Sunday, August 31, 2008

Rapid-Pi 2.01

Publisher's description of Rapid-Pi

From Trident Software:

Rapid-Pi is an equation editor for Microsoft Word that provides a faster way to edit math in documents. Rapid-Pi allows you to enter mathematical expressions as easy-to-understand text. For example, you can type (y+2)/x^2 to create a fraction with y + 2 in the numerator and x-squared in the denominator. Rapid-Pi was designed with a single purpose in mind - to save you time when editing mathematical formulas, equations, and expressions in documents. Rapid-Pi is an add-on for your existing word processor application (like Microsoft Word), not a stand-alone program. This means that you will continue to use your favorite word processor, inserting Rapid-Pi equations into your document whenever you need to enter math. Inserting a Rapid-Pi equation is easy - just click on the Rapid-Pi button on Microsoft Word's toolbar.

Version 2.01 features integration with Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher along with Compatibility Mode rendering.

35 Places To Download Free, Legal MP3s - Sorry, RIAA!

I love the RIAA. They make sure the hard working bands that record the music we love can still squeak out a living in the face of an ever-growing number of freeloading downloaders. Without them, how many talentless, lip-synching, manufactured performers would be able to afford homes in Orange County and multiple Bentleys?

In the interest of helping our readers stay out of jail and avoid massive fines, here are a bunch of places you can get tunes without fear of finding a summons in your mailbox. There's plenty of good, free, and legal music on the net for you to download.

  1. iLike is a social music site which allows you to discover new music with a little help from your friends. Free downloads and the buddy system, what could be better?

  2. Altsounds has a lot of streaming content, but there are quite a few quality mp3 downloads mixed in, including bands like Anberlin, Panic at the Disco, 10 Years, and Underoath.

  3. bt.etree.org tracks live recording torrents of "bootleg friendly" bands. You'll be able to find all kinds of FLAC downloads from performers like Ben Harper, Jerry Garcia, Blues Traveler, Trey Anastasio (I smell a trend here, or at least some patchouli), Radiohead, Primus, and even Tenacious D.
  1. Legaltorrents is still in its early stages, but there are still a number of music and audio books available from their site.

  2. Stereogum has been offering free, legal mp3s since 2006. They're all still available, along with zip and torrent file archives of previous months. The Gum Mix streams music to you while you browse, and all the tracks it plays can be downloaded.

  3. SXSW is a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is, they only have one torrent file for download. The good news? It contains over 700 mp3s of bands that performed in 2007 for a whopping total of 3.1 gigs of audio. Change the year in the subdomain to get the 2006 and 2005 downloads.

  4. Unsigned Band Web is a palce for, well, unsigned bands to share their music and get noticed. Just about every genre you can imagine is offered here, and they maintain charts to show you what's hot. Apparently electronica is hot. Maybe I'll stick to genre browsing. Bottom line: tons of free mp3s to download.

  5. Soundclick's music page will hook you up with a ton of downloads, including more unsigned acts - like my favorite new addiction: German hip hop. I blame my scarf-wearing co-worker.

  6. Honc "if you love music. The site isn't much to look at, but there's still more undiscovered goodness to be found here.

  7. Garage Band is also worth checking out for more diamonds in the rough. Rub it in your friends' faces that you "heard them first."

  8. Indie Rock Cafe offers more up-ad-coming music, blog style. There's no centralized download page, so you'll find the tracks sprinkled around the blog post.

  9. DMusic has been offering indie musicians a chance to be heard since 1998. Top 20 charts are maintained for each of the 20+ main genres (which are broken down into several sub-genres as well).

  10. Fuzz offers - oh crap - a mixtape feature. The interface is cool as hell, and there's a ton of great, free music to discover on the site.

  11. iCompositions is dedicated to music created with Mac's Garage Band software. You'll need to register in order to download songs.

  12. The Internet Archive has a massive audio section, including audio books as well as music. Be sure to check out the open source section, with over 150,000 Creative Commons licensed items.

  13. Jamendo rocks for one big reason: they offer both direct downloads and a torrent tracker. 555 pages multiplied by 20 items per page equals a veritable crapload of music. You'll find lots of international music too, from exotic places like Brazil and er...Canada.

  14. Peoplesound is similar to Jamendo, but you'll find some major label artist offerings. Registration is required to download, and you'll have to browse the genres/artists to find the mp3 files, but they have plenty up for grabs.

  15. Epitonic is "your source for cutting edge music." You'll find tracks by artists like The Strokes, Carl Cox, Pavement, Peaches, Guided by Voices, and Yo La Tengo.

  16. I love me some punk music, and fortunately punk labels love to share their music. Fat Wreck Chords, Hellcat Records, Subpop, and Epitaph all have tons, and usually offer two or three fulls songs from a CD. Oi!
  17. Stereokiller has even more punk/hardcore/metal goodness for you. According to the guy that runs the site, it's "better than damn MySpace." Well, no argument there.

  18. Anti's slogan is "real artists creating great recordings on their own terms." Downloads galore from guys like Michael Franti and Spearhead, Greg Graffin, Nick Cave, and Billy Bragg.

  19. 3hive's bloggers pass on links to some excellent free mp3s on their site. It's got a nice, personal feel to it, though there's not the tidal wave of music you'll find at some other on this list.

  20. itsfreedownloads is worth a bookmark for iTunes users. It's a site that keeps tabs on the weekly freebies in the iTunes store. You may get sick of looking at all the ads, but the free music will help soften the annoyance.

  21. mp3.com has a pretty huge collection of free tunes as well, with offerings from almost 1,400 artists. Most can be both streamed and downloaded.

  22. Purevolume.com is loaded with streaming music, but there are plenty of downloads as well. Click the search link, then search or browse to "discover new music." It's the quickest way to the freebies.

