I used Power Desk for years and years, but discovered in The Great Upgrade that 5 didn't work as well on XP, and I looked at 6 but it was just so big and bloaty, so I tried a whole mess of them and most of the time now I use a43 http://www.primitus.us/ but occasionally I will use ultraexplorer or the freeware version of the xplorer2 thing.

I don't like any of the norton-inspired double pane ones, though I respect all faith traditions.

In the olden days, I liked xtree best.

Thank you lanux! I have a lot of reading to do! I have shamefully underestimated Tabs Mix Plus, and  have resolved to invite it to lunch and apologize to it.

Since mouser was kind enough to bring this to my attention, I have installed both color tabs and Tab Effects, and https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4258 Tab Effect, and I have to confess that Tab Effect has totally turned my head and wowed me. It is really embarrassing, after talking so much about streamlining and minimizing, as if I were above all that.

But you just have to get Tab Effect, and if it makes you bounce and dissolve into helpless giggles of delight, nobody has to know about it.

Thank you, Alex, for such a nice explanation of it all. You did such a good job, I even understood some of it.

I really did not know it was so complicated.

Right now, I am using File Menu Tools or something like that to get rid of all the items I don't want.

If I want to try Fast Explorer, and I do, would I need to uninstall that other one first? Would there be a conflict if I don't?

Oh, and I almost forgot, I also have a vintage version of 12 ghosts just to get "copy file name" and "copy path" and "save directory list" because I know that all those things are available separately, but I didn't want to have to install 3 different ones, and I just recently experienced my first equipment and operating system upgrade in about 150 years, so I am trying to learn the modern ways, but my goal is to minimize system resource use, including space, and see how few programs I can have running, and wherever possible, use freeware.

So Fast Explorer is beckoning me, its head cocked to one side, little half smile, it is voguing a little bit, giving me those looks and stuff, but I have had software conflicts before, so that is why I am being so cautious and asking questions.

Sure, I used to just download anything that had a link, but I am just too old for that now.