Replace Windows Explorer with a free, feature-rich file manager

Hi Bill. You may wish to try out Organyze 2.1, which we have recently launched. Organyze is a desktop-based software package that does not ask users to replace Windows Explorer (people have got so used to using it) but enhances the power of Windows, helps you organize all your content (all formats), and makes finding files very, very easy. The package includes a quick search and more advanced and nuanced ways of searching, all very easy to use. You can use Organyze to bookmark, label and add comments to files, folders and emails in MS Outlook. Use it in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and MS Outlook), Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer. You can attach multiple tags to many files simultaneously, making tagging very easy. In IE, you can use Organyze to attach tags (bookmarks, multiple labels and comments) to html pages while you are saving them in your machine! You can even select a part of the content of a page and save only that with the tags! Get single flat lists of files from multiple locations in different folders, drives and machines to make housekeeping easy; and see details like labels and comments without opening files. Organyze also helps you find duplicate files in your machine, even when the file names are different. See more details at www.organyze.com. You can see a demo, read the User's Guide, and also get a free trial copy. An enterprise edition is also available (details will be up on the website by the second week of December).

UltrExplorer has some really nice features i like in a tabbed file browser. I can set up favorites, the right click menu acts the same as in FileExplorer, which Cubic Explorer has a problem with, and like in Win7, I can open a cmd window right there where i am looking.

As a Sysadmin & server admin one of the important things I look for in a file manager is to easily see the total size of files contained in a folder. Does anyone have experience with these 5 to offer an opinion on which does this best.

Some time back, I used a free version of Avanquest's Power Desk. As it was trialware, it couldn't be transferred, so I went ahead and bought it. It's a real toolbox, and it normally works in two-pane mode. It's sort of what the old Norton Commander might have been, had it been written for modern Windows instead of old DOS. Viewers, compression, ftp client, and, of course, file management.

It's free and comes as part of Kubuntu. Especially the split panes aspect. Ah, all these tools are for Microsoft Operating systems! Oh, Dear.

When it comes to tools, I just can't resist. I downloaded 3 of the 5 to evaluate/play with. At first glance they look like nice tools and the price is right!

Try MultiCommander (http://multicommander.com/), it has 32-bit & 64-bit version

Great article Bill, thank you for the info and the giggle at the end. Is it your accent or are you mispronouncing the name to leave off the final R on Explorer? It sounds like Explore but of course no TR Ninja would make THAT mistake. My Aussie accent would sound comical to you but you would clearly hear 'Explorah' around the Melbourne offices. Keep up the great work and dont forget to include the blooper reels. Can you take us behind the green screen someday around the office there? Fly throughs of the workstations, tech toys and wildlife at the office could reveal some interesting TR Ninja characteristics.

1. Most of the noises you reference in your videos don't actually come through on the mic. 2. More than any of the other videos I've seen, your accent did come through quite a bit this time. :)

Strange Microsoft hasn't picked up the dual panel and other qualities of this old dos-program, but left that to Windows-versions of it like WindowsCommander.

"...and make them bow down!". Bill I needed a good laugh today. Thanks.

(FWIW)(IMHO) Windows Explorer has been an increasingly disappointing (Are you listening, Microsoft?) facet of Windows Vista up to and including Win 8 Dev. Any time I have a chance to input to MS, I ask for a 'Switch' so that one can go back and forth between Airhead and Tech Mode as you can (a little bit) in the Control Panel. Just one of the many reasons I find myself more frequently using a Linux product.

Just refresh your screen again if it doesn't load. Also, you can download it here: http://dw.com.com/redir/?destUrl=http%3A//i.bnet.com/video/itunes/dojo_180_sd_DL.m4v&oid=oid&ontId=13625&siteId=11&edId=2&asid=6327322&pid=-1&ptid=2100&astId=31&ltype=dl_dlnow

I could not get the video to play on 3 Browsers Firefox 8, explorer 9, & Google

Over the years I have tried almost everything out there and I discovered that Free Commander EX has more capability and customization than everything else put together. Note, there is a standard version and an experimental version(EX) and both are free. I use the EX version by choice because it has a few extra capabilities that I use every day. The downside is that updates are far between, but given the capability it currently has that is not a problem for me. I can not understand why FC doesn't show up in these comparison articles more often. In my opinion whoever put this code together is on the bleeding edge. Experimental Version is here > http://www.freecommander.com/fc_beta_en.htm BTW, I would pay good $ to have free Commander available in Linux. Give it a shot if file management is important to you!

Agree fully with Isadowski

I tried FireFox 8 and IE8 under Win7 - no go.

There are 5 explorer options previewed in the video not 4 as indicated in the video (see 4. Q-Dir). Sorry, I just had to point that out, my pocket protector made me do it.

TotalCommander rocks!

Another excellent Windows Explorer Alternative is: "Directory Opus" that works wonders for me.

During this week's TR Dojo episode, I go over five, feature-rich file managers that can replace Windows Explorer. Check out the video, and then let me know if you normally stick to built-in Windows tools or regularly use third-party tools? http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/itdojo/replace-windows-explorer-with-a-free-feature-rich-file-manager/3050