  23. Music.download.com. What can I say, they've got a ton of MP3s. I'm not much of a CNET fan, but free is free.

  24. Last.FM has free downloads, too. It's not just for streaming.

  25. Stage.FM used to be Audiri, and still offers streaming and downloads for independent artists.

  26. iSound offers another large catalog. Head to the mp3 page for free downloads, as some artists only offer streaming - including Our Lady Peace frontman Rayne Maida, who I was disappointed to see had no downloads.

  27. we7 is offering all kinds of free tunes - if you're ok with a brief advertisement being appended to the track. They're legal, they're free, and you'll find bands that you'd normally have to pay for to get full mp3s.

  28. SpiralFrog is doing the ad-supported thing, too (if you can get to it).

  29. Blentwell is "an ongoing document of the evolution of blended music." Tons and tons of DJ mixes, categorized by genre.

  30. MTV offers a new group of about a dozen downloads on a somewhat regular basis. A drop in the bucket, but still free.

  31. Anyone with a toddler or three at home will apprciate Free Children's Music. You'll find tons of great, kid friendly tunes there.

  32. Classic Cat maintains a massive listing of free, classical mp3s available on the internet. Files aren't hosted there, but it's an easier way to find works by Bach and Beethoven than searching yourself.
Will more major artists give free music a shot? Radiohead's In Rainbows is no longer available as a free download, but Trent Reznor is still in a giving mood. NIN fans can still grab The Slip for free from his web site.

Got another legal mp3 site to share? Comment it, so that we can all get in on the free goodness!

SlowMousion: For when mouse precision is more important than speed

SlowMousion
Sometimes you want your mouse to be zippy as possible, allowing you to scroll back and forth across a screen for a quick game of Pong or Arkanoid. But when you're trying to make precise movements in an image editing application, precision might be more important than speed. If your mouse is too fast, you might have a hard time drawing straight lines, for example.

That's where SlowMousion comes in. This free Windows utility allows you to select a hotkey on your keyboard or your mouse to hit when you want your mouse cursor to move very slowly. When you try dragging your mouse with the hotkey depressed, no matter how quickly you drag, the cursor will move veeerrrry slooowwwly.

There does not appear to be a way to make the slow movement the default and hit a hotkey for faster motion, so it doesn't look like SlowMousion will do you much good in the practical jokes department. But if you need all the help you can get trying to draw straight lines, this little app could come in handy.

Want to Know Everything About a Website? Try Quarkbase.


New web apps often make a lot of claims that just don't hold up under testing. When I decided to put Quarkbase.com through the paces, I fully expected to be underwhelmed. After all, their motto is "Everything About A Website."

Holy information overload Batman, this one really surprised me.

Pick a domain and hit search, then give Quarkbase a chance to dig up its research. They say to wait about 30 seconds, though my successful searches worked more quickly. I did get a few failure notices because of high traffic, but I understand why. Quarkbase finds so much information about your website that it's mindblowing.

What does it find? The domain owner, registrar, creation date, primary language, similar sites (*yawn* so far), traffic rank, blog rank, countries in which it's popular, description and "official" contact info, people involved, incoming links, and more. Unlike the "similar pages" Google search returns, the Quarkbase suggestions were pretty much right on the money.

But wait, there's more. It'll track down numbers on Digg, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Technorati, Reddit, Delicious, and Yahoo Answers. Quarkbase even knows how many times the site have made Digg's front page. It also generates a list of the most popular recent page and five popular pages of all time based on these stats.

Quarkbase is an incredibly informative tool and undeniably useful for anyone working the web.

Using Gmail's Starred items to track expected replies - Emailers Anonymous

Gmail Starred ItemsOne of the hardest aspects of managing email is keeping track of sent messages where a reply is expected. Do you have this problem? I know I do. Some of the people I correspond with are completely reliable, and I know that if I send them something, I will get a reply within 24 hours and often sooner. But some of my other regular correspondents are not so reliable.

At all.

It's really frustrating.

Luckily, if you're a Gmail user, there is a very simply method for keeping track of messages where you are expecting a reply. You see it every day, and you might even be using it for something else.

What am I talking about?

The Starred attribute. With a single key or button press, Gmail allows you to add a star to a message which prominently appears whenever that message or thread is in view.

This process is incredibly simple, but effective. Now, I should first point out that starring an email is for all intents and purposes the same as labeling a message with any arbitrary label. But I think stars work better as an expected response reminder than a label would. So follow along with me and see if you don't come to the same conclusion.

Setting Up

The set-up for this method is simple: just make sure you do not currently have any Starred messages. Click on your Starred folder to see what has collected there. Since the meaning of stars is not defined, I found that I had all sorts of random stuff in there that was probably at some point important to me, but that I no longer cared to flag. A few more recent important items were also in there, and for those I created a new "High Priority" label (which I colored red so it would stand out), and once the important messages were appropriately labeled I removed them from my Starred folder.

Okay, that's it. You're set.

The Method

From now on, all you have to do is make sure to star any message you send when you need to track the reply. If you have a look in your Sent Mail folder, you might even find a few items in there that still have outstanding replies that you are waiting for. Go ahead and star them.

This accomplishes two things.

Firstly, you can click in to your Starred folder at any time to see what you are still waiting on. You then have the opportunity to gently remind your recipient that you are still waiting on an answer.

Secondly, when you do get a reply to one of these messages, they show up in your Inbox with a star already on them. If the message was important enough that you wanted to track the reply, you probably want to make sure that you notice once you do get a reply, and this method will accomplish that goal.

Don't forget to remove the star once you've received a reply so that you keep your Starred folder tightly focused on threads that are expecting responses.

Statistics Problem Solver 2.2

Publisher's description of Statistics Problem Solver

From Runiter:

Statistics Problem Solver software can solve statistical problems and generate step-by-step solution for it. This statistics tutorial software is as easy to use as filling in the blanks and clicking on Solve button. This software can be used by beginners in learning about discreate distributions, continuous distributions, test of significance, comparing data groups, testing hypothesis or generating and plotting histograms.

