so often you sit there waiting and waiting and waiting for the window to come back. See More

Top Pro

Frequent and regular updates

Bugfixes and new features are released frequently. Additionally, XYplorer can automatically check for updates and has convenient download and update functionality built-in. See More

Top Con

May be unresponsive at times

When browsing large number of files and using advanced features like preview, the program may become unresponsive. However, it is fair to say that given enough search and preview options and considering file security, network file share performance, malware or anti-malware activity, it is reasonable to expect situations where long delays could occur with any file manager. See More

Top Pro

Very reliable

It's small and fast, has lots of features, and helps you get your work done faster. See More

Top Con

No FTP support

XY doesn't support FTP, SSH, FTPS, etc. See More

Top Pro

Numerous filtering, sorting, and highlighting methods for files

Create rules and configurations to quickly identify and locate specific types of file and display them in various ways. See More

Top Con

No working high-dpi support

XYplorer will not properly scale when working in a mixed configuration consisting of both Full-HD and high-dpi screens. See More

Top Pro

Dual pane

Manage files with two panes which can be arranged horizontally or vertically - and each can have multiple tabs to boot. You can also easily save and reload open tabs as tab sets. See More

Top Con

No themes

You can customize toolbars, but there are no themes available. See More

Top Pro

Scriptable

Uses a very flexible scripting language that you can do many things with it. After learning it, one can get many other tools replaced in favor of a single centralized, extremely customize-able command center, plus writing one own's personal routines to fully perform finely-tuned file management. However, doing basic things like stringing together common renaming and moving tasks takes very little knowledge. Scripting is easy for beginners, is supported by the developer and the community, yet can be incredibly deep and powerful. See More

Top Con

Status bar not customizable

Users cannot customize the status bar. See More

Top Pro

Custom toolbar buttons

With its powerful scripting ability and the easily accessible menu identifiers, creating customized commands and toolbar buttons provides yet even further levels of usability specific to your needs. See More

Top Con

No plugin support

Top Pro

Logs plenty of actions for undo/redo

Up to 256 actions are logged and can be looked up and undone later in case of a mistake. Undo/Redo works even across sessions (i.e. after closing and restarting the app). See More

Top Con

32-Bit

Top Pro

Custom columns

Create custom columns to display all kinds of info snippets or even interactive links and buttons. See More

Top Con

No support for Windows libraries

You can't access your libraries through this software. See More

Top Pro

The catalog: an all-purpose area that can be customized for all of your needs

An all-purpose area that you can customize for all your needs. It can be a list of favorite directories, run scripts, replace the directory tree, be a program launch pad, and so much more. See More

Top Con

Separate tree for each panel is missing

The possibility of having a separate tree for each of the 2 panels is lacking. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

XYPlorer, in spite of its complexity and completeness, is very easy to use. Features are obvious. And where they're not obvious they can be discovered easily. An example is the ease of "Jump to Setting" which helps you effortlessly find which of many settings you're looking for. See More

Top Con

Poor touchscreen support

While an option exists to scale up icon sizes to improve touchscreen support, the program does not pan and scroll intuitively. See More

Top Pro

Extensive metadata

Mark files with colored labels, tags, comments, as well as multiple columns with user-defined metadata for everything from ratings, urls, and whatnot. See More

Top Con

Cannot display files as grouped

Especially in thumbs view it would at times be nice to be able to group the files in the display. Sometimes it might also be nice in others views as well. XY is only able to sort the files in the display but not able to group, though it does support arbitrary sort order and advanced link types. See More

Top Pro

Customizable keyboard shortcuts

XYplorer is great for heavy keyboard users. Its many keyboard shortcuts are also fully configurable. Additionally, XYplorer offers multiple ways to navigate to file system using only a handful of keys. That said, one can do things with a mouse like press an icon in a custom column to run a script on the corresponding file or folder. Mousers are happy too. See More

Top Con

The free version has been discontinued

Although it has just been discontinued as of 10th January 2017, it is still available for download at here. See More

Top Pro

Portable file extensions

Associate file types with other portable applications on your USB stick. See More

Top Pro

Developer is active in the forum as well

While other competitors only offer a "community" forum where the developers are absent, in XY's forum the developer answers questions personally, quickly, and consistenly. See More

Top Pro

Quick audio preview

Can listen to audio files very easily with a single mouse click on the file icon. This includes FLAC support. See More

Top Pro

Thumbnail viewing for images is both fast and customizable

If you're a photographer, wannabe photographer, or you just take a lot of photos, XYplorer is a great file manager for working with images. Combined with the Mouse Down Blow Up (MDBU) feature, previewing photos is very easy. See More

Top Pro

Portable

It doesn't require you to install it on your computer, allowing you to run it directly from a disk or from an USB flashdrive. See More

Top Pro

Easy to organize lots of files at once

Known as Branch View in XYPlorer. Select a folder or multiple folders and select Branch View to get a flat file view of the selected folder/s with files only, folders only or both. Alternatively, select Branch View to get a flat view of the current folder. Results can then be filtered, sorted, organised, moved, copied, renamed etc accordingly. Extremely useful if you have a lot of files to organise. See More

Top Pro

Folder sizes shown

Folder sizes and amount of files within the folders can be shown. This is very useful when trying to work out where the HDD space has gone. See More

Top Pro

Search and virtual folders

Its search ability and functions combined with a multitude of file actions and the ease of creating virtual folders is a major time saver. See More

