

It’s been around since 2008 and the last update was back in 2013. This program has a tabbed interface though, so instead of several windows open you just switch tabs. FreeCommander XE does have a 64-bit version but it’s only available to download for people who donate to the project.Įxplorer++ is not a dual pane file manager but instead behaves much like Windows Explorer by having one file and folder view at a time. File split/join and FTP, which were in the old version, are missing in XE although FTP has been added in a recent beta. One disappointment is it doesn’t show hidden and system files out of the box, which the old version does. There’s also plenty of features including create and verify MD5 hashes, attributes and timestamp editor, archiver, secure file wiper, batch file renamer, file or folder compare, advanced search, file synchronizer, screenshot tool, create a folder/file list text file, favorite locations and hex/text/image viewer, and a Win+E keyboard shortcut to replace Windows Explorer’s default shortcut. The 2009 version is still available for download if you prefer as it’s still a very capable program.įreeCommander XE has a number of configuration options to tailor the interface to your liking with the option to switch between single or dual pane layouts and show folder sizes. The old version has now been superseded by the new and improved FreeCommander XE. That’s simply because it was one of very few file managers that would show hidden and system files by default. The old FreeCommander 2009 used to be one of our go to tools when it came to fixing problems like files being hidden by a virus infection. Here we list 8 free portable file managers that you can use anywhere, even on a USB flash drive. Usually a file manager will be either like an enhanced version of Explorer or a Commander type program with fixed panes. Third party file managers have been around for decades and many are far better at file management than Windows Explorer. There are tools around that can add tabs to Explorer, but it still falls short elsewhere. Something like a web browser shows it’s efficient to use tabs so you can quickly switch between locations. One drawback of Explorer is you need to have floating windows for each separate directory you want to work with. If you are someone that does a lot of file management and copies, moves, renames or deletes files quite often, you will no doubt find Explorer severely lacking in several areas.


But in the end, Explorer still pretty much looks and works the same as it’s always done. In Windows 8 the ribbon interface was introduced in Explorer which did help make file operations somewhat easier, along with a pause option for file copying. Windows File Explorer is not that different now to what it was in the days of Windows XP or even 98. One area of Microsoft Windows that really hasn’t changed that much over the years is file management.