Version 2.2 enhances user interface.

Smart Math Calculator 1.5

Publisher's description of Smart Math Calculator

From Runiter:

Easy-to-use math calculator that immediately computes the result as you type a math expression. It allows to calculate multiple math expressions at the same time. It also allows defining your own variables and functions that can be set to a value or other math expressions. It has a beautiful user-interface that conveniently allows you to directly edit the expression or if you prefer use the visual key pad to enter new expressions. There is support for over 20 math functions.

Version 1.5 adds support for defining custom functions that call themselves (recursive functions) and support for true/false expressions.

Graphing Calculator 3D 2.3

Publisher's description of Graphing Calculator 3D

From Runiter:

Graphing Calculator 3D is an easy-to-use tool that plots 2D and 3D functions. Graphing equations has never been any easier. Simply type a function and press Enter. The intuitive user-interface is designed with frequency of use in mind. The frequently used tools and options are only one click away. Graphing Calculator 3D can instantly plot high quality 3D graphs. Graphs can be shaded with custom gradual colors along x, y or z axis. In 3D graphs, the lighting is enabled to demonstrate the depth of the surface through shades and shadows.

Version 2.3 adds access to x-y-z coordinates table to allow plotting your own coordinates or modifying the coordinates generated from 2D or 3D functions.

Calculus Problem Solver 1

Publisher's description of Calculus Problem Solver

From Runiter:

Calculus Problem Solver can solve differentiation of any arbitrary equation and output the result. It can provide detailed step-by-step solutions to given differentiation problems in a tutorial-like format. In addition to these, it can also initiate an interactive quiz in which you can solve differentiation while the computer corrects your solutions.

A&G Grapher 5.8

Publisher's description of A&G Grapher

From Runiter:

Graphing equations, 2D or 3D, is easy with this graphing calculator. Simply type down the desired equation and click on the draw button (eg. y=sin(x)+3x or 5x=sin(xy)+y) and let our advanced graphing calculator take care of the rest. 3D graphing can be achieved by simply introducing a z variable in the equation. There are tools included in the graphing calculator for slopes, area under curve, matrix transformation.

Version 5.8 has ability to save and reopen axis and draw properties as well as the equations, ability to plot polygons from a list of points, and has several enhancements and bugs fixed.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Find and Fix Dead Pixels With Your Browser!

You've probably heard of Dead Pixel Buddy, a free app that helps you locate dead or stuck pixels on your LCD monitor. One of our devoted readers has sent us an interesting alternative that runs in your browser.

Willy Ci
has coded it as part of his portfolio, and it's elegantly simple. Pick a color with the palette tool, click go full screen, and your monitor is instantly awash in glorious pixel-hunting color.

Since it's browser-based, it'll run on any platform (as long as Adobe Flash is supported).

Both machines I used for testing had a slight issue escaping from full screen - the chooser didn't reappear, and my mouse pointer vanished. Simply mousing up to the tab bar and right-click reloading the tab solved the problem.

Once you've pinpointed the trouble spots, head over to killdeadpixel.com and see if you can't revive them with their trippy animated gif. Switching to one of the fullscreen modes makes stuck pixels easy to spot by giving you a black background to work with. No guarantees it'll wake them up, but it's worth a shot since most manufacturers won't warranty a screen with less than three problematic pixels.

TypoBuddy Finds Misspelled eBay, Craigslist (?) Deals



TypoBuddy, like previously reviewed TypoTracker, helps you find deals by searching for misspelled variations of the items you search for. Why?

Because most people that search for a particular item will try to spell it right - meaning that listings with typos might go unnoticed, and you'll wind up getting a sweet deal just because some seller was careless enough to not check his or her typing.

It's a great concept, but does it work?

I tried submitting a few queries to both sites, first looking for "thinkpad." Although TypoBuddy told me it had found 100 misspelled matches, clicking through to the eBay results netted only 76 - still very respectable. The search automatically homes in on your locale, so you may need to change locations to get more results.


I have to admit I was somewhat surprised that so many ThinkPad items had been listed as tinkpad or thinpad. Is it really that hard to spell? No matter, on to the next test!

Results were very different with Craigslist. Either their posters are much more fastidious with their typing, or the TypoBuddy search doesn't work very well. My ThinkPad query on major metropolitan areas (sorry, Winnipeg) like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco reported 70 matches. After click through, however, Craigslist had no actual matches for me to view.

I then searched for "laptop" with Craigslist to give the search another try, and again had no luck.

TypoBuddy is an interesting concept. The eBay search is certainly a good idea, it works well, and I don't doubt that you can probably score some nice deals by using it. If the Craiglist search gets sorted out, this is definitely something I'd add to my shopping bookmarks.

What the font?! identifies fonts from images

What the font?!
What the font from My Fonts is a web site designed to help you figure out the name of a font from a JPG file submission. For example, if you want to know what font DLS uses, capture a screen shot of some text, upload it on What the font and see what you find out.

It's pretty simple to use, just upload the image, fill in any missing letters and let the site do the work for you. I submitted several things - some that I knew the font name and some that I didn't - and always got a selection of possibilities.

There is also a forum so that if the online tool can't identify a font, other users can try their hand at it.

So, if you've had your eye on someone else's font and have been wondering what it is, now is your chance to find out.

Screamer: Portable Internet Radio Streamer


While I know it's no big deal to dump a couple of gigs of music onto my 8GB flash drive, sometimes it's nice to fire up some streaming radio for a change of pace.

Screamer is available both as an installable application and as a portable executable. Go with the portable version, and you'll be able to take your presets with you wherever you can plug in your USB flash drive.