Top Pro

Custom file and folder icons

Add a custom icon to a set of files or folders based on file type, location, name (or part of name) for example: all files named XYplorer to have 'icon x' or all folders that contain the word XYplorer in the name to have 'icon y', size, date, name length, path etc. You can customize an infinite number of icons for an infinite number of files and/folders or even just a single one based on what ever combination you want. No extra files are created like with other programs that place an icon in each directory. The customized icons are stored within the "Icons" folder of the XYPlorer directory while the list of customized file/folder patterns as well as which particular icon to point to are stored within XYplorer .ini file. It's set and forget as all file/folder icon associations are applied globally. Meaning that all new files or folders that match your predefined pattern or instruction if you like will automatically be displayed with your chosen icon. Customized icons are also very very flexible. It's so easy to add, remove, change and fine tune your settings to your liking. To turn the customized icons on or off is simply a matter of pressing the handy toggle button. Further flexibility comes with the ability to turn on or off individual custom icons with a simple tick box. It is a bit of a learning curve to get the pattern (instruction to select certain files/folders to be associated with a particular icon) just right. But as results are immediately visible, it makes it easy to adjust accordingly to exactly what you want. There are some examples of these patterns included within the "Customize File Icons" UI or settings box to get you started by selecting the "I" button. A more extensive list is available in the XYPlorer help file. Once you get the hang of it though, the same patterns can be applied to other customizations in XYPlorer for example color filters or Ghost filters. See More

Top Pro

User interface is extremely customizable

XYplorer's user interface can be customized in almost every conceivable manner, from size and placement of various frame elements, to fonts, colors, toolbar buttons, if you can think it, you can probably do it. See More

Top Pro

Separate 32 and 64-bit context menus

This is very useful for accessing some context handlers or when using the portable version across several systems. See More

Top Pro

Long path names supported brilliantly

Windows File Explorer, over time, will eventually allow you to create path lengths, usually accidentally, that are "very long" (ie too many characters based on Windows standards). And then, out of nowhere, you no longer have full functionality available to the directories and files in that long path. eg: you won't be able to open a file, or rename it, or copy it, or delete it, etc. In order to regain full functionality available to the files/ directories in that "long path", you have to go and manually shorten the "long path" length by deleting characters in filenames, directory names, etc, In other words, Microsoft will "allow" you to break the rules (.. ie in most cases without warning ), but then won't support the broken rules. This is where XYPlorer is super useful -- especially when you move big chunks of data from A to B -- you no longer have to care about long path name issues. See More

Top Pro

Per-user license

Just one license covers all of your computers. See More

Top Pro

Extremely versatile renaming

Renaming can also be combined extremely easily in basic scripts for chaining and combining the strengths of the different types of renaming available. Can also rename based on metadata.You don't really need to "learn scripting" to chain a bunch of renaming commands. Multiscripts can even give you a menu of your chained renames - with nested menus if desired. It takes very little knowledge to be able to do this. One can even run such a script by drag and drop. See More

Top Pro

Faster than Windows Explorer ever thought of being

This is faster than Windows Explorer when combined this with TeraCopy. Currently, it is present in the right-click menu, but you can drag and drop it to copy with Windows File Explorer. See More

Top Pro

Community support

Extensive and active support forum with unusually quick, thorough, and friendly assistance. See More

Top Pro

Branch view

Can show all files in a folder and all of its subfolders at once. See More

Top Pro

Can replace Windows Explorer

So that folders are automatically opened in a new tab of XYplorer rather than on Windows Explorer when called from other softwares. See More

Top Pro

Asynchronous copy and move operations

It's possible to queue copy and move operations so that multiple large copy/move operations don't interfere with each other (disk thrashing) and you can continue working with the program. See More

Top Pro

Can use system, XY's custom copy routines, Fast Copy, and Teracopy interchangably without scripting

Can save any set of command-line options with a friendly label. Switching is as easy as right-clicking on a button. See More

Top Pro

Preview files

From documents to audio and video. All files can be previewed from within the program and without the need to open other software packages. This is a very useful feature when working with multiple files. See More

Top Pro

Supports correction of illegal file and folder names

Easily rename a folder to make it legal. Search for dangerous unicode characters. Rename all files to ASCII if you wish. See More

Top Pro

Clean, uncluttered interface

Clean and uncluttered interface, easy to concentrate on the files and folders that you need. See More

Top Pro

Let's you select files by typing any word in the current directory

In windows file explorer when you want to select a file of the current directory, you have to type exactly the same name from the start of the file. In xyplorer you can type just part of it. Ex: filename "resume_work" With xyplorer you could just type work and it would show the file being marked (this is configurable). See More

Top Pro

Dark mode

Latest beta-release introduces the "dark mode" that we already know from other software. It's auto-computed based on the current colour-settings and has 51 shades of darkness. Can be activated with a simple checkbox, no further tweaking required! See More

Top Pro

Has more features than any other file manager

None of the managers, including Opus, Speed commander, Total commander, F man, Xplorer2, Tabbles, etc., but none of them can compare with it in easy usage, features or customization. The author updates it very frequently and has added many users requests. See More

Top Pro

FLAC as well as MP3 Support for Metadata and Previews

Most are MP3 only. See More

Top Pro

HoverBox

A no-click preview to quickly see folder contents, pictures, videos, pdf, office files, archives (zip, rar...)... See More

Top Pro

Option to disable lazy drag-and-dropping

A good practice to improve your workflow and eliminate accidental unwanted file movings to places! Brilliant! See More

Top Pro

Exhaustive list of previewable archive formats

Works with help of 7zip, even a portable install works. See More

Top Pro

Huge feature list, something for everyone.

