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Last post Author Topic: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...  (Read 162262 times)

lanux128

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #100 on: September 23, 2007, 08:09 PM »
Darwin, there is no tree-view display in the current version.. but this has been requested several times in the Altap forums and the devs are planning to include the feature in the coming versions, according to the "road-map".. :)

http://www.altap.cz/salam_en/newver.html

P.S. a work-around: use Shift+F3 to open the current active folder in Windows Explorer.

Darwin

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #101 on: September 23, 2007, 10:04 PM »
Cool - thanks Lanux. This one seems to be worth watching... Salamander was the second FM I tried under Win98 and I liked it, but was still hooked on File Manager with FMStepUp, so didn't purchase at the time...

lanux128

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #102 on: September 23, 2007, 10:27 PM »
after upgrading to Win9x, the first thing i did was to look for a LFN-compatible NC-clone.. there was a version 5.5 with LFN support for NC but it didn't much justice to the old NC and Altap picked up the mantle.. :) i don't actually remember FMStepUp but Salamander was freeware then so that did the trick for me..

Grorgy

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #103 on: September 23, 2007, 11:15 PM »
Salamander looks good, I do like xplorer2 but it has a problem with, of all things, windowblinds, now its not the only program to have problems, but it sure is the only one i have met so far that telling window blinds to ignore it doesn't work, the blame on the forums is all put down to windowblinds, but if that were really the case why doesn't everything else have similar problems?  Its also intermittent and not on all systems so since i really like my nice dark skin  ;)  xplorer2 has to be consigned to the RIP section of the start menu to be dusted off maybe if they ever fix it or deleted if it dies

nosh

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #104 on: September 24, 2007, 03:25 AM »
Funny thing, I voted after I posted and instinctively chose X2 coz as of now that's what I'm using over 95% of the time. It immediately struck me that I should have voted for 'multiple managers'.
Sorry Lanux, I now feel like the guy who's shaking hands with a president he voted against.  :-[

I've always had Salamander around but it's not something I want to use on a day to day basis. I really doubt it has the power (flexibility wise) of X2 and I do want a tree view at most times. Things like scrap panes, highly configurable color coding (based on name, file property, any meta tag, even text contained within a file (though I guess that would be a major strain on resources) or a combination of any of the above...
It's generally very light on resources (the exe is perhaps the tiniest in this category and I've never has resource issues with it despite using it extensively), easily configurable layout - I make new layouts on the fly for different tasks and it doesn't feel like a burden, neat things like 'extracting subfolders' or flattening files, selectively showing/hiding/selecting files/folders based on simple/advanced criteria, multiple tabs in addition to panes, for those rare occasions one wants more than two folders open simultaneously... it has a LOT of features I find genuinely useful and it matches my philosophy in trying mainly to be a file manager and staying focused about its main purpose. I have custom tools for things like encryption. compression, FTP, file comparison, advanced renaming - I don't want a file manager that's going to try and take away these carefully picked out specialists. X2 offers most of these things on a very basic level which suits me just fine, I may need to quickly compare folders or rename a bunch of files with a numeric counter but when it comes to advanced jobs I like to have something that's devoted to that task. Would any other file manager, for instance, compare as well as Beyond Compare or rename as easily and intuitively as ReNamer or encrypt/decrypt as blazingly fast as Cryptext or as securely as PGP? If the answer to any/all the above is yes, then please explain would I want all this functionality constantly loaded in something that's running all the time? Unnecessary overhead. It's hard not to want X2 for use on an everyday basis when your philosophy matches mine.

I completely agree with Grorgy when he says it has problems that are blamed on other apps, rather than being 'handled'. That's my biggest regret regarding this app, it's almost perfect and from what one hears there's not too much being done to take it to its full potential. It doesn't come across as polished or sturdy as DOpus, for example. Its rendering large folders with thumbnails, is choppy at best. X2 is so powerful already, I think a great way for the developer to go would be just to look at the existing code and root out these little flaws & inefficiencies rather than worry about things like enhancing a relatively weak mass rename function. I'm certain most X2 fans would welcome this direction and it would go a long way in increasing his sales too, most people (including myself) are perfectionists when it comes to the software they run. You instinctively want to dump something that acts quirky - I've considered doing that several times, always going back - it's like a beautiful woman with a few obvious flaws, you can't help but go back. :)

Here's a question for DOpus users - is there any way to manage/customize the right-click context menu within DO? - to, for instance, put items like cut/copy/paste into an 'Edit' submenu? I use a 3rd party app to manage my context menu and with DOpus (which doesn't seem to support that app) the context menu occupies the full height of my screen. If I could find a way to shorten the menu I'd seriously consider DOpus coz I'm pretty certain it does all the little tricks X2 does & then some.

mwang

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #105 on: September 24, 2007, 04:33 AM »
Here's a question for DOpus users - is there any way to manage/customize the right-click context menu within DO? - to, for instance, put items like cut/copy/paste into an 'Edit' submenu?
Yes. Go to [Settings] [File Types ...] [All Files and Folders] (assuming you want it on all files and folders) [Context Menu], and go from there.