Click on presets, and Screamer will bury you under a mountain of radio streams. Browse by genre, geographical location, network, or language. Once you make a selection, its category heading will automatically be added to the bottom of the preset list for easy channel changing.

I tune in The Edge, and Screamer adds the rest of the Modern Rock category for me. Slick.

Favorite your top feeds and Screamer saves them in a simple XML file - handy for emailing your faves to a buddy, if you feel like sharing.

Recording is supported, though only on streams that provide track information. You'll still need an app like StreamRipper for recording other feeds.

Development is very active, and new streams are added frequently. You can request a specific one by visiting their forums. Screamer is freeware, Windows only.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Unintelligencer Maeks U Rite Dum - Time Waster

The Unintelligencer is full of win. Go there and make yourself sound dumb.
It's always nice to have a good laugh during an otherwise stressful workday, and what's more fun than laughing at outright supidity?

The Unintelligencer uses an array of sophisticated linguistic algorithms to convert your text from perfectly suitable English into the unrecognizable drivel you've gotten used to seeing on YouTube, Facebook, and all your other favorite sites.

Let's try an example from a favorite movie of mine: "i haved an wonderful girlfriend linda. 2gethr wee drove too small cabin ins da mountains. t seems an archeologist hads kum tew dis remote place 2 translate + study him latess phidn: necronomiconexmortis. thee book uv de ded."

Oh, the good times you'll have with this. Send that important departmental memo as a Moron, or shoot the moon and render it Incomprehensible. Unintelligencer offers 5 subtle shades of idiocy!

It's web based, so users of any operating system can utilize this fantastic - and unbelievably useful - tool. I'd like to see a reverse translation so I can finally understand what the hell some of these lolcat people are talking about.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Microsoft releases Desktops, new virtual desktop manager

Desktops
Microsoft's Sysinternals team has released a new, free, light weight virtual desktop manager for Windows called Desktops. Yes, Microsoft already had a virtual desktop manager called, well, Virtual Desktop Manager. But Desktops offers a few advantages. First, it's a single, tiny executable file. No installation necessary, which makes this a good candidate for carrying with you on a USB flash drive. And second, Desktops offers a wide range of keyboard shortcuts to choose from, which could come in handy if your Alt+1 key combo is reserved for something else.

If you're scratching your head trying to figure out what a virtual desktop is, here's how it works. You can create up to four different desktop spaces and switch between them. In other words, you can load a few programs in desktop 1, a few more in desktop 2, and a few others in desktop 3. They'll all keep running as you switch back and forth. So if you have iTunes playing in desktop one, and an Office document to edit in desktop 2, you can keep listening to music while you're typing away.

The advantage is that if you've got, say a 1280 x 1024 pixel monitor, but you like to have umpteen applications open at once and there's no way to keep them all visible on that display. A virtual desktop gives you another 1280 x 1024 pixel canvas or two, or three to work with.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Free Windows Explorer Replacements

A43 File Management Utility
Ac Browser Plus - file manager for Windows
CubicExplorer
Explorer++
ExplorerXP
FileMatrix
XPlorer

15 Windows Explorer alternatives compared and reviewed

Windows Explorer, the default file manager for Microsoft Windows, hasn’t really changed all that much over the years. Below you’ll find reviews, screenshots and links to download 10 11 12 14 15 different alternatives.

If I haven’t included your favorite file manager (for Windows..) in this list, by all means please leave a comment below or feel free to contact me. I’d be more than happy to include it.

Update: I’ve done another 10 Windows Explorer reviews.

Name Cost Trial? Rating (x/5)
A43 free n/a ***½
Ac Browser Plus $21.00 yes **
CubicExplorer free n/a ***
Directory Opus AUD $85.00 yes (30 days) ****
ExplorerXP free n/a ***
Far Manager $25.00 yes (40 days) ***½
FileMatrix 24.00 yes ***
freeCommander free n/a ***½
PowerDesk Pro/Standard $39.95/free n/a **¾
Servant Salamander (2.5) $30 yes (30 days) ****
SpeedCommander 37.95 yes (60 days) ***
Total Commander $34 yes (30 days) ****
XPlorer free n/a ***½
xplorer² 19.95 yes (21 days) ***
XYplorer 29.95 yes (21 days) ****

A43

Requirements: Windows 2000, Windows XP
Download: http://www.primitus.us/a43/
Features:

  • Integrated text editor with unlimited size. Dynamic highlighting for the web.
  • Integrated zip/unzip features. Simply drag-n-drop files or click a button. You can also turn your zip archives into self-extracting archives the same way.
  • Integrated file search to quickly locate and jump to those lost files.
  • Integrated quick launch area for fast access to the programs you use the most.
  • Favorite buttons to quickly open those often used folders.
  • Dual-pane view for those that demand speed in file management.
  • Requires no installation, no data is written to the system registry. A43’s configuration information is saved in a local .ini file.
  • Keep it on your pen/jump drive and take it where ever you go.
  • Thoughts:
    A43 took up about 18mb of RAM after using it for 5 minutes. It dropped down to 3mb of RAM after 15 seconds of not using it. Its response time was very quick while renaming, moving and copying files. The drag-and-drop zip/unzip and rar/unrar feature is pretty neat - if I made zip files often I would find this very helpful. Also, you can fit A43 on a floppy and take it with you to use on any PC (doesn’t require an installation). The built-in text editor was easy to use, as was ‘quick launch’ section. The ‘file filter’ feature (use wildcards to sort files) is well located and works exactly as you’d expect. Between the features and the price, this is a file manager that I won’t delete right away.