The extensive feature list will give you plenty to work with. See More

Top Pro

Safety belts

Configurable options to prevent accidental file movements or deletions. See More

Top Pro

Nuke button

Files and folders can be "nuked" without needing to go through the recycle bin. See More

Top Pro

Ability to identify text files containing any range of extended characters

For example in the find files dialog, you can specify *.srt and contchar:>127 to find all subrip files that contain extended characters. See More

Top Pro

Communication with the programmer

You can reach the programmer very quickly and request new features. See More

Top Pro

Easy/extensive file renaming

Easily renames one (or many) files right from the context menu. It supports search and replace, batch, regex, changing extension, copy/paste a while list of filenames, spaces to unscore (and vice versa), changing capitalization, and so much more. Also, the "Preview" feature makes it easy to verify changes before applying them. Fantastic! See More

Top Pro

Easy to copy file names and directories

Right from the context menu, you can copy file names, paths or full file path names. Really handy. See More

Top Pro

File tabs

Extensive support for file tabs. You can rename and lock them too. Even further, you can quickly switch from one tab view to another. You can have sets of tabs for every project you work on. It really speeds up your workflow! See More

Top Pro

Responsive support

Top Pro

Fast and powerful search

Searching is extremely fast and thorough - no matter if you're looking for items by name, attribute, content, or trying to find duplicates (either with a selected hash or byte-to-byte). It allows you to search within your files, looking for specific terms, including wildcards and regular expressions. It also supports regular expressions and filter/sort your search results by file size, file modification date, etc. Can save complicated, often-used searches easily as "Search Templates" to reuse, tweak, or use in a script. Can set to instantly narrow a list as you type, or highlight if you prefer, with multiple options such as "Prefer Beginning of Column" or use currently sorted column. Supports Standard wildcards, Boolean, and Regex. See More

Top Pro

"Mouse Down Blow Up" feature

Mouse Down Blow Up is a quick file preview that pops up when you mouse-down on the icon or thumbnail of a file, and disappears on mouse-up. See More

Specs

665 114

score 134 · Answer 4

Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer)

Top Pro

Highly manageable multiple windows

Every window can be separately customized. You can choose between different views from 1 to 4 windows, and every window can have multiple tabs! See More

Top Con

Sometimes may have bugs

Top Pro

You can view 4 windows simultaneously

Top Con

Needs modern UI design

Top Pro

You can use tabs in every window

Top Con

No search

Top Pro

Portable

Top Con

Does not work with Quicklook

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Does not use a lot of RAM

Q-dir with 4 windows and with 4 tabs in every window uses only 39mb of RAM on Win10x64. See More

Top Pro

Fast and stable

Top Pro

Very customizable

Top Pro

Q-Dir allows you to save folder combinations as a favourite to open any time

Up to 64 folder combinations can be saved in a favorite, since each of the four windows is equipped with tabs (ie 4 x 16 tabs 4 x Tree View plus 4 x Address Bar). See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

See All Experiences

134 36

score 374 · Answer 5

Directory Opus

Top Pro

Customizable UI

Allows customizing toolbars and keyboard hotkeys. Has a full scripting interface that allows in-depth customization options. See More

Top Con

Expensive

Compared to the other options, Directory Opus is quite expensive. Prices are $35 for the Lite version and $64 for Pro (price changes based on the AUD to US exchange rate). Upgrading from light to pro costs about $30. See More

Top Pro

Can be set to replace Windows Explorer

Unique Explorer Replacement mode provides a full replacement for Windows Explorer. See More

Top Con

Portability costs more

On top of an already expensive license, users must purchase a separate Export License to create a portable version. See More

Top Pro

Batch-options

Allows batch renaming, viewing and editing file metadata. See More

Top Con

Can be intimidating to novice/inexperienced users

While the program is ULTRA-customizable, this can be a double-edged sword to anyone that is overwhelmed easily or not willing/able to learn the inner workings of DOpus. See More

Top Pro

Allows color-coding and assigning star ratings to files and folders

This is done with Directory Opus' inbuilt label and its Status system. See More

Top Con

Only available for Windows

Top Pro

FTP support

Supports SFTP (Secure FTP via SSH, port 22) Also supports FTP via SSL (port 990) and FTP via with TLS. Caution: FTP is a paid additive to the product although in relative terms it's not too expensive (around $12). See More

Top Con

Restrictive license

Product is licensed on a "per-machine basis" requiring purchasing multiple expensive licenses to cover a single user with multiple machines. However, if you have time and luck, you can write to the DO sales department and they can produce another license for you to use personally on another machine you own. See More

Top Pro

Supports different archive formats

Supports archive formats like Zip, 7Zip and RAR. See More

Top Con

Limited to only two views

You are only able to have two concurrent views at a time. It does help, that you are able to have both the metadata-pane and the viewer-pane open whilst using Dopus in dual-view mode. See More

Top Pro

Tools for synchronizing files and finding duplicates

Can easily synchronize files and helps the user in finding and deleting duplicates. See More

Top Con

Limited support for Touch / Tablet mode

Your file manager + Start Menu are the main way to launch programs/documents... When using Touch Mode, the Surface running Opus would be far more usable if some attention was paid to this use case. See More

Top Pro

Customizable status bar

Directory Opus allows users to customize the status bar to display helpful information based on several different factors, including file counts, types, disk space, and others. The status bar can also be customized separately for dual displays. See More

Top Con

Complicated if one pursues mastery on the most advanced features

Takes a long time to become efficient with it. Mastering all the features can be rather exhausting. See More

Top Pro

Available for different architectures

Available in both 32 and 64 bit versions. See More

Top Con

No good support for right-sided tree

The only way to get a right sided tree is to display both panes in horizontal layout and then switch the first (upper) tree off. Which leaves you with 2 horizontal panes and one tree on the right. There is no other way (neither with 2 vertical nor with 1 pane) to have a tree on the right side. And since this layout setting is rather the step-child of the developers, it also is a bit buggy and not of top priority as far as fixing any issues with it. See More

