File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...

[Darwin]

You and I are in the same boat, it seems, WRT DOpus  I also have a licence for the portable version and basically can't get past it anymore, despite the licences I own for its competitors. A testament to how good it is or a testament to me being set in my ways? In either case, the money I've lashed out for the other file managers is a testament to my being in the grip of a powerful addiction 

[Shades]

Before my defection to the Directory Opus camp...I always used Magellan Explorer http://www.enriva.com. Bought version 2 of that one at the time for 20 USD (upgrade from the freeware/adware version).

Used it exclusivly for two years and then I learned that my favorite filemanager from the Commodore Amiga was available for PC as well....and never looked back since

[rjbull]

can anyone recommend a file manager that will do a simple byte comparison of two files ?

-tomos (June 05, 2008, 09:02 AM)

Do you mean, a built-in "diff" tool?  If you do, Total Commander has it.  You can compare as binary, or not (i.e. as text).

-rjbull (June 05, 2008, 11:03 AM)

well, in DOpus you can synch folder contents by doing a "byte comparision"
I actually dont want to have to look at text & compare it (or even know where the differences are) - I just want to know if they're the same or not

-tomos (June 05, 2008, 12:45 PM)

If the two files are identical, you don't have to look at the text.  Total Commander just pops up a little box that says "Compare - The two files are identical!  [OK]"

You can make it do CRC/md5 checks as well, but you'd have to examine the results.

Maybe I should just ask DonL seeing as I have XYPlorer liscence...

Please do.  I have a license too, and would like to know if that sort of feature is available or planned.

Would you find a duplicate finder helpful?  If you don't already have a favourite, try the excellent Double Killer by Jan Schlüter, who posts here on DC sometimes.

[tomos]

Maybe I should just ask DonL seeing as I have XYPlorer liscence...

Please do.  I have a license too, and would like to know if that sort of feature is available or planned.

-rjbull (June 06, 2008, 03:52 AM)

done, will let you know if any news

[Darwin]

Would you find a duplicate finder helpful?  If you don't already have a favourite, try the excellent Double Killer by Jan Schlüter, who posts here on DC sometimes.

-rjbull (June 06, 2008, 03:52 AM)

+1 for this suggestion. I should have mentioned it earlier. This is an application that I own a licence for and actually use often  I works very quickly and REALLY well and is set up in such a way that you can remove duplicate files safely.

[Curt]

- yes, the double killer seems to be fine, but from the text I would say one would need the pro version,  €15 ~ $20 which also seems to be version you have, darwin?

[Darwin]

Yes - you're correct, Curt  I have a licence for the Pro version of Double Killer.

[tinjaw]

I have Easy Duplicate File Finder and CloneSpy on my USB stick. Both are freeware and both work splendidly.

[tomos]

Maybe I should just ask DonL seeing as I have XYPlorer liscence...

Please do.  I have a license too, and would like to know if that sort of feature is available or planned.

-rjbull (June 06, 2008, 03:52 AM)

done, will let you know if any news

-tomos (June 06, 2008, 05:10 AM)

off/off-topic -
I'm having trouble posting in XYPlorer forum - I can start a thread but cant reply to it -
if any of you are registered there could you see if you can reply to this thread -
Problems posting in the forum?!
or
if you want,
in the thread I started asking about comparing files:-
Checking are files the same

[Darwin]

Just replied to both, Tom. No problems from end of things. Note that Don has already replied to your question - there is not yet a file comparison tool built into XYPlorer, but it is easy to set it up to use a 3rd party app. Don suggests you take a look at WinMerge and points to a thread discussing setting this all up: http://www.xyplorer....ic.php?p=22136#22136

[tomos]

Just replied to both, Tom. No problems from end of things. Note that Don has already replied to your question - there is not yet a file comparison tool built into XYPlorer, but it is easy to set it up to use a 3rd party app. Don suggests you take a look at WinMerge and points to a thread discussing setting this all up: http://www.xyplorer....ic.php?p=22136#22136