    Screenshots:

    a43 file manager
    default view
    a43 file manager
    easy unzipping
    a43 file manager
    Tools list
    a43 file manager
    bottom pane - quick launch
    a43 file manager
    image preview

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    Ac Browser Plus

    Requirements: Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
    Download: http://www.konradp.com/products/acbplus/
    Features:

  • ACFAT - find a file in a second! This service can index a chosen drive, and so you can query this index in a second, more: drive indexing.
  • Quick viewers.
  • Editorial Renaming. Rename files with ease, just like in a text editor.
  • Zip as folders, packing, unpacking with ease
  • Adding comments to files and directories
  • Script templates. You can write scripts (visual basic scripts, batch scripts- .bat, or anything else), which can be executed in the context of currently selected files or folders (thanks to the script templates).
  • Multi Window Interface.
  • Smart Renaming.
  • The font color, and other font specifications can be defined by the user, separately for every files extension.
  • Hot Point - a small red rectangle on each file shows you the file properties, and quick view (images, text and multimedia).
  • File Finder
  • Thumbnails’ view
  • Ability to follow the links while searching files.
  • Quick Access Bar - Displaying most frequently used folders and allowing you to filter out items from current file browser window
  • Keyboard shortcuts known from Norton Commander and Windows Explorer.
  • Thoughts:
    Lots of features, but the interface feels very “Windows 95″ at times. If it was free I would consider leaving it installed and maybe try it out for a while longer. Because some of the other file managers are as feature-rich (or more so) and have a more consistent (and at times much more attractive) interface, I can only give it two stars out of five.

    Screenshots:

    ac browser plus file manager
    easy to view detailed info
    ac browser plus file manager
    helpful scripts
    ac browser plus file manager
    purchase to change background
    ac browser plus file manager
    thumbnail view
    ac browser plus file manager
    extra navigation
    ac browser plus file manager
    ac browser plus options


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    CubicExplorer

    Requirements: Windows 95 (untested), 98, ME, NT (untested), 2000, XP, Vista (works, not supported yet)
    Download: http://www.cubicreality.com/ce/download
    Homepage: http://www.cubicreality.com/

    Features:

  • Tabbed browsing
  • Bookmarks
  • Text editor
  • File search
  • Thumbnails
  • Free disk space labels
  • Empty recycle bin button
  • Support for multiple languages
  • Thoughts:
    Here’s why I gave CubicExplorer 3 stars instead of 2 or 2½ - it has potential, and it’s free. Since it’s not even at version 1.0 yet (0.77a as of 10/13/06), it can only get better (right?). Unfortunately, the 0.77a has been around since March of this year, and the forum indicates that work on .80a started a while ago (but it’s still not out). With all of that said, the Quick View feature is something that I would use, frequently. Showing actual html code when an .html file is selected, rather than a ‘preview’ of the web page, is ideal for me. The built in text editor is excellent for stashing snipits of text, html, web page addresses etc, and allowing that text to be a tab is fantastic. While this version has too few features for me, I will certainly give the next one a try.

    Screenshots:

    CubicExplorer file manager
    default view
    CubicExplorer file manager
    CubicExplorer prefs
    CubicExplorer file manager
    Text as a tab
    CubicExplorer file manager
    Quick View files

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    Directory Opus

    Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME or NT4/2000/XP
    Download: http://www.gpsoft.com.au/DScripts/Download.asp
    Homepage: http://www.gpsoft.com.au/Index.html
    Features:

  • Powerful File Manager & Explorer Replacement
  • User-definable File Display Views
  • User-definable Toolbars, Menus, File Types
  • Advanced built-in Image and File Viewers
  • Built-in ZIP and Advanced FTP
  • Visually Synchronize Files & Find Duplicates
  • Advanced Search and Rename Functions
  • More Configurable than any other program
  • Easy Slideshows…and much more..
  • Thoughts:
    Directory Opus is a great File Manager. There are a lot of features and options, and nearly every aspect of this program is customizable. It really is an Explorer replacement, and it offers to do so during the installation - so when you open any folder, Directory Opus will launch. The built-in FTP client works exactly as you’d expect. The many different view options are easy to access and just “make sense”. While in use, Directory Opus took up 28MB of memory on my system. The instant that it’s minimized, its memory use dropped to 1MB. If I used Windows more often, I would gladly pay the $85.00 to purchase this software. In fact, the next time I have a day job that requires Windows use, I will.

    Screenshots:

    Directory Opus
    quick ftp connect
    Directory Opus
    contextual (and excellent) auto-help
    Directory Opus
    thumbnail view
    Directory Opus
    extra (audio) file info
    Directory Opus
    nag screen
    Directory Opus
    id3 editing
    Directory Opus
    huge “file” list
    Directory Opus
    replace Windows Explorer

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    ExplorerXP

    Requirements: Windows 2000, Windows XP
    Download: http://www.explorerxp.com/index.html#download (scroll to the bottom)
    Homepage: http://www.explorerxp.com/
    Features:

  • Tabbed interface
  • Easy access to My Computer, Recycle Bin , My Documents & Desktop
  • Drag & Drop with Explorer, the tab bar and special folders on the main toolbar.
  • Multy rename tool - allows to rename multiple files in one step.
  • Displays folder size information and the real size of compressed files & folders.
  • Folder Size Cache - greatly improves the speed of the folder size calculations between sessions.
  • Advanced copy/move.
  • Unicode support.
  • USB devices support.
  • Clean - recursively removes files that match given list of extentions or wildcards.
  • Groups - A group is a collection of folders, which users are able to access quickly or drag & drop files to them.
  • Configurable keyboard shortcuts.
  • Small download size - only 410 KB.
  • Thoughts:
    Pretty straight forward Explorer-like File Manager. While it doesn’t have as many features as many of the other reviewed file managers, it is free (for non-commercial use) and makes a great “first” upgrade for beginners. Anyone who has used Windows Explorer for more than 5 minutes will feel right at home using ExplorerXP.

