Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Windows Explorer replacement replacement

I’m not a big fan of the default Windows Explorer file manager.  I always want to see the tree view, but you always have to open it manually.  I like being able to see my source and destination folders in one window (dual-pane), but Explorer makes you use the tree view or open two windows.  There are a number of other little features it could use (tabs, favorites/bookmarks, etc).  Things are better if you move up to Vista or Windows 7, but that’s not an option for me.
Thankfully, there is no shortage of Explorer replacements, including:
  • Xplorer2 Lite
  • Nomad.NET
  • FreeCommander
  • TotalCommander
  • FARCommander
etc, etc, the list goes on.  Most of these are free although some are lite versions of commercial products.
I haven’t been completely happy with any of the replacements I tried.  Most were overly complicated.  Whatever a replacement did, for me it had to resemble the original explorer enough that I might recommend it to less technical friends.  Many of them changed the way things worked enough that they no longer worked the same way as exploreer for, say, file selection.  That’s a no-go.
I had finally settled on Xplorer2 Lite but I wasn’t completely happy.  It had a good tree view, panes, tabs, file preview and a reasonable interface.  However, there were always a number of nag screens and teasers about the commercial version.  It worked for me for a long time, but the kicker was finally the fact that switching between the panes and tree view was just annoying.  The implementation only required a couple extra clicks, but it’s something you do so frequently that it gets on your nerves.
I finally gave UltraExplorer a good once-over.  I believe I had tossed it before because of a cluttered interface.  While it is still cluttered, it’s the last kid on the block, so I’m willing to deal with that if it works more smoothly.  Fortunately it does.  After rooting through the options, I have a good dual-pane manager set up the way I like it.  The tree view tracks that panes, the back button works when I’m in the tree view, and it has a good command line window and drop stack integrated in.  Although the UI is slow sometimes on my machine, and the preview mode is fairly worthless, it’s replaced Xplorer2 as my preferred explorer replacement.