Top Pro

Tabs

Directory Opus has tabs for each view, which are customizable in size, appearance, functionality, etc. See More

Top Con

Large file sizes

The installer weighs in at 50MB and the app directory is over 95MB. See More

Top Pro

Customized filters

Directory Opus allows users to create custom filters that can be saved and recalled as needed. See More

Top Con

No native/good support for restoring multiple search paths for the find files tool

Although all other options of the find files tool are very good, there simply is no easy way of regularly using the same multiple search paths. For using only one search path, one can simply navigate to that path and activate the automatic path-use-button in the tool or choose one path from the previous paths drop-down, but that only works for one path. It can get cumbersome if one wants to restore multiple search paths at once. One must basically write his own script to do that. This is surprisingly annoying that such a basic and needed functionality is not natively supported (built-in) by such a generally powerful program. See More

Top Pro

Extended scripting API

The scripting capabilities of DirectoryOpus extend from version to version. You can do a whole lot of unheard stuff with that. Custom columns, custom commands, handling events etc. just to name a few things. It even has a GUI editor to allow for custom interfaces for your file management and scripting tasks. Even though mastering it is not easy in the beginning, it's worth it in the long run. See More

Top Con

Erroneous Con

Con has been deleted, as it stated untruthful information. See More

Top Pro

Very powerful and easy to use batch rename dialog/feature

From powerful RegEx renaming to batch macro renaming, Directory Opus can compete with any third party renaming tool. See More

Top Pro

Integrates seamlessly as a launcher for other programs

You can launch via a toolbar button or user definable custom context menu items. See More

Top Pro

Easy to sort photos

Image marking adds the images you select to a different file, making it easy to sort through a large number of them. See More

Top Pro

Customizable and downloadable themes

The Directory Opus community has created everything from dark themes to themes emulating other applications. See More

Top Pro

Standard and customized layouts/styles

Directory Opus includes 8 standard layouts, including Commander, Dual Horizontal, Dual Vertical, Explorer, Filmstrip, Images, Metadata and Single. In addition, users can create and save their own layouts to suit specific needs and file processes. See More

Top Pro

Backup and restore configuration

Directory Opus includes a comprehensive configuration backup and restore feature. Users can backup their customized configuration at any time and restore a previous configuration as needed. See More

Top Pro

Powerful image viewer

Directory Opus includes a powerful independent image viewer with configurable toolbar, menus and hotkeys. See More

Top Pro

Manual sorting

Directory Opus allows users to sort files as they want in manual sorting mode. See More

Top Pro

Single or dual independent trees

Directory Opus allows the user to use a single tree or dual independent trees with the dual file display. See More

Top Pro

Relative size and date graphs

Directory Opus has an option to include relative size and date graphs. These can be displayed independently, in their own columns, or nested behind the size and date columns respectively. They can also be toggled on and off with a simple button as needed. See More

Top Pro

Double-click on desktop to open a new file browser window

Top Pro

File Status Symbols

Directory Opus offers an extension of standard color labeling in the form of status graphics that can be shown as an additional column in the file display. Standard graphics include "Checked" and "Flagged." Users can also create and use customized status labels. See More

Top Pro

Supports high-DPI monitors

Directory Opus supports both 4K and 5K monitors. See More

Top Pro

Integrated image conversion

Directory Opus includes integrated image conversion functionality, allowing users to convert images to different formats, rotate and flip images, and resize images. Functionality can be used on a single image or large batch of images. See More

Top Pro

Extensive column availability

Directory Opus includes over 150 standard columns in various groups, ranging from "Name and Path" to "Metadata." In addition, users can create custom columns using a script. See More

Top Pro

Stable & reliable when dealing with huge (100k+) file sets

This applies to both local and network drives. See More

Top Pro

Vertical folder tabs

Directory Opus users can use vertical tabs instead of horizontal tabs, if desired. See More

Top Pro

Works with Everything

Directory Opus works with the Everything search program. A custom-built script allows users to conduct searches and view results within the Directory Opus file display. See More

Top Pro

Powerful, expandable viewer

The viewer in Directory Opus supports a huge array of file extensions (more can be added as plugins). It is even able to show webpages in the viewer, when you select .url or .html files. See More

Top Pro

Good customer support

The customer support is very good. See More

Top Pro

Works with Listary

Directory Opus has native support for Listary, allowing users to move even more quickly between directories and perform searches. See More

Top Pro

Integrated dialog editor

Lets you write scripts that have their own user interface with buttons, lists, checkboxes, text fields, etc. See More

Top Pro

Searchable preferences

Directory Opus offers thousands of user preferences. To help users find the preference they want, Directory Opus offers a search function within the Preferences dialog that identifies and highlights specific preferences associated with the user's search term. See More

Top Pro

Supports TeraCopy

Directory Opus supports TeraCopy. See More

Top Pro

Flickr support

Directory Opus is able to sync your photos with Flickr. You can customize which file collections to sync, and the save location for each file collection See More

Top Pro

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux Support)

Script functions can be written in WSL Script, DOS Batch Mode, VBScript, JScript or directly calling Opus or External applications. /mnt/c paths understood by path fields. WSL mode in Find As You Type (FAYT). Copy path names in WSL format or Windows format. See More

Top Pro

It prevents you from making gross deletion mistakes

Since it makes your folder structure rather transparent and allows to easy checks through dual tabbed layout, it helps you to not delete files wrongly. See More

Top Pro

World's best customer support

More often than not, developers reply within minutes (even seconds) on their great forum. Never seen anything like it before. See More

Top Pro

Audio preview

Ways for sound designers to play and stop audio files for fast previewing. See More

