A few wishes (but otherwise an excellent program)

[Zigo]

I have only just discovered this program but wish I'd found it much sooner. It's fantastic! I'd class myself as a power user, so I love having so much more power and flexibility with how I work. Major credit to everyone involved

Having played with it for a few days, I have a few niggles/queries though (apologies if these have already been covered elsewhere, I've not searched the forum):

1. With "History without duplicates" ticked and "History per tab" ticked, when I right click the Back/Forward buttons, the history is not consistent with the actual history for that tab. The drop downs for each Back and Forward button are correct though. I like the right click as a way to see where I currently am in the history list, and allows to go either forward or back in the next click. Also it's a much bigger target to aim at.

2. If multiple files are selected, when navigating away and then back to the location with the multiple selection, the selection is lost. I notice Windows 7 (and Vista?) Explorer has lost this ability anyway but it was very useful in XP.

3. If in a subfolder, e.g. C:\abc\xyz, and I collapse the C:\abc folder, I am taken straight to C:\abc. This is the behaviour of XP Explorer and earlier. However, Vista and 7 keep you in the C:\abc\xyz folder even though it's no longer visible in the tree. Is there an option to emulate this?

4. The history numbering seems reversed to me. My initial location should be #1, and every subsequent location should be #2, #3 and upwards. However it always shows the latest (most 'forward') location as #1, and increments everything else when you go forward again. Is there an option to allow this to be reversed?

5. I've never liked Explorer's "different view per folder" setting. I like everything to be consistent - that includes the sort order. However, it's possible to have different sort orders for each location (navigating forward to new locations keeps the same order, but going back to previous locations will restore the sort order from that location). Is there a way to set an option like "always use current sort order for every location", which is what happens in XP Explorer?

6. If I'm currently in another program but can see XYplorer behind the current window, if I drag a file from XYplorer to my current program, XYplorer takes the focus on mouse down, which may obscure my other window. Can it be made that the focus is only given on mouse up, as with Explorer?

Also, this is probably unlikely, but is there any way to undo a navigation? One thing that's always annoyed me with Explorer is if I have a sizeable back/forward history and am currently a long way 'back', then accidentally navigate to a different folder, causing me to lose everything 'forward'. XYplorer is understandably the same. It would be nice if it was possible to undo the navigation to restore the history.

Other than those points, I am seriously impressed. I'm just a perfectionist

[admin]

Hi and welcome,

I will come back to your niggles later, just let me ask this first.

I have only just discovered this program but wish I'd found it much sooner. It's fantastic! I'd class myself as a power user...

Where did you learn about XYplorer, and why only now? The app is around for many years, and I try to do my best to spread the word. If you have any tip what I could have done to make you find it earlier, please let me know, thanks!

Don

[Zigo]

Hi Don,

Thanks for the welcome and the rapid reply - it's always good to know the author is an active member of the board

I'm not really sure how I'm not come across XYplorer before. I've tried a number of different Explorer replacement programs in the past, such as xplorer2, ShellLess Explorer, Directory Opus, Ultra Explorer, etc. but there were always so many things I didn't like about them (e.g. much slower than Explorer, or having/missing annoying features, etc.) that I usually just gave up looking and continued using Explorer.

At work I have recently been given a new PC which has Windows 7, so I've been getting used to some of its features/quirks. One thing that annoys me (as has always annoyed me with Explorer) is that the history dropdown doesn't show the full path, so I thought I'd have another search for an Explorer replacement. My Google search was explorer history "full path" "windows 7" dropdown and luckily one of the results was XYplorer, and I've never looked back since!

I don't know what tip I can give you for people to find it easier. I tend to go straight to http://www.download.com to look for programs, and I just did a search for explorer replacement and can't seem to find XYplorer listed anywhere, even though I know it's listed if I search for it explicitly. So maybe it's just a case of what tags you use? However, I just did a Google search for explorer replacement and you're listed 5th so maybe I was just looking in the wrong place

[Jibz]

From an initial read, I'd love 3) and 6) .

[admin]

I don't know what tip I can give you for people to find it easier. I tend to go straight to http://www.download.com to look for programs, and I just did a search for explorer replacement and can't seem to find XYplorer listed anywhere, even though I know it's listed if I search for it explicitly. So maybe it's just a case of what tags you use? However, I just did a Google search for explorer replacement and you're listed 5th so maybe I was just looking in the wrong place

Well, the problem is that enabling keyword search in download.com costs 99 US$ / month. I'm not sure if that's worth it. The search for "explorer replacement" gets over 200 hits, and XYplorer is on top of the list anyway through a google ad.