    Screenshots

    ExplorerXP
    default view
    ExplorerXP
    two windows
    ExplorerXP
    ExplorerXP prefs
    ExplorerXP
    command list

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    Far Manager

    Requirements: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP
    Download: http://www.farmanager.com/download.php?l=en
    Homepage: http://www.farmanager.com/index.php?l=en
    Features:

  • Far Manager is a program for managing files and archives in Windows operating systems. Far Manager works in text mode and provides a simple and intuitive interface for performing most of the necessary actions: viewing files and directories, editing, copying and renaming files and many other operations.
  • Customize it - Far Manager has a multi-language, easily configurable interface. File system navigation is made easier through the use of color highlighting and file sort groups.
  • Your task - your way. The functionality of Far Manager is greatly extended by external DLL modules - plugins (made possible by a special set of interfaces - the Plugins API). For example, archive support, the FTP client, the temporary panel and the network browser are all implemented as plugins included in the standard distribution of Far.
  • Thoughts:
    Far Manager is a pretty old-school File Manager. Mouse support is provided, but this is a File Manager for keyboard commandos. Very cool plugins add great extra features (FTP, email, Winamp control etc). I’m not sure that I’ll pay for this File Manager, but I will be using it until the 40 days is up before I decide.

    Screenshots:

    Far Manager
    Far Manager default view
    Far Manager
    execute a command in Far
    Far Manager
    select multiple files
    Far Manager
    built in text viewer
    Far Manager
    search in Far

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    FileMatrix

    Requirements: Windows 98, ME, NT4 SP6, 2000, XP or Vista
    Homepage: http://www.gardenerofthoughts.org/ideas/filematrix/index.htm
    Features:

  • Basic. Extensive integrated help (configuration and help wizard, hints), between 1 and 10 columns for navigation in directories, 30 sets of columns called boards for organizing sets of directories, directory tree navigator, thumbnail pictures, drag-and-drop between columns and boards and to / from other applications, skins, special graphical effects.
  • Advanced. 20 containers (which are lists of files that can store, for example, the results of a search), picture converter (including the ability to normalize pictures to a specified size), media player (with the possibility to resume playing later), mouse gestures with a user interface called mouse menu, file hover information (which includes a thumbnail and a played media clip), text search with ranking (like an online search engine), steganography integrated with the viewer / editor (noise management included).
  • Thoughts:
    FileMatrix is quite unique among all of the other File Managers reviewed in this article. The interface is much different than the typical explorer-style manager. The use of “boards” and “containers” makes viewing and grouping files a snap. If you’re tired of the same-old-file-manager, give this one a try. And be sure to make use of the included Wizards and help files - they will really come in handy.

    Screenshots:

    file matrix
    thumbnail view
    FileMatrix
    right-click options
    FileMatrix
    tools options
    FileMatrix
    image converter
    FileMatrix
    config and help wizard (very helpful!)
    FileMatrix
    nag screen

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    freeCommander

    Requirements: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT (from version 4.0), 2000, XP, Vista (?)
    Download: http://www.freecommander.com/fc_downl_en.htm
    Homepage: http://www.freecommander.com/

    Features:

  • Dual-panel technology - horizontal and vertical
  • Optional tree view for each panel
  • Built in file viewer to view files in hex, binary, text or image format
  • File viewer inside archives too
  • Built in archive handling: ZIP (read, write), CAB (read, write), RAR (read)
  • Nested archive handling
  • Easy access to system folders, control panel, desktop and start menu
  • Copy, move, delete, rename files and folders
  • Wipe files
  • Create and verify MD5 checksums
  • File splitting
  • File properties and context menu
  • Calculation of folder size
  • Folder comparison / synchronization
  • Modification of file date and attributes
  • Folder / program favorites
  • File searching (inside archive too)
  • File filters for display
  • User defined columns for detailed view
  • Support for Tortoise icons
  • DOS command line
  • Multiple language support
  • Thoughts:
    ‘Easy access to system folders’ is one of the features that first jumped out at me. My immediate thought was “why isn’t that in all file managers?” I may have overlooked it in some of the others, so I certainly won’t say that this is the only one that has this feature. “Size of folders” (not enabled by default) does slow things down - as freeCommander calculates and displays the folder size. With that said, it’s very handy to try and figure out where your hard drive space has gone, and easy to get to when you need it. The image preview was a bit slow for me compared to most of the others. The screenshot feature allows you to chose between image types (bmp and jpg) and even adjust the quality. I think the biggest drawback to freeCommander is the lack of built in FTP support, and I suppose it’s not that big of a deal. This program, though free, is donation-worthy.

    Screenshots:

    freeCommander file manager
    quick access to System Folders
    freeCommander file manager
    freeCommander prefs
    freeCommander file manager
    Extras menu
    freeCommander file manager
    Quick access to Programs
    freeCommander
    default freeCommander view

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    PowerDesk Pro/Standard

    Requirements: Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, or 2003
    Download: http://www.shop.avanquest.com/usa/trial_form.php?pid=686
    Homepage: http://www.v-com.com/product/PowerDesk_Pro_Home.html
    Features:

  • Dual pane operation
  • Layout Manager
  • Add Notes to Your Files!
  • Customize Your File Folders with Color
  • File Info column
  • MP3 Collection Management
  • Thoughts:
    OK here’s my beef.. It’s not a bad File Manager at all. It’s very customizable, has all of the features you’d expect, but the ones you really want to try (add notes to files, ftp, sync folders) are only available in the Pro version (which there’s no trial for). The Standard version is free, but has a ‘nag’ bar that takes up too much screen real-estate. I would much rather a 10 day fully-functional demo version before I decide to lay down $40. Also, they added me to a mailing list when I specifically said I did not want to join (you must provide an email address to download the demo).

    Screenshots:

    PowerDesk Standard
    horizontal view
    PowerDesk Standard
    file filter
    PowerDesk Standard
    PowerDesk Standard options
    PowerDesk Standard
    Tools list
    PowerDesk Standard
    customize the toolbar

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    Servant Salamander (2.5)

    Requirements: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000, or XP
    Download: http://www.altap.cz/download.html
    Homepage: http://www.altap.cz/

    Features:

    This is a list of the main features for version 2.5 RC1. All details/features for v2.5 can be found here, and v2.0 here.