Top Pro

Gets updated often

Directory Opus gets updates all the time -- fixes, significant improvements and often new features are released multiple times a month. Improvement and feature requests by users are taken in consideration and you can often find your bug report resolved or improvement request fulfilled in one of the beta versions that follow soon. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

License:Per-Machine (plus personal laptop)

374 89

score 85 · Answer 6

xplorer²

Top Pro

Comprehensive functionality

Full search, sync files & folders, show folder sizes, robust copy, native file viewer, tabs within panes, very configurable display, command shell, bookmarks, etc. See More

Top Con

Doesn't display UTF-8 characters correctly

Emojis and Japanese characters appear as question marks, for example. See More

Top Pro

Ability to save state

xplorer² gives users the ability to save the state, so the program will open with the same state the next time it's used. See More

Top Con

Stagnating rate of development

Any improvements to the software are happening at a glacial pace which is making this software more and more outdated for a long time now. Only a few minor improvements a year. User suggestions for improvements are routinely rejected or explained away. As for suggesting new features -- you'll quickly abandon all hope. Only realistic reason to visit their support forums is to read Kilmatead's posts -- for anything else prepare to be disappointed. UPDATE (and slightly offtopic): Kilmatead seems to be no longer active on the forums, so the next best thing is xplorer2 blog which seems to often feature interesting technical topics. See More

Top Pro

Free version available

There is a free version available, xplorer² Lite, for non-commercial use. See More

Top Con

Un-evolved

The interface is essentially unchanged since its Windows XP days, with very little customization possible. Organization of features is convoluted, with some simple ones, like individual icons to quickly switch views missing. The stagnant cluttered design can make even long-time users drop the program. See More

Top Pro

Good all-purpose file manager

Top Con

Distracting prompts in the Lite version

A free version of the program is available, xplorer² lite. However it is very light on features, and will display a prompt if a feature is selected that isn't available in the Lite version. The full program is $29.95 for advanced and $49.95 for max power. See More

Top Pro

Faster than most similar applications

It's hard to find a free or low cost alternative that is as quick, and stable, especially managing NTFS volumes on a remote NAS. It still freezes and chokes, just not as often as newer applications, like XYplorer, Free Commander, etc. See More

Top Pro

250+ file attributes that can be added as columns to view more file attributes

Top Pro

Execute DOS commands

Top Pro

Flexible search function

Search based on numerous file attributes. Search in ranges. Search inside files. Save search parameters for future use. See More

Top Pro

Browse Flat to view the contents of several subdirs as if they were stored in a single dir

Let's say you are located in a given subdir that has 5 subdirs. You can see the contents of all the files located in those subdirs as if they were stored in a single dir. Very useful when you want to locate files that you don't know exactly where they are located and searching is not an option. See More

Top Pro

Scrap Area where you can drop files located in different sub directories to allow you to access them instantly

Let's say that today you are going to update a letter located in subdir X, continue developing a spreadsheet located in subdir Y, review a presentation located in subdir Z, review a project located in subdir W, etc.. You can drag and drop all these files to the Scrap Area and open and work with them, save them, open again, continue tomorrow and the files will be updated in their respective original locations. No need to navigate and navigate and navigate. See More

Top Pro

Supports TotalCommander plugins

Top Pro

Copy/Move many simultaneous tasks

Can display the size in bytes of every folder listed in the current branch of the tree. See More

Top Pro

Can create "tabs" of the most used sub directories that you can access with a simple click

Top Pro

Mass rename capability

Top Pro

Connects to network drives and cloud storage easily

Top Pro

Lifetime license available

Pay once, get all future updates. Standard version licenses are also available. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

License:Per User or Per Machine

Price:Free (Lite) / $29.95 (Pro) / $49.95 Ultimate

Portable:Ultimate only

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85 26

score 268 · Answer 7

Total Commander

Top Pro

Plugins

Supports plugins for compression, file system, and file types. See More

Top Con

Cannot display background colors for file names

While it can display different colors (even based on filters) for the text color of those file names, but not for the background color. See More

Top Pro

Can replace a lot of utility tools

There are a lot of built-in utility tools and plug-ins. There's multi-file renamer, verify file checksum to ensure download content integrity, sync directory tool, etc. See More

Top Con

Very slow on loading network shares

Top Pro

Life-time license

Once purchased you can use it as long as you like and never have to pay again. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

Total Commander offers a free 30-day trial, after which the cost of the program is $44. See More

Top Pro

Layout increases productivity

The dual-pane layout makes normal file operations (like move & copy) easy. See More

Top Con

Classic Interface

Top Pro

Useful multiple advanced options

Show hidden files, show differences between directories, FTP connections, coding and decoding (MIME, l). See More

Top Con

Need to spend a lot of time for custom configuration

Need to spend a lot of time for custom configuration, many features of the steps are very cumbersome to reduce operating speed. See More

Top Pro

Very customizable

Total Commander is extremely flexible, with plenty of customizable options such as changing the color scheme, customizing menus, and editing shortcuts. See More

Top Pro

Works even when Windows is very unstable

Top Pro

Productive

Even if you have not learned the keys from DOS NortonCommander, learning them now will make you more productive when dealing with files. See More

Top Pro

Powerful file search

The file search has many features, like using regular expressions to find the file names or even inside the content of the files. It can filter by file size, date and others, or even find duplicate files. See More

Top Pro

Compare files and show differences

Can compare and show text file differences (diff) line-by-line, even character-by-character. Very useful for programmers. Can compare binary files, telling if files have the same content or not. See More

