[APG Public List] File manager

[LBoswell]

Thanks to all who responded on and off list. Great list Ray, I'm currently 
trying something called xplorer (which sounds like the xyploer in your 
list).  Opens a couple of panes which is a useful feature, options are 
available in a better toolbar, but I'm going to try some of the others that 
you have listed.

I just find the regular windows explorer (the file manager, not the browser 
for those who mentioned browsers) to be 'clunky', and limited as to options. 
Particularly the search feature.

I started looking for an article that I wanted to review, on the computer in 
pdf form, but had forgotten the exact title.  Have so many pdf articles and 
documents literally 'deposited' here and there so decided to catalog them 
more efficiently. So that sent me looking for a better file manager than 
windows offers.

trying a different pdf reader (Foxit) too

Larry
Larry Boswell BA, PLCGS
www.TheBackstairs.com
http://thebackstairs.com/blog/
"Historical & Genealogical Research Services"
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
laboswell at rogers.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ray Beere Johnson II
  To: LBoswell ; APG Posting
  Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 5:26 PM
  Subject: Re: [APG Public List] File manager


  Larry;
       Here are several recommendations, with a few caveats.
       First, the definition of "good" software depends on the user. The 
only way to find a file manager, or any other tool, that works for you is to 
try a few out.
       Second, sorry, but I don't have time to pull all the URLs for these. 
In most cases, Googling should get you to the download you want quickly 
enough. (I _do_ recommend, for reasons of security, that you seek out the 
author's site or a download site you know and trust - some download sites 
can be real traps.) If you have a lot of trouble finding any one of these, 
get back to me and I'll see if I can find you a link.
       These are file managers I have installed on my own system, that I've 
kept around for one reason or another. And I've added notes so you can get 
some idea what they're like. Every one has little quirks or capabilities 
that some users love and others hate. I can't hope to list all of those 
(which ones easily detect removable drives inserted after they are open, for 
example) - you'll just have to see what works for you.

       Explorer++ - freeware, and an interesting idea in many ways, but 
frustrating for some because every feature has not been fully implemented 
yet. I still find it useful, but your mileage may vary.

       tabbyFile - freeware, no longer supported, this might be a bit hard 
to find. However, I include it because it is a beautiful, simple, _tabbed_ 
(think Firefox or Chrome, only in a file manager) file manager. It lacks a 
lot of the "power features" hackers love, but if you don't need support for 
viewing ten million different file formats or other bells and whistles, the 
simplicity makes it very easy to learn.

       UltraExplorer - freeware, a reasonable balance between simple and 
powerful and a decent replacement for many users.

       Double Commander - freeware - this is a double paned file manager 
with some nice features - but it is an _alpha build_. I haven't had any 
serious problems with it, but you might want to steer clear of this.

       Nomad.NET - freeware, requires the MS dot NET framework to work. A 
pretty decent replacement, but may slow down your system...

       SE-Explorer - freeware, this one is new, and _very_ intriguing, but I 
haven't had the time to play with it much yet, so all I can say is it very 
much seems worth a careful review, to me at least.

       ExplorerXP - freeware, another fairly basic but nice replacement file 
manager.

       FreeCommander - liteware (free, but a light version of a pay product, 
like xplorer2), another basic option to play around with.

       XYPlorer - liteware, a bit old in the teeth, but still has some nice 
things to recommend it. You can create sets of tabs to open as a set, for 
example, which can be nice if you habitually move files between certain 
directories.

       Personally, for most everyday uses, I really like tabbyFile, and just 
wish it was being maintained. Still, I doubt there are many folks out there 
actively seeking exploits in it...
       Of course, all this comes from someone who has lately taken an 
interest in UI (user interface) issues - and wishes they had the coding 
chops to complete and release an entirely different type of OS...

                              Ray Beere Johnson II


  --- On Sat, 3/13/10, LBoswell <laboswell at rogers.com> wrote:

  > Anyone recommend a good replacement for Windows Explorer (file manager
  > software, prefer freeware)?



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: ../attachments/20100314/f7ac7218/attachment.htm