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Add to SafariWhen comparing Far Manager vs Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer), the Slant community recommends Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer) for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for Windows?” Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer) is ranked 4th while Far Manager is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer) is:
Every window can be separately customized. You can choose between different views from 1 to 4 windows, and every window can have multiple tabs!
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro Open source
Released under BSD license.
Pro Two-panel interface
Pro Many plugins
There are may of them, and you can write them in any languages, including Python.
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.
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.
Pro Numeric sorting option
E.g. readme-9.txt before readme-10.txt
Pro Extremely fast
Pro Offline context help
Just press F1 when you need it. No internet connection or browser is required.
Pro Themeable
Fully themeable, allowing you to change the colors of every part of the interface.
Pro Scrippting support via LUA
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!
Pro You can view 4 windows simultaneously
Pro You can use tabs in every window
Pro Portable
Pro Free
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.
Pro Fast and stable
Pro Very customizable
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).
Cons
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.
Con Only for Windows
Con Always uses monospace font
Which makes long file names look extremely wide
Con Does not support scrolling with mouse
With plugin
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.
Con Folder shortcuts not available in Alt+F1/F2 menus
Con Sometimes may have bugs
Con Needs modern UI design
Con No search
Con Does not work with Quicklook