-Darwin (June 06, 2008, 10:46 AM)

thanks Mike,
yes I saw his answer, my reply, which I couldnt post was

Thanks Don for very quick reply! yes, I had seen that thread Would still be very interested in the "same or not" option [a simple "same or not" function]- thing is, I'm no advanced user & also am not working with text files, so seeing the actual differences doesnt interest me so much as simply knowing if the files are the same or not thanks, Tom

[Darwin]

Just an update - I'm down to two file managers (above and beyond Windows Explorer), Dopus 9 and XYPlorer. Even File Manager is gone... I wasn't really using any of the others and thought I might as well streamline my system. Not sure how long XYPlorer is going to last... I love it but don't use it much, either.

[wraith808]

^ You're in the same boat as me Darwin.  I'm still trying (and liking) FileBoss, but I just re-upped on DOpus (I'd stagnated at 6) because XYplorer and FileBoss just weren't doing it for me in Vista.

[Grorgy]

I find i'm using just 2 file managers now (well, i wont include explorer tho i do use it at times).  XYplorer for all those day to day things where a single pane at a time is fine, and total commander (the Ultima prime variant) for when i want to do some (for me) heavy duty copying or moving where i find 2 panes and the the options better on TC.  Of course a lot of this is no doubt that i'm just too lazy to investigate all the options of either. 

[Curt]

More than 90 % of the time I will use QT Tabbar / XP's Explorer. Yesterday I decided to sort 800 MP3 files and move them from a temporary download folder and into folders the same way it is done when you record a CD: My Documents > My Music > Artist > Album > Tracks. For this I would of course need drag&drop and a dual pane browser, and my choice was Q-Dir Unicode (Quadro-View) because it uses the <- back-button<- in a clever way and always returns to the proper position. Try it and you'll know what I mean.

http://www.softwareo...amp;language=english

[Shades]

Yesterday I found out about (another) freeware explorer replacement:

DualXplorer http://www.softpedia...rs/DualXplorer.shtml

Seems it very interesting, besides the functionalities you would expect, there are also a lot of network specific tools included.

[PhilB66]

@Shades

The latest DualXplorer version is 0.870 (July 2007). Available here (scroll down the page)

List of modifications and bugs fixes

Screenshot



Download (There is also a version for Bart PE)

[tomos]

I actually dont want to have to look at text & compare it (or even know where the differences are) - I just want to know if they're the same or not

Maybe I should just ask DonL seeing as I have XYPlorer liscence...

-tomos (June 05, 2008, 12:45 PM)

Quick File Compare. Check out with a single click whether two files are same or different.

-rjbull (July 01, 2008, 03:20 AM)

in latest XYPlorer version 7.3

[jgpaiva]

Quick File Compare. Check out with a single click whether two files are same or different.

-rjbull (July 01, 2008, 03:20 AM)

in latest XYPlorer version 7.3

-tomos (July 01, 2008, 03:41 AM)

And the latest beta takes a quantum leap in usability, and implements this with "Compare currently selected file with last selected file"! (in the previous version you had to copy the previous file, this version only needs 3 clicks! )

[y0himba]

Speedcommander FTW.  Incredible manager.

[Curt]

Fuzzy Duck Explorer Plus !??   

I am not at all sure what this is, but I guess it is some kind of a file manager. But first a warning if you are going to try your luck on this: The all new 1.4 seems to be the last of it's kind, because the also all new 1.5 beta is using a different kind of settings and will not accept version 1.4's. 1.5 takes a complete removal of 1.4 and you will need to do the personal settings again.

Fuzzy Duck Explorer Plus is replacing the standard version, Fuzzy Duck Explorer (no "plus"). You can get the last standard version (with no user admin features) here (direct link!). Standard will be updated as I update Plus, but the main development branch is now Plus.

What is Fuzzy Duck Explorer Plus (FDE+) ?