Top Pro

Batch-rename files and folders

Sometimes you want to rename a bunch of files for some reason. Eg: file1-useless info blah blah.mp8 file2-useless info blah blah.mp8 file3-useless info blah blah.mp8 file4-useless info blah blah.mp8 file5-useless info blah blah.mp8 At once you can remove the "-useless info blah blah" in all file names. Or you could change the "file" to "my_super_file" to all at once. The possibilities are endless. See More

Top Pro

Saves time

Top Pro

Cloud plugin

Top Pro

Customizable tabs

Allows renaming tabs and setting maximum tab text length, which is very convenient. You can also lock tabs in two modes: a) change dir not allowed and b) change dir allowed (but it would return to the original path once you browse another tab). It doesn't allow assigning different colors to each tab, though. See More

Top Pro

On copy/move it can both avoid overwrite the destination file AND losing the copied file at the same time

Sometimes you need to copy/move a bunch of files to a folder that already has files. During the copy when Total Commander encounter files in the destination folder that has the same name of the copied files, it allows you to choose auto-rename the copied files or the destination files. It's beautiful. See More

Top Pro

Convenient

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Easy for language translation

Top Pro

Forget about the mouse

The total commander is convenient to use both with the mouse and exclusively using the keyboard. But using only the keyboard gives it a big increase in the speed of work because you do not aim at your mouse. You need some time to get used to it, but it's really worth it. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android

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268 78

score 1116 · Answer 8

Double Commander

Top Pro

Multi-platform (Linux, Windows, MacOS X)

You can use same tool in all desktop OS environments. See More

Top Con

Apparently only one developer

Top Pro

Source code is available (true free software)

If the developer loses interest there is at least the possibility that someone else will pick up the torch. See More

Top Con

Freeze after mouse double-click on directory list item

Top Pro

Configurable

Lots of options allow you to configure DC the way it suits you best: Tools, Fonts, Colors, Hotkeys, Mouse, Fileviews, Plugins, Layout, Toolbars, Tabs, Icons etc. See More

Top Con

Much slower on Linux and Mac than on Windows

Top Pro

Directory Hotlist

Save shortcuts to folders. Organize them in a treeview with submenus. Define a name and sorting for each entry. See More

Top Con

Source code written in Pascal language

But this does not affect users negatively. It's just programmers problem. See More

Top Pro

Powerful tcmd-like search tool (alt+F7)

Top Con

Not developed anymore for Mac

Top Pro

tcmd-like multi-rename tool (CTRL+M)

Top Con

Can't edit files on remote FTP servers

Top Pro

DC uses TCmd plugin API

so you can use documentation from Total Commander for writing plugins. WCX (packer), WDX (content), WFX (file system), WLX (lister). See More

Top Pro

Closely follows TotalCommander UX

For instance, the 'Settings | Layout' pane is quasi-identical to TCs. See More

Top Pro

Very sophisticated

Although it is lightweight and simple to use, it can do very sophisticated tasks, like copying files from directories which have a certain extension or file size or have a certain text pattern in them. Also, it's very customizable and stable. See More

Top Pro

It's that good, you can replace tcmd on windows too

Top Pro

Source code written in (Object) PASCAL

It's all a matter of perspective. I'm not for an argument about IDE's, frameworks etc, but to me that's a big plus. I think it should be a tie, it's either a pro or a con or should that be neither a pro nor a con. It just depends on context. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD

License:GPL-2.0-only

Technology:Free Pascal

User Interface:GUI

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1116 309

score 12 · Answer 9

ExplorerMax

Top Pro

Fast search and organized results

When you search for anything, you can get what you want soon. And your target files are grouped into different categories. See More

Top Con

Need more functions

So far, they have released many updates and more surprises are needed. See More

Top Pro

Tabs and bookmarks

Like browsing via Chrome, I can browse my files with tabbing window and collect my favorites. Easy and simple. See More

Top Con

Resources Usage

The nice UI comes under the expenses of resources. It can severely slow your PC See More

Top Pro

Dark and light mode

I've never seen a file manager can match with windows so great like ExplorerMax., especilaly the dark mode. See More

Top Pro

Stylish design

Everything here is organized and fancy. See More

Top Pro

Timeline

This fuction can help you track the file history and bulk buttons enables you to clear them selectively. See More

Top Pro

Adaptive UI

It alters the default Explore a little. But yet very Functional. It also comes with other themes. Dark theme included See More

Specs

1-month:5.95

1-year:9.95

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12 6

score 108 · Answer 10

FreeCommander

Top Pro

2 Pane Layout

Makes normal file operations (like move & copy) easy. See More

Top Con

It's easy to delete important stuff by accident

When you want to delete something, it will often highlight both a file and its folder. The whole folder is then removed if you don't de-select the folder manually. See More

Top Pro

Quick Navigation

Commonly used folders can be added and accessed using the favorites list -- in addition, physical and network drives can be switched to with a single click. See More

Top Con

Only the 32-bit version is free

You have to make a donation to be able to download the 64-bit version. See More

Top Pro

Very powerful Multirename tool

Top Con

Cluttered and dated UI

The user interface has an outdated look, with a lot of button and menu options that can be overwhelming. See More

Top Pro

Has a portable version

Because it's portable, you can easily move the folder with all your files to other devices. See More

Top Con

Unable to replace default file explorer

Top Pro

Powerful search feature

FreeCommander provides a search functionality that allows you to filter out results. See More

Top Con

Buggy

Good facilities overall, but there's a bug that makes menus freeze and get stuck on the page. See More

Top Pro

Very powerful set of file copying options

FreeCommander has a very powerful set of file copying options. See More

Top Pro

Very usable and reliable Sync tool

Top Pro

Shows folder file size

In Details mode you can turn on Folder Data file size. See More

Top Pro

Keyboard shortcuts

Has a good set of keyboard shortcuts enabled by default See More

Top Pro

Interface highly customizable, native Dark Mode, stable, very accessible primary functionality, very frequent updates