But, my competitors all seem to pay that price, so... guess I'll do it...

[admin]

2. If multiple files are selected, when navigating away and then back to the location with the multiple selection, the selection is lost. I notice Windows 7 (and Vista?) Explorer has lost this ability anyway but it was very useful in XP.

I cannot see this behavior with the XY Explorer. Just tried it.

But XYplorer does remember selections in tabs (on tab switch away and back).

[admin]

5. I've never liked Explorer's "different view per folder" setting. I like everything to be consistent - that includes the sort order. However, it's possible to have different sort orders for each location (navigating forward to new locations keeps the same order, but going back to previous locations will restore the sort order from that location). Is there a way to set an option like "always use current sort order for every location", which is what happens in XP Explorer?

As long as you stay within one tab, this is the default behavior.

Across tabs this is not possible. It was always the basic rule in XY that tab remember their settings.

You can come nearo to it though if you create a Default Folder View and tick Auto-Save Changes (see shot):

DefaultFolderView.png (11.97 KiB) Viewed 3657 times

But still tabs will overwrite this.

[admin]

1. With "History without duplicates" ticked and "History per tab" ticked, when I right click the Back/Forward buttons, the history is not consistent with the actual history for that tab. The drop downs for each Back and Forward button are correct though. I like the right click as a way to see where I currently am in the history list, and allows to go either forward or back in the next click. Also it's a much bigger target to aim at.

If the buttons behave differently from the dropdowns this is a bug. Is this really true? (No time to test right now.) I wonder why nobody ever reported this. I did not touch that code since over a year ago...

Anybody here who has "History without duplicates" ticked and "History per tab" as well?

[zer0]

Anybody here who has "History without duplicates" ticked and "History per tab" as well?

I have, I have!

[admin]

Anybody here who has "History without duplicates" ticked and "History per tab" as well?

I have, I have!

And do you see that bug?

[admin]

5. I've never liked Explorer's "different view per folder" setting. I like everything to be consistent - that includes the sort order. However, it's possible to have different sort orders for each location (navigating forward to new locations keeps the same order, but going back to previous locations will restore the sort order from that location). Is there a way to set an option like "always use current sort order for every location", which is what happens in XP Explorer?

A thought about it and started to like the idea. So I added a tweak (next beta version):
RetainListSettingsAcrossTabs

(How to tweak: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3543)

If it's good I will elevate the setting to UI level.

[zer0]

Anybody here who has "History without duplicates" ticked and "History per tab" as well?

I have, I have!

And do you see that bug?

If it is a bug that RMB context menu list is not the same as that of a drop-down for the same button for the same tab, then yes -- I see that bug.

[admin]

Anybody here who has "History without duplicates" ticked and "History per tab" as well?

I have, I have!

And do you see that bug?

If it is a bug that RMB context menu list is not the same as that of a drop-down for the same button for the same tab, then yes -- I see that bug.

No, that is normal.

I think Zigo should explain again what he thinks is wrong here.

[Zigo]

2. If multiple files are selected, when navigating away and then back to the location with the multiple selection, the selection is lost. I notice Windows 7 (and Vista?) Explorer has lost this ability anyway but it was very useful in XP.

I cannot see this behavior with the XY Explorer. Just tried it.

But XYplorer does remember selections in tabs (on tab switch away and back).

I just tried it again to make sure, and it still loses the selection.

For 99% of the time I only have one tab open - I still like to have separate windows for separate locations (this is mostly helpful for keeping non-related work stuff separate from each other)

It's easy to replicate - select more than 1 file, go to a new location, then go back. The selection is lost, and you are just left with the focus around one of the files (even that isn't selected)

[admin]

2. If multiple files are selected, when navigating away and then back to the location with the multiple selection, the selection is lost. I notice Windows 7 (and Vista?) Explorer has lost this ability anyway but it was very useful in XP.

I cannot see this behavior with the XY Explorer. Just tried it.

But XYplorer does remember selections in tabs (on tab switch away and back).

I just tried it again to make sure, and it still loses the selection.

For 99% of the time I only have one tab open - I still like to have separate windows for separate locations (this is mostly helpful for keeping non-related work stuff separate from each other)

It's easy to replicate - select more than 1 file, go to a new location, then go back. The selection is lost, and you are just left with the focus around one of the files (even that isn't selected)

Yes, that why I added "on tab switch away and back" = only if you open another tab and then come back to the first tab, the selections in the first tab are remembered.