FDE+ is a free web based file manager.
The project grew out of the frustration I felt from not being able to find a free File Manager, written in ASP that did everything I wanted and looked good!! (I think this looks ok )

It features:

    * File/Folder Management
          o Create New Files/Folders
          o Copy Files/Folders
          o Move Files/Folders
          o Delete Files/Folders
          o Download Files
          o Upload Files
          o Edit Files
    * Search Feature
    * Sortable Details View (click the column headings)
    * Tile View
    * Full Graphical Interface
    * Easy Install
    * Database Driven user management.
    * Can create users (with md5 password encryption) and user folders.
          o Create Read only users
          o Create Admin users
          o Create user folder
          o Assign user disk quotas
    * Users are then only able to access their user area.
    * If you want to easily have more than one user this is how!!
    * Banned folders list
    * Banned extensions list

Screen Shots
Detail View, Click image for larger picture

File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...
        
Tile View, Click image for larger picture

File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...


So lets start from the beginning, Installation.

If you just upload the Explorer folder to your website, it should just work.

You must have read write access for iis guest user on the whole explorer folder.

A tip from Eyal Zarchi, add the apps location to your trusted sites!!

But there are a few settings you can tweak in the default.asp file.

    .databasePath = server.mappath("./db/login.mdb")
    .loginLog = false
    .idleLogout = 5
    .showHiddenItems = false
    .bannedFolders = "folder1|folder2"
    .bannedFiles = "mp3|wmv"
    .searchPanel = true
    .newfilePanel = true
    .newfolderPanel = true
    .viewChangerPanel = true
    .uploadPanel = 3
    .buttons = true
    .dateFormat = "ddmmyyyy"
    .uploadProgressBar = true
    .guestLink = true
    .useUploadDLL = "" 'tabsupload
    .openLinkIn = "same" 'same , new , both
    .root=""'Custom root for the site

    * databasePath is the physical path to the login database.
    * loginLog, set this to true to log every user login. You need to download the database to see this info.
    * idleLogout is the time in minutes that a user who is logged in can stay idle before being logged out. root is the root folder. As mentioned above this can be set to the same as the username maybe to access a network folder. (.username returns the name of the logged in user).
    * showHiddenItems determines if you can see hidden folders (true) or not (false).
    * bannedFolders is a list of folders you wish to be hidden, separated with |.
    * bannedFiles is a list of file extensions you wish to be banned from upload, separated with |.
    * searchPanel if set to true will display the search box.
    * newfilePanel if set to true will display the new file box.
    * newfolderPanel if set to true will display the new folder box.
    * viewChangerPanel if set to true will display the button to change the view between detail and tile views.
    * uploadPanel if set to more than 0 will display that number of upload boxes.
    * buttons if set to true will display the home, help, upload and view buttons (best to leave this set to true!!).
    * dateFormat sets how dates will be displayed to the user ddmmyyyy , mdyyyy , yyyymmdd
    * uploadProgressBar turns on the upload progress bar. You must have a folder in the explorer root called tmp and it must have write access. Set to false if you have problems uploading.
    * guestLink. If you have set up guest access a "Guest Login" link is displayed under the login box. To turn off this link set guestLink to false (guestLink = false)
    * openLinkIn. This can be set to same, new or both. Same means that all file links will open in the same window. New means they will open in a new window. Both adds a small new window icon next to the link that opens the link in a new window.
    * .useUploadDLL set to tabsupload if you have tabs upload installed

Per user folder permissions

Ok this needs a little explanation. As an admin you will see this icon next to every folder Folder Permissions Icon
Click on this and you will be taken to a list of users. Each user has a tick box in front of it and one after it.

The first tick box selects a user that will have access to the folder.
The second box selects if the user will on have read only access to the folder.
This will override any other settings made when the user was created.