Simple 1-click buttons to toggle views, enable or disable visual filter, etc. Very simple instant filtering. The folder syncing is as good as "GoodSync". See More

Top Pro

Excellent file manager with lots of hotkeys

Also file search, filter and multi file rename functionalities. See More

Specs

108 45

score 164 · Answer 11

Multi Commander

Top Con

Slow Right Click Response

Top Pro

Separate tree for each panel

Top Con

Settings are a bit complicated

Top Pro

Both 32 bit and 64 bit versions available

Top Con

Tree cannot be displayed on the right side

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

File coloring based on filters

Including optional background coloring. Limitation of this pro: text and background color cannot be taken from 2 different filters and thus combined but on the positive side: it provides coloring profiles, which can be switched (supposedly easily). See More

Top Pro

Full of features

A hundred different options: multi-rename, convert line break of files (CR, LF, CRLF), double panel, folder tree, tabbed interface, colourized tabs, etc. See More

Top Pro

Portable version available

Top Pro

Heavily customizable

Besides many customizable on-board options and features, one can also write his/her own scripts and even full plug-ins. See More

Top Pro

Written in C++

The program launches fast. See More

Top Pro

Support for FTP, Registry, and OneDrive

Top Pro

Powerful scripting system

You can easily write powerful scripts even without knowledge of programming. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

32 or 64 bit:both

Windows Requirements:Windows 10 / 8.x / 7 / Vista / 2003 / XP / Server 2012 (R2) / Server 2008 (R2)

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164 67

score 56 · Answer 12

QTTabBar

Top Pro

Middle click/Ctrl+click to open new tab

Top Con

Options menu almost unusable on some high resolution displays

Options menu almost unusable on some high resolution displays, for example Surface Pro 4 2736X1824 and 225% magnification (scaling issues). Interestingly, works ok on external display 3840X2160 with 150% magnification. See More

Top Pro

Allows you to simply add tabs to File Explorer which suit the design

Top Con

Possibly abandoned project

Not updated since 2019-3-24. No response from developer. Is the project dead? See More

Top Pro

Plugin support

The program can be enhanced further by plugins for a variety of purposes. See More

Top Pro

Good drag and drop options

Top Pro

Preview popup buttons

Top Pro

Ctrl+arrow keys for navigation between different tabs

Top Pro

Ctrl+tab to go from tab to tab

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56 4

score 11 · Answer 13

allTags

Top Pro

Efficient file management

No problem with inconsistent file names or folder structures. See More

Top Con

Still young

It currently offers less features than comparable file managers. See More

Top Pro

Fast and lean

Written in Go, under 20mb in size. See More

11 1

score 41 · Answer 14

One Commander

Top Pro

Free

Free for non commercial use. See More

Top Con

Folders cannot be sorted by size

Top Pro

Simple and fast

Fast search and filter. See More

Top Con

Cannot access Android device connected by USB

Top Pro

Miller columns

Like Finder from macOS. See More

Top Con

Cannot access Android device by FTP

And can never will as this is clarified by developer that this feature will never be added. See More

Top Pro

Multi tab support

Top Con

It doesn't have UNDO function

Very important. When you work with valuable data files, this function can't be ommited. See More

Top Pro

Themes

Light, dark and customizable themes/colours. See More

Top Con

Navigating folders by Ctrl+Tab has considerable delay

Top Pro

Default file manager setup

Can make it the default file manager such that windows explorer stays out of the way for most of the work. See More

Top Con

Browsing Recycle Bin is very slow

Navigating away from Recycle Bin tab and coming back to it reload the Recycle Bin which is very slow as mentioned. Program has an option to open recycle bin in Windows File Explorer, which suggests that developer is aware that opening Recycle Bin is problematic. See More

Top Pro

File previews

Top Con

Confusing

Top Pro

File / folder filters

Top Con

Context menu only based on icons

No longer with Onecommander 3.6.43 See More

Top Pro

Folder views can be saved and applied

Specs

OS: Windows 10 version 17763.0 or higher

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41 4

score 7 · Answer 15

Eagle.cool

Top Pro

You can use Dropbox to sync

Eagle sorts files in essentially a custom folder hierarchy called an 'eaglepack'. Everything is stored locally, but you can sync to the cloud by uploading the eagle folder to the cloud. See More

Top Con

30$ price

There's a 30 day no credit card required free trial. See More

Top Pro

Varied import options

You can import from files on your PC or from online galleries like Pinterest, etc. On import Eagle pulls metadata like the URL the image was saved from. See More

Top Con

Limited Cross-Functionality

There is no web version. You need to install the software if you want to access your asset from an eagle file. Missing an Android/ IOS app. See More

Top Pro

Fleshed out drag and drop

Thumbnails in the GUI reference the full size file in file explorer, so you can freely drag and drop into your app of choice, e.g Premiere Pro. See More

Top Pro

Wide multimedia handling including image, video, gif, 3d, font, etc.

Handles 81 types of files in Windows and 90 in MacOS. See More

Top Pro

Browser extensions

Has extensions in Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge browser. Takes screenshots of pages and lets you categorize it straight away. See More

Top Pro

Can handle large files

Top Pro

Manage and sort by tag, category, colors, etc.