lanux128

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #106 on: September 24, 2007, 05:47 AM »
Sorry Lanux, I now feel like the guy who's shaking hands with a president he voted against.  :-[

don't worry about it, nosh.. i too have heavily customised my settings to even begin to move to another file-manager. and each time, i tried a new one, i'd start comparing with Salamander.. that is a normal reaction, i think.. :)


nosh

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #107 on: September 24, 2007, 06:13 AM »
Sorry Lanux, I now feel like the guy who's shaking hands with a president he voted against.  :-[
don't worry about it, nosh.. i too have heavily customised my settings to even begin to move to another file-manager. and each time, i tried a new one, i'd start comparing with Salamander.. that is a normal reaction, i think.. :)

 :)


mwang, thanks but I don't think that was what I was looking for.

Can I tame this

before.jpgFile Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...

to look something like this

after.jpg

within DOpus?
« Last Edit: September 24, 2007, 06:15 AM by nosh »

mwang

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #108 on: September 24, 2007, 08:09 AM »
Hi, Nosh,

Sorry I misunderstood you. If you're looking for a way to reorganize Windows context menus with ease, then no, I don't think you can do it with DOpus, to the best of my knowledge (I'm relatively new to DOpus, too, having used it for two months only).

DOpus does let you hide the system context menus on an all-or-none basis. Then you can add the items you want and others to the DOpus context menu system, using the method I mentioned earlier. And yet it's a cumbersome process if you really want to recreate the whole context menu system this way (check out the ContextMenu raw command in the help file if you really want to do it). I believe there should be other tools better suited for your purpose.

DOpus honors system context menus (unless you opt to hide them), meaning the context menu you see in DOpus should be a combination of the system context menu (for the selected items) and the DOpus custom context menu. Therefore if you use a 3rd party tool to reorganize system context menus (by really changing the registry settings), then those changes should be reflected in DOpus, in theory. I've no idea why the 3rd party tool you used to customize context menus doesn't work with DOpus.

I used to use a tool called contextmenu editor (or something like that) before Vista. Now I have a relatively new system with not too many applications installed, hence relatively short and manageable context menu, so I haven't started hunting for such tools yet.

nosh

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #109 on: September 24, 2007, 09:41 AM »
Thanks again mwang. The shell editor I use probably doesn't work coz DOpus seems to be using proprietary code rather than borrowing the same code WinExplorer uses for file management by simply being a middle man. It probably explains why things like scrolling are considerably smoother within DO. The tool I use doesn't seem to change anything permanently in the registry, if I shut it I get standard Windows behaviour. The raw commands you pointed me to are too hard core for my purpose, I'd rather stick to drag&drop. Still, it's nice to know that something could be done.

TucknDar

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #110 on: September 28, 2007, 07:11 AM »
Good news on Total Commander:
Total Commander goes Unicode
September 28th, 2007
The next version of Total Commander will fully support Unicode. Unicode allows to display characters of all countries at once.
The plug-in interfaces will also fully support Unicode.
So far there is no public or non-public alpha version of Total Commander 7.5.

Source: the Total Commander Beta Blog

iphigenie

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #111 on: October 13, 2007, 10:31 AM »
I was curious so I gave salamander a try - looks fine but I dont see that much of a difference between that and total commander. Some people said it is prettier but when looking at a 2 pane list of filenames I dont think I really notice the difference.
Some features feel easier out of the box than they do with total commander (eg: scp/sftp), and it is nicely polished.

But it took me exactly 25 seconds after starting it to go "what, no tabs?????????"

Totally subjectively: I would suggest it to people, but I am unlikely to change from TC since I am addicted to tabs.

Will give the 1 week totally subjective test to another one soon

nosh

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #112 on: October 13, 2007, 11:18 AM »
Salamander will only really shine out from the rest when you're dealing with a very large amount of files and the other file managers start choking. It's a handy tool to have around but it's not my everyday file manager either.

sri

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #113 on: October 13, 2007, 11:58 AM »
The prettiest file manager has to be DOpus.
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mitzevo

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #114 on: October 13, 2007, 02:03 PM »
Re: wiki on filemanagers... good idea. I thought "but there's one!", but I was remembering this:
http://www.softpanor....org/OFM/index.shtml

This site is pretty bad ass.  8)
The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present.

Curt

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #115 on: October 14, 2007, 10:51 AM »
Come on/one, he said. So here I am - again:

To the best of my experience   none   of the apps you all have mentioned   can do better  than our standard XP's Explorer plus addons.

Tell me what it is, apart from dual panes, that I cannot do with Explorer plus addons, but that you can do with something else, please! I mean, I have (almost) tried all of them, and still I don't miss anything in my Explorer plus addons. What is it that you have, that I don't have?

sri

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #116 on: October 14, 2007, 10:54 AM »
Curt:

1) Do you have a button in the toolbar that will compress selected files and folders to a rar file?