A hidden file called fuzzyperm.fde is created in the folder with a list of usernames in it.
This allows you to customize areas to allow certain access to certain folders or have admin only folders etc.

File and Folder attributes.

Click on the one of the following icons and you will be taken to an attributes editor Folder Attributes File Attributes
Hidden files or folders appear faded in FDE.

These changes affect the actual files and folders so be carefully!!!

http://www.fuzzyd.co...k/fuzzyduckexplorer/

Did anyone try it, or have even heard of it, before? 

[tomos]

Fuzzy Duck Explorer Plus !??   
        ....
Did anyone try it, or have even heard of it, before? 

-Curt (July 03, 2008, 02:44 PM)

and the Prize for the best named File Manager goes to ...

[TucknDar]

hehe, what's in a name anyway

[Curt]

Copyright © 2008 www.explorerplusplus.com:

Explorer++ is a free multi-tab clone of Windows Explorer, featuring several enhancements and additions. Find out more here.

 About Explorer++
Written by David Erceg   

Explorer++ is a free file manager for Windows. Available on Windows XP and above, it features the same familiar interface as Windows Explorer, while introducing several enhancements and improvements for a much richer file browsing experience.

Feature list:

- Browse both real and virtual folders.

- Tabbed browsing for easy management of multiple folders.

- Display window shows previews of images as they are selected.

- Easy-to-remember keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation.

- Customizable user interface.

- Full drag-and-drop support with other applications, including Windows Explorer.

- Advanced file operations such as merging and splitting supported.

Screenshots: http://www.explorerp...plus.com/screenshots
Download: http://www.explorerplusplus.com/download

Development History
-------------------------

1'st of September 2008:

Version Alpha 2
-------------------
1/9/08:
New features:
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by attributes.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by file owner.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by file creation date.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by date of last access.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by short name.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by product name.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by company name.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by file description.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by file version.
 - 'Show In Groups' now works when sorting by product version.

Bug fixes:
 - When closing a tab, directory monitoring would sometimes be stopped for a different tab. Fixed.
 - Fixed toolbar bug that would sometimes cause the program to crash on exit.
 - When the column representing the current sort mode is deselected, the sort mode is automatically changed to the first available one.
Misc:
 - Drives in 'My Computer' are now sorted according to drive letter when sorting by name.

 
21/8/08:
New features:
 - Confirmation when closing multiple tabs can now be requested when the 'Ask for confirmation before closing all tabs' option is selected.
 - The main toolbar can now be customized by selecting 'Customize...' on the toolbar context menu or on the 'View|Toolbar' menu.
 - Added an error message for the situation when a file cannot be renamed.
 - Alt+D will now shift focus to the address bar.
 - F4 will now show the drop down for the address bar.
 - Ctrl+B can now be used to access the 'Organize Bookmarks' dialog.
 - The tab button can now be used to switch between the main item pane, the folders pane and the address bar.
 - Gridlines in details view can now be toggled on or off via the 'Show gridlines in details view' option within the 'Options' dialog.

Bug fixes:
 - Fixed 'Remove' button within the 'Destroy Files' dialog.
 - Fixed 'Remove' button within the 'Merge Files' dialog.
 - Fixed bug when moving columns up/down in column selection dialog.
 - Fixed several other small bugs within column selection dialog.
 - The 'Auto Arrange', 'Show In Groups' and 'Sort Ascending' default options are now saved and loaded.
Misc:
 - Default output file when merging is now 'output.txt'.
 - Menu mnemonic characters are now underlined on the main menu after the alt key is used to select the menu.
 - Description of column items are now shown in the 'Select Columns' dialog.

 
10/8/08:
New features:
 - The right click context menu is now owner drawn.
Bug fixes:
 - Fixed bug that would cause the 'Sort By' submenu to be drawn incorrectly.
 - Fixed position of the 'hide folders pane' button.
 - Fixed bug relating to the 'Address Bar' item on the toolbars menu.