Eagle includes smart folders you can configure to hide/show content dependent on custom parameters like color, tags, category, folder, etc. Eagle pulls a sample of colors from every image you upload and you can easily filter and search by color. See More

Top Pro

Ideal for designers

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS

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7 1

score 19 · Answer 16

Explorer++

Top Pro

Open source

GPLv3. See More

Top Con

Has some issues with context menu integration

Some context menu integrations work, others don't. git-bash and cmder don't seem to work, for example, but kdiff3 does. See More

Top Pro

Supports the standard Send To menu

It supports the standard Send To menu which helps to install extentions which rely on the Windows API only. See More

Top Pro

Supports bookmarks

Top Pro

Tab design

Specs

Platforms:Microsoft Windows

19 3

score 4 · Answer 17

Winfile

Top Pro

Open source

Now open source and receives occasional updates and fixes. See More

Top Con

It has the fresh look of a 30 year old program

Because it is. But some might actually like it for that, unless you really can't deal with the small icons and lack of icons to define things. See More

Top Pro

It's really simple

Winfile dates back to a time when you had to fit your software on a floppy disk. As such, it isn't weighed down by as much of things like scripting malarkey. See More

4 1

score 207 · Answer 18

fman

Top Pro

Works on all operating systems

Windows, Mac, and Linux are supported. See More

Top Con

No (text) file viewer

Top Pro

Simple to use

Top Con

No explicit bookmark support for directories

It though remembers the visited directories and allows to search in this list in most-recently used order and by name. See More

Top Pro

Makes finding commands by name easy

Top Con

Mainly for key-board-orientated users

The interface is most naturally navigated by arrows and keystrokes. The target market is software developers. See More

Top Pro

Slick

Top Con

Has no menu bar

Hence it is not well suited for visually orientated users which find or remember commands by using a mouse and a menu. Even the fman's hero Sublime Text uses a menu bar. See More

Top Con

Requires email address to download

Doesn't say what it will do with this data. It is in contrast to the new laws in Europe where only necessary information is allowed to be collected. A download should not require an email address. See More

Top Con

Still quite buggy

So, for example, sorting only is remembered if triggered by command and not be clicking the table column header using the mouse. See More

Top Con

Settings can't be found by the GUI

You need to know which files to edit. See More

Top Con

Default dark theme

No choice between dull-dark or fresh-light. See More

Top Con

No portable bundle available

On Windows only a net-installer is available. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

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207 37

score 98 · Answer 19

Far Manager

Top Pro

Keyboard-oriented

Far Manager's interface encourages keyboard operation - all actions are easily accessible with keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly record macros for any repeatable action, there are no screen redraws if it is not necessary and that makes everything faster. See More

Top Con

Blocking operations

Operations such as copy, move, delete, etc are blocking, and you have to wait for them to complete before you can continue. Though you can cancel the operation with the escape key. See More

Top Pro

Open source

Released under BSD license. See More

Top Con

Only for Windows

Top Pro

Two-panel interface

Top Con

Always uses monospace font

Which makes long file names look extremely wide See More

Top Pro

Many plugins

There are may of them, and you can write them in any languages, including Python. See More

Top Con

Does not support scrolling with mouse

With plugin See More

Top Pro

Editor with syntax highlighting

Every Far feature is also true for its editor. You can setup an external editor if you like, but the included editor works really well and features syntax highlighting. See More

Top Con

Text-based interface

Far Manager does not use a GUI like most windows applications nowadays. This may prove difficult to use for people who are not familiar with text-based user interfaces. See More

Top Pro

Easily recorded macros

Hit "Ctrl-." and start recording your boring sequence. Hit "Ctrl-." again to assign it a key. You can use Lua if you need more advanced macros. See More

Top Con

Folder shortcuts not available in Alt+F1/F2 menus

Top Pro

Numeric sorting option

E.g. readme-9.txt before readme-10.txt See More

Top Pro

Extremely fast

Top Pro

Offline context help

Just press F1 when you need it. No internet connection or browser is required. See More

Top Pro

Themeable

Fully themeable, allowing you to change the colors of every part of the interface. See More

Top Pro

Scrippting support via LUA

Specs

98 25

score 18 · Answer 20

FileVoyager

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

Cluttered UI

Top Pro

Modern look & feel

Top Con

Windows only

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Top Con

only 32bit

Top Pro

various display modes

Browsing in various display modes (like report or thumbnail modes) See More

Top Pro

A lot of out-of-the-box features

FileVoyager offers a (nearly) universal file viewer, a (nearly) universal archive format support (integrated 7-zip), a (nearly) universal image and video support, a hash tool, a file and folder comparison. See More

Top Pro

Actively maintained

Top Pro

Quick preview

Render multimedia files (including M3U, PLS, ASX, WPL, MPCPL and XSPF playlist formats) View ebooks and comicbooks including PDF, EPUB, MOBI, FB2, DJVU, CBR, CBZ, XPS, … (Powered by SumatraPDF) Syntax highlighting for virtually any source code language/format (Powered by Scintilla) Render final view for formats supported by Preview Handlers (like Office files, PDF, pictures, …) Support many character encodings (SBCS including various ANSI implementations, UTF-8, UTF-16, EBCDIC) Display in flat or hexadecimal for any format See More

Top Pro

Synchronize folders

Compare files or folders. See More

Top Pro

Play virtually any Audio or Video formats

FileVoyager relies at once on installed codecs, on WMP and on VLC See More

Top Pro

7-zip integrations

Pack and unpack ZIP, 7Zip, GZip, BZip2, XZ, Tar and WIM formats ARJ, CAB, XAR, Z, RAR, LZH, LZMA, ISO, WIM and many others See More

Top Pro

file operations containers

Usual file operations (rename, copy, move, link, delete, recycle) in the containers listed above and even between them See More

Top Pro

Easy browsing

Browse disks, folders (real or virtual), shares, archives and FTP/FTPS in one unified way See More

Top Pro

Portable

Specs

Platforms:Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10

18 6