2) Do you have a toolbar button that would create a dated folder like this for example -> 14-10-2007 9.24 PM
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Curt

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #117 on: October 14, 2007, 11:26 AM »
Is the context menu really placed that far away, that I should change my Explorer, just to have those features in a button instead?

Edit: Bad phrasing.

Of course any zipper will do the first job, from the context menu.
I didn't know I should need a dated folder, so I never looked for an app with this feature.

@ sri: on another topic, this link is for you:

« Last Edit: October 14, 2007, 11:36 AM by Curt »

mitzevo

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #118 on: October 14, 2007, 11:35 AM »
Come on/one, he said. So here I am - again:

To the best of my experience   none   of the apps you all have mentioned   can do better  than our standard XP's Explorer plus addons.

Tell me what it is, apart from dual panes, that I cannot do with Explorer plus addons, but that you can do with something else, please! I mean, I have (almost) tried all of them, and still I don't miss anything in my Explorer plus addons. What is it that you have, that I don't have?

And what would these be? (links???)

edit: yes the addons..
The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2007, 11:49 AM by mitzevo »

Curt

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #119 on: October 14, 2007, 11:37 AM »
"these" ~ the addons??

KenR

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #120 on: October 14, 2007, 11:39 AM »
Curt, using Directory Opus, I have created scripts to set conditions before running a program, run the program, wait until it's finished and then do additional activities like delete files and then copy others.

I have created independent standalone toolbars that run all the software on my computer. These toolbars are set to be small icons until clicked and then the toolbar that comes out has large icons on.

I have buttons on my toolbar to set the default printer.

I have a toolbar on my file lister that has directories so I can drop files in or go to them. DO has a flat view that lets me view all of the files in all of the subdirectories below the current level. I can filter what files and folders I want to see and what files and folders I don't at any location.

I could go on and on. I am not familiar with the tool you are using, but I would be surprised if it has the power and flexibility that DO has. It has a scripting language that allows the user to perform and extremely wide variety of things.

On the other hand, if you're happy with what you have, then why worry about this stuff. Just stick with what you are happily using.

Ken
Kenneth P. Reeder, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Jacksonville, North Carolina  28546

Curt

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #121 on: October 14, 2007, 11:46 AM »
Yes, it might very well be a question about being stupid but happy...  8)

Seriously, I was trialing D'Opus, but didn't find any reason to keep it. Without remembering, I would guess that some / many of the impressive D'Opus features you were telling about - and they do sound impressive! -, demands that I learn how to write a script??

sri

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #122 on: October 14, 2007, 11:52 AM »
There's not much learning to do in DOpus for creating buttons with actions like what Kenny was talking about. In the end it's a matter of what features YOU want in the program you are using.

If Windows Explorer with add-ons like QT meets your requirements, fine..so be it. But, that doesn't make it any more powerful than a full featured program like DOpus. It's just that you are not interested in using the advanced features that DOpus and XYPlorer offer.

:)
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Curt

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #123 on: October 14, 2007, 12:00 PM »
Thanks for the pedagogic answer, sri   :D

I remember a teacher who gave a very poor lecture on a subject, and then asked: "Are there any questions to this?" We were not able to answer him, because you really have to know at least something   in order to understand what it is you should be asking. I guess, the problem with D'Opus is just about the same: I did trial the wonder program, but I didn't know anything about what could be done, so I never knew why I should keep it. Because I didn't know how to ask the right question.

Maybe.

KenR

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Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
« Reply #124 on: October 14, 2007, 12:03 PM »
Yes, it might very well be a question about being stupid but happy...  8)

Seriously, I was trialing D'Opus, but didn't find any reason to keep it. Without remembering, I would guess that some / many of the impressive D'Opus features you were telling about - and they do sound impressive! -, demands that I learn how to write a script??

Directory Opus is extremely powerful. In some ways, we might compare it to Opera. It has a lot of things already built in that you can add on to other browsers. For example, directory opus has built in FTP, even advanced FTP features (encryptiuon) if you pay for them.

However, at least in my opinion, the real power is the ability of DO to be built (configured) into what you want. You can have different layouts and that simply pick between them. I could spend the rest of the afternoon talking about the things you could do with DO. You can do ..., you can do ..., you can do... with Diectory Opus, but you have to configure it. If you're not going to take the time and effort to do that, then it's not going to be much different than anything else out of the box.

As you may know, I just got XYplorer (see forum for more info) so I have not had time to work with it to know all that it will do. I have been using DO for about 5 years so I know it pretty well. So I don't really believe that I am qualified to address the features of any other file manager. But regarding Directory Opus, it's been able to do about everything I've ever tried to get it to. The things I mentioned were just scratching the surface. If you want to be stunned sometime, download the manual and read through it. It's staggering what the program is capable of. Again though, much, arguably most, of the power is in it's configurability and customization to meet your own needs and interests.

If all you're interested in is simple, straightforward file management, I'm sure about any program would work fine for you.

Pontificaciously, Ken
Kenneth P. Reeder, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Jacksonville, North Carolina  28546