 
20/7/08
New features:
 - Files can now be merged using 'Actions|Merge Files...'.

Bug fixes:
 - Fixed 'Go' button bug.
 - The paste button on the main toolbar is now enabled automatically when there are files on the clipboard, and disabled automatically when there are none.

 
13/7/08
New features:
 - Added 'Autosize Columns' to the 'View' menu, which will resize listview columns to fit in the text of all items.
 - Files can now be dragged and dropped between tabs.
 - Added a main toolbar context menu.
 - The main menus as well as the main toolbar context menu are now owner drawn. Various items on the main menus now have pictures shown along side the menu text.
 - More main toolbar buttons added.

Bug fixes:
 - Improvements made to drag and drop handling.
Misc:
 - Aesthetic changes made to the About dialog.
 - Build date/time is now shown in the About dialog.

 
7/7/08
New features:
 - Menu help strings are now shown for items on the shell context menus.
 - Added 'Bookmark Folder...' and 'Copy Folder Path' to right click context menu.
 - When browsing into a folder, the path of the folder been loaded is now shown in the status bar (i.e. if browsing into the 'C:\' folder, the text in the status bar will read 'Loading C:\...').
 - Added 'Duplicate Tab' to right click menu for tabs, which will open a duplicate of the specified tab in a new tab.
 - Added 'Lock Tab' to right click menu for tabs to prevent a tab been closed.
 - Tabs can now be bookmarked using the keyboard shortcut 'Ctrl + D'.
 - Files can now be split using 'Actions|Split File...'.
 - Files can now be permanently deleted using 'Actions|Destroy Files...'.
 - If 'Show Folder Sizes' is activated in the 'Tools|Options' dialog, folder sizes will now be shown in the display window when a folder is selected.

Bug fixes:
 - Fixed 'Refresh Tab' on tab right click menu so that it refreshes the specified tab instead of the one that currently has focus.
 - Thumbnail images are now shown in the correct position when items are sorted in groups.
 - Small bug fixed relating to showing items in groups when sorting by name.
 - Menu help now shows for items on the context menu for individual tabs.

 
3/7/08
New features:
 - Thumbnails view can now be set as the default view in the 'Default Settings' page of the 'Tools|Options' dialog.

Bug fixes:
 - Bookmarks can now be rearranged and have their properties (name, location, description) changed.
 - Tabs now update when relevant settings in the 'Tools|Options' dialog have been applied.
 - Fixed treeview sorting bug.
 - Folders created are now inserted into their correct position in the treeview automatically.
 - Some improvements made to 'Tools|Show Drive Information'.

Misc:
 - New tabs can be opened with middle click even if the listview window does not have focus.

 
1/7/08
New features:
 - Thumbnails view has been added to the 'View' menu. As this is the first implementation of thumbnails view, it may still contain some bugs.
 - Added 'File|Copy Column Text', which will copy the currently selected items' column text to the clipboard.
 - 'File|Copy Paths' can now copy the full paths of multiple items.

 Bug fixes:
 - Fixed tab swapping bug.
 - Fixed column sorting bug.
 - Fixed file size bug that arose when files in a directory were deleted then created.

 
29/6/08
New features:
 - Virtual folders can now be opened from the command line simply by suppyling their name:
   e.g. explorer++.exe "control panel"
   will open the Control Panel.

Bug fixes:
 - Improvements made to sorting by column.
 - Fixed bug relating to directories opened via the command line.
 - Fixed bug relating to columns not showing up for the printers folder.
 - Folder specific columns added for the 'My Network Places' folder.
 - Additional virtual folders (Recycle Bin, Printers, Network Connections and My Network Places) now have their active columns saved and loaded.
 - Fixed bug where program would sometimes stop responding after the columns for a folder had been changed.

Misc:
 - 'My Network Places' on the 'Go' menu has been changed to read 'Network' on Windows Vista.
 - The items shown on the 'Sort By' menu for a particular tab now depend on the columns that are active for that tab.
 - Menu help messages added for items on the 'Sort By' menu.