  • Better Wildcard Selecting Files And Directories Against Windows Explorer
  • Calculate Occupied Space: Disk Space Usage Analyser
  • Change file or directory date, time, attributes: read-only system hidden
  • Change Case of Files and Directories Names: lower, upper
  • Batch File Converter: convert coding CP1250, CP852, IBM EBCDIC, ASCII
  • Copy File and Directory Names (Filenames) to Windows Clipboard
  • Directory Size, Folder Size: total size of directory, disk usage information
  • Drive Information: Disk Label, Size, Space, and File System Analyser
  • Filter Files (Filenames) by Names Using Wildcards, Hide File Names
  • Find Files and Directories, Find Duplicate Files, Find Hidden File
  • Make Directory File List, List Files and Directories, Save to Text File
  • Quick Search: Focus File or Directory (Folder) Name
  • Shared Directories: View List, Explore Shares, Stop Sharing
  • Skip and Overwrite files confirmations during Copy and Move operations
  • Thumbnail Images, display photo thumbnails for our image gallery
  • Keyboard Shortcuts for Servant Salamander
  • Copy newer files: overwrite older and skip other existing files
  • Move or copy files in queue, queuing file operations
  • Copy, Move, Rename, Delete Files and Directories in Windows
  • Email Files as Attachments in Windows, Pack Large Files
  • Pack files and directories, Open, Browse, and Unpack archives
  • Compare Directories, Files by Size, Date, Time, Attributes, and Content
  • Shortcut Target: opens directory containing the target of a shortcut
  • NTFS Compress and Uncompress, NTFS Encrypt and Decrypt
  • Regular Expression: Find Files, Grep Files, Rename Files, Viewer
  • Thoughts:
    At the suggestion of a number of commenters, I downloaded and installed Servant Salamander 2.5 RC1. It’s another Norton Commander-style inspired file manager, and a pretty great one at that. It has every feature you’d expect, and then some. The plug-ins allow for features that go above and beyond a file manager (screenshots, encrypt and decrypt, sftp/scp etc). The ability to set a ’skill level’ is a great idea. Executing commands is not only easy, but the command window doesn’t automatically close once the command has been executed! As it stands right now, I can’t pick a “winner” between Servant Salamander and Total Commander. I’m quite sure that it just comes down to personal preference. If Norton Commander-style file managers are your thing, I would strongly suggest you try both Total Commander and Servant Salamander, and decide for yourself which is best. If you’re on a limited budget, go for freeCommander. When the demo versions expire, I plan on buying either Total or Servant - I’ll update this after I decide.

    Screenshots:

    Servant Salamander file manager
    default view
    Servant Salamander file manager
    Servant Salamander plug-ins
    Servant Salamander file manager
    Servant Salamander prefs
    Servant Salamander file manager
    set a user level
    Servant Salamander file manager
    map network drives
    Servant Salamander file manager
    execute commands

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    SpeedCommander

    Requirements: Windows 95/98/98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Windows XP/2003 x64 Edition
    Download: http://www.speedproject.de/enu/download.html
    Homepage: http://www.speedproject.de/enu/speedcommander/index.html
    Features:

  • Proven Two Window Technology
  • Extensive Archive Support
  • Add-In Interface
  • Macros
  • Enhanced FTP Functions
  • Native 64-bit Version for Windows XP/2003 x64 Edition
  • Thoughts:
    Lots of features (built in browser is cool) and very snappy response times. Macros are simple to use. Worth checking out, but the price is a bit steep. If I had an x64 version of Windows I would be anxious to try out this app.

    Screenshots

    speedcommander
    default view
    speed commander
    View options
    speedcommander
    File options
    speedcommander
    Run a command
    speedcommander
    Preview files
    speedcommander
    Launch apps

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    Total Commander

    Requirements: Windows 95, 98, ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. 16bit version available for Win 3.1. Another for Windows CE and the Pocket PC.
    Download: http://www.ghisler.com/download.htm
    Homepage: http://www.ghisler.com/
    Features:

  • Direct access to Network Neighbourhood
  • Supports Drag & Drop with Explorer/the Desktop etc.
  • Command line for starting of programs with parameters, simply by typing the program name or by pressing ctrl+enter or ctrl+shift+enter.
  • Configurable button bar and Start menu (User-defined commands) to place your frequently used DOS or Windows programs into a drop-down menu. The actual directory and/or the file under the cursor can be delivered to the application.
  • Configurable main menu.
  • Built in file viewer (Lister) to view files of any size in hex, binary or text format, using either the ASCII- (DOS) or the ANSI- (Windows) character set. The line width and font size can now be changed. You can even view files inside archives! New: Support for Unicode UTF-8 format.
  • Bitmap viewer in Lister, additional formats through Irfanview (see addons).
  • HTML- and Unicode-Viewer in Lister.
  • Parallel port transfer function (direct cable connection), works between Win95/98/NT/2000/3.1 and DOS!
  • Thumnbails view shows preview images in file lists.
  • Custom columns view allow to show additional file details.
  • Total Commander comes in the following languages: English, German, French, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Spanish, Czech, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, and now also Hebrew, Greek, Afrikaans, Catalan, Turkish and Ukrainian
  • Built-in FTP client supports most public FTP servers
  • Archives are handled like subdirectories. You can easily copy files to and from archives.
  • Extended copying, moving, renaming and deleting of entire trees (Enables deleting “full” directories).
  • Thoughts:
    Having only used it for about 30 minutes total (so far), take these comments with a grain of salt. Total Commander appears to be the fastest file manager in terms of response times. I asked it to calculate the size of 14 folders (that contained a couple hundred files) and it immediatley gave me the answer. The hard drive didn’t clunk away trying to count files, it just happened. As the screenshots below demonstrate, Total Commander looks very old school (though there are many options to customize the look and feel). As the name implies, it’s styled after Norton Commander, and as you’d expect it can be completely controlled via the keyboard. At $34 USD I’m curious to compare it to Free Commander (see comments at the bottom). I reserve the right to bump this up to 4 stars after I look at Free Commander :)

