15 Windows Explorer alternatives compared and reviewed

zridling · Post by **zridling** » 14 Oct 2006 06:26

XYplorer is included in this casual review of fifteen Explorer alternatives at the Simplehelp site:
http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/10/11/10 ... -reviewed/

"Wow. It only took a couple of minutes of looking around to see some features that I’d never seen before (drop text to file, ctrl+backspace breadcrumb) - and some that I’ve seen before but never this detailed (see the 'Rename Special' screenshot below). If you click and hold the left mouse button on an image (in the Preview area) it enlarges until you release the mouse button. Very cool...."

JustinF · Post by **JustinF** » 14 Oct 2006 20:28

Yep. There aren't any other file managers in that review that get higher marks than XY!

Post by **admin** » 15 Oct 2006 08:29

JustinF wrote:Yep. There aren't any other file managers in that review that get higher marks than XY!

Yep, and all the others apart from DOpus are dual-pane. Recently I get the impression that if I would do dual-pane I would be king... but I'm too proud.
I should release a T-shirt edition "XYplorer -- single pane and proud!".

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 15 Oct 2006 10:18

admin wrote:Recently I get the impression that if I would do dual-pane I would be king... but I'm too proud.

Either that, or maybe a bit stubborn?

It's the main reason I still have to use another file manager on occasion, when I really need to see both folders at same time and thus be able to do better manual sync or cleanup...

Update : Anyway, I posted a couple of comments on the Simplehelp.Net blog about XY, including this:

The one feature that I needed was the ability to search for files that were modified during a selected time of day, like the prior 15 minutes. I was directed to XYplorer via another forum back in Jan 2006, and have been hooked ever since! It has built-in ability to do this easily, and also allows one to show the age of files in list mode, so locating files that are more than, for example, 45 days old is a breeze!

I’ve been dealing with PC’s for many years and have never found a shareware developer who is as responsive to user feedback and needs as this author is! You’d sometimes think it was a team of developers but it’s not…he’s just that quick and talented!

zridling · Post by **zridling** » 20 Oct 2006 21:44

If for no other reason, the advantage of single-pane is screen space. Although ExplorerPlus is dual-pane, it provides an easy, left-handed keyboard shortcut (CTRL+W) for switching back and forth between your last two drives, whatever they were, or you could define two specific drives, such as C and D as the default toggle/switch. I defined the same for Directory Opus because I never used its dual-pane feature — if I had more than a very few files, I couldn't keep up anyway, much like renaming files one-by-one, or using a utility like Bulk Rename Utility to do it in one shot. Better to let the tool do the job for me.

While XYplorer can easily perform the same drive-switching function within its Tabs feature, I'd still love to see such a keyboard shortcut added.

Post by **admin** » 20 Oct 2006 22:05

zridling wrote:If for no other reason, the advantage of single-pane is screen space. Although ExplorerPlus is dual-pane, it provides an easy, left-handed keyboard shortcut (CTRL+W) for switching back and forth between your last two drives, whatever they were, or you could define two specific drives, such as C and D as the default toggle/switch. I defined the same for Directory Opus because I never used its dual-pane feature — if I had more than a very few files, I couldn't keep up anyway, much like renaming files one-by-one, or using a utility like Bulk Rename Utility to do it in one shot. Better to let the tool do the job for me.

While XYplorer can easily perform the same drive-switching function within its Tabs feature, I'd still love to see such a keyboard shortcut added.

So you never tried F7??

See menu Go|Previous Location... you'll probably like it.

Additionally I plan to add "Go to last target", which will carry the paranoid to the place they just copied/moved some files to, to check personally whether the files arrived in a good condition.

zridling · Post by **zridling** » 20 Oct 2006 23:29

[F7]: Only when I know that my last location was the other drive. Man, I'm all over the place. Lately I've used CTRL+Backspace more than anything for that purpose.

Go to last target? Brilliant! (sounding like a popular beer commercial duo)

Post by **admin** » 21 Oct 2006 07:42

zridling wrote:[F7]: Only when I know that my last location was the other drive. Man, I'm all over the place. Lately I've used CTRL+Backspace more than anything for that purpose.

So you really want to go to the root of the previously used drive? But CTRL+Backspace does not help you here...

(now less sounding like a popular beer commercial duo)

lukescammell · Post by **lukescammell** » 21 Oct 2006 16:45

Would it be possible to assign key shortcuts to specific tabs once the key configs thingy's sorted? Perhaps even have the ability to assign a shortcut that can take you to a specific tab and it's home zone (if specified).