 
Version Alpha 1
-------------------
26/6/08
New features:
 - The display window font can now be changed (via 'View|Change Display Colours').
 - 'Open in New Tab' added to right click menu for treeview items.

Bug fixes:
 - Fixed combobox keyboard input bug.
 - Image previews in the display window now adjust their width (to maintain the correct aspect ratio) as the display window is vertically resized.

 
25/6/08
New features:
 - Additional settings added to default options dialog (auto arrange, show in groups and sort ascending).
 - The program can now be launched from the command line with a set of directory arguments:
   explorer++.exe dir1 dir2 ... dirN
   where dir1 to dirN are the directories to open. Each directory will be opened in its own tab.

Bug fixes:
 - Newline characters which are embedded in comments for an item in details view have been replaced with a space.
 - Virtual folders now have their friendly name shown in the title bar when the program is configured to show full directory paths.
 - Fixed drag selection bug.

Misc:
 - The display window can no longer be resized to zero height.

 
16/6/08
Bug fixes:
 - Minor internal bugs fixed.

 
10/6/08
Bug fixes:
 - Greater amount of internal error checking added.

Misc:
 - New tabs opened with the middle mouse button are no longer switched to automatically.

 
8/6/08
New features:
 - Tabs can now be closed with the middle mouse click button.
 - Folders can now be opened in a new tab by clicking on them with the middle mouse button.

Bug fixes:
 - Fixed slight bug with tab selection when a tab is closed.
 - Sometimes when a folder was created, it would be inserted into the treeview twice. Fixed.
 - Fixed slight problem involved with swapping tabs.

Misc:
 - Changed main window title from 'Explorer++ - Current directory' to 'Current directory - Explorer++'.
 - Display window can now be vertically resized.

 
6/6/08
Bug fixes:
 - Greater amount of error checking added to treeview control.
 - Minor treeview collapse selection bug fixed.
 - Bug associated with setting column data in details view fixed.
 - In options dialog, in the default settings tab, setting the details radio button had no effect on the state of the apply button. Fixed.
 - Fixed small bug where program could crash as a tab is closed (would only happen under very specific circumstances).

 
5/6/08
Bug fixes:
 - Display window now redraws its gradient background as the main window is resized.
 - For items in the my computer folder which have no comment, no comment text is shown in details view (previously a random series of characters was shown for an item with no comment).

 
4/6/08
Bug fixes:
 - Fixed treeview updating bug relating to folder renaming.
 - Minor sorting bug fixed.
 - Fixed bug relating to the collapse state of treeview items when a folder is deleted.
 - Slight alteration made so that the copying files dialog is now shown during a paste files operation.
 - Changed copy and cut on context menu so that they are handled internally, rather than by the shell.

 
3/6/08
New features:
 - Added 'Open in New Tab' to right click menu for folders.

Bug fixes:
 - Fixed bug where delete file permanently on File menu was only sending files to recycle bin.
 - Preview images were only been shown for images with a lower case extension. Fixed to be case insensitive.
 - Fixed thread synchronization bug, which would sometimes cause the program to hang.

 

2/6/08
Bug fixes:
 - Fixed small bug relating to directory monitoring/updating.
 - Fixed problem with options not been applied in 'Tools' > 'Options' general tab.
 - Slight modification made to 'Tools' > 'Show drive information' meaning it may no longer crash. Information shown may be incorrect though.

 

1/6/2008
* INITIAL RELEASE *

http://www.explorerplusplus.com/download
I have not yet tried it.

[alanwo]

I have Easy Duplicate File Finder and CloneSpy on my USB stick. Both are freeware and both work splendidly.

-tinjaw (June 06, 2008, 09:29 AM)

Try NoClone to find not only duplicate but similar files and duplicate emails:NoClone - Duplicate File Finder  , it's 5-year-old and offer free edition