    Screenshots:

    total commander file manager
    Total Commander prefs
    total commander file manager
    default view
    total commander file manager
    FTP view
    total commander file manager
    customize the button bar
    total commander file manager
    calculate file/folder sizes

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    XPlorer

    Requirements: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, 2003 or Vista
    Download: http://guti.webcindario.com/static.php?page=XPlorer (scroll to download section)
    Features:

  • True multitabbed interface with independent combo, tree and list for each tab.
  • Blazing fast program execution.
  • Small footprint, can be run from floppy disks, USB devices, hard disks, …
  • Quick startup time.
  • High productive interface, almost every command is accessible optionally by keyboard.
  • Internal file viewer.
  • Internal file editor.
  • File toucher.
  • Command prompt here feature.
  • Split files in fragments.
  • Join fragment files.
  • Clean unneeded files.
  • Select files by wildcard selection.
  • Show files by filter.
  • Thoughts:
    Arguably the most Windows Explorer-like of all the reviewed File Managers, XPlorer is certainly better than the default Windows Explorer. Here’s my only real complaint - when you delete a file, it remains ‘visible’ in the list of files until you refresh the screen. And you can only refresh by hitting F5 on your keyboard (no right-click, no Edit > Refresh etc). That one annoying ‘feature’ is enough for me not to use it (I replicated this problem on 3 different Windows XP machines). If that kind of thing doesn’t bother you, by all means check this one out because it’s not bad otherwise.

    Screenshots:

    XPlorer
    default view
    XPlorer
    right-click options
    XPlorer
    Xplorer options
    XPlorer
    File list

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    xplorer²

    Requirements: Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003
    Download: http://zabkat.com/x2down.htm
    Homepage: http://zabkat.com
    Features:

  • Shell namespace explorer
  • Tabbed dual-pane interface
  • Instant preview of files
  • Browsing flexibility
  • View & edit text files
  • Extended file information
  • Search for files everywhere, using arbitrary criteria
  • Find text within office, Adobe PDF and other documents
  • Manage files from many folders simultaneously
  • Compare and synchronize folders
  • Discover and cleanup duplicate files
  • Execute DOS commands and scripts
  • Customizable user interface
  • Help and assistance where you need it
  • Individual folder settings
  • Visual filters and selection engine
  • Advanced file management
  • Robust file transfers
  • Throughts:
    The ability to search for files everywhere, with Omni-Finder, is actually very cool/powerful. The built-in Help is very useful, as it explains all of the features (and how to use them) clearly, with illustrations. At first glance xplorer² appears fairly average, digging deeper shows it to be a powerful File Manager.

    Screenshots:

    xplorer2
    default view
    xplorer2
    preview window
    xplorer2
    Tools list
    xplorer2
    System navigation
    xplorer2
    Commands via a container

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    XYplorer

    Requirements: Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000, XP or Vista
    Download: http://www.xyplorer.com/download.htm
    Homepage: http://www.xyplorer.com/index.htm/

    Features:

  • Tabbed Browsing
  • Searches in Tabs
  • The Address Bar accepts not just folders, but also files, URLs, and search terms
  • The Tree and List offer a suite of (partly revolutionary) highlighting options to increase visual grip.
  • Catalog: Your favorite locations reside deep down in some heavily nested structures? Lift them to the surface!
  • Panel: The hideable tabbed panel at the bottom provides quick access to information (file properties and previews) and action (Find Files, Reports).
  • Find Files: XYplorer is a file manager featuring a high-end search engine
  • Save your current search settings to a template for later re-use. Very handy with complex search patterns or distributed search locations.
  • New in 5.20 Breadcrumb: Ctrl+Backspace will pop up the coolest breadcrumb you can get. It takes no screen space, is 100% keyboard-driven, and takes you up and down relative to your current location.
  • New in 5.20 Drop-Text-To-File: You can drag & drop a selectable text or data chunk from any other application onto a folder in XYplorer, where it will be automatically converted into a *.txt-file or an *.rtf file, depending on the content.
  • My Network Places, Server Management: Network servers are internally stored and remembered between sessions!
  • Instant Preview of image (incl. PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, ICO and many more, using high-quality resampling for shrinking/zooming), audio, and video files (displaying detailed media information).
  • Thumbnails of image files can be shown right in the details view, introducing the unique “Mouse Down Blow Up” functionality.
  • Instant Preview of installed and uninstalled TrueType and Type-1 font files (displaying detailed font information).
  • Instant Preview of Office files, and of HTML, MHT, PHP files (including configurable server mappings) with printing option.
  • larger list of features here
  • Thoughts:
    Wow. It only took a couple of minutes of looking around to see some features that I’d never seen before (drop text to file, ctrl+backspace breadcrumb) - and some that I’ve seen before but never this detailed (see the “Rename Special” screenshot below). If you click and hold the left mouse button on an image (in the Preview area) it enlarges until you release the mouse button. Very cool. XYplorer appears to have a slighly larger memory-footprint than Directory Opus (the only other Explorer-style file manager that I gave 4 stars), but it is less expensive.

    Screenshots:

    XYplorer file manager
    default view
    XYplorer file manager
    Rename special
    XYplorer file manager
    hover info
    XYplorer file manager
    Tools menu
    XYplorer file manager
    XYplorer prefs
    XYplorer file manager
    customize the Toolbar

    If you’re looking for even more, I’ve done another 10 Windows Explorer reviews/overviews.