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