somewhat o-t, alternate file manager/shell winxp? Options

[trng]

hi everyone.
first post, although i am a daily lurker and long time foobar user.

sorry about the off-topic post.

i am wondering if anyone on the boards have any recommendations
for an alternate file manager for windows xp, or any comments or suggestion
for an alternate shell, preferably one with very low resource requirements.

i am just sort of guessing that a group of people who have
such obvious taste and dedication to such a great soft such as fb-
might have some good opinions re: some other useful programs.


thanks in adv and really, thanks to all active posters...
you all have helped me with fb issues on a regular basis.


wm

This post has been edited by trng: Oct 11 2003, 18:20

[Raymond]

Total Commander

It's the best of all file managers I've ever tried.

[nemesis1]

totally agree with that.
Been using Total Commander since '96, simply one of the greatest must-have utils around... first thing I always install on fresh windows install, and I drag it with me everywhere I go

[bexx]

Replacement shell I use blackbox for windows, right now its using 10.3MB of mem and 5.4MB of VM according to task manager

litestep was nice, blackbox is more simple which is all i care about

Fileexplorer I use 2xplorer / xplorer^2 which is still alpha but works fine

never tried totalcommand but hear it is good

[mtm]

Total Commander is not bad at all, but I prefer FAR Manager.

It's excellent when it comes to command line operations, as it launches command line utils exactly like good old NC - in the same DOS window and you can use ctrl+o to check the output etc. Besides, it looks much cleaner and therefore for me is faster to use. It supports plugins, has built-in FTP client and a lot of nice features, majority of them similar to those from TC, but some really useful options you won't find in TC.

I like FAR much better than TC. It just perfectly suits my needs as a file manager. If I had to briefly decribe it, I'd say it's a great mixture of Norton Commander, Total Commander and DOS Navigator. Give it a try - it's really worth it.

FAR Manager webpage

[LIF]

"Far Manager's" interface remembers me the old RAR v1.53 for DOS.
BTW, I still have it installed, because its very good to navigate folders and "watch" inside binaries as well.

[hödyr]

Alternate Shells: www.litestep.net www.bb4win.org

[Tarod]

hi there!

For file manager I recommend Total Commander, but if you don't mind console mode use FAR Manager, it's better.

As a shell replacement I recommend without doubt Aston Shell, small memory footprint and eye candy -7 Mbs. in my machine with my current theme.

Cheers.

[mtm]

"Far Manager's" interface remembers me the old RAR v1.53 for DOS. BTW, I still have it installed, because its very good to navigate folders and "watch" inside binaries as well.

Ah, good old DOS days...

LIF, you could try FAR - it can browse the contents of a lot of archive formats and decompress them, if you use some external programs. 7-Zip has a very good plugin for that task. BTW, check the original creator of RAR and FAR.

[Raymond]

It ... majority of them similar to those from TC, but some really useful options you won't find in TC.

hi, mtm

I never try FAR before. Could you pls give me some ideas about its advantages over Total Commander? Maybe I will try it later...

[mtm]

Let's see... You may or may not find these things useful enough to try FAR. For me however, they are essential, as they speed up things a lot and are simply more comfortable to use. Again, for me - they are.


Advantages over TC (IMVHO):

- ability to run console utils without any hassle (this is absolutely essential for me)

TC launches them in separate DOS window, which disappears when the program ends and you can't even check what it complains about. You can't change that without some windows tricks.

- it's more comfortable for me

You can open several view and edit windows and switch between them and the file panel window using ctrl+tab. Impossible under TC - you get several open windows and switch using alt+tab, carefully avoiding other programs. I usually have at least five various windows open besides file manager, so TC's behaviour irks me a lot.

- you can bind a command to a hotkey and store it in user menu (under F2)

Just like in NC or DN, you can bind commands to hotkeys. For example, I have the command opening WinRAR under W and the command opening explorer window with the contents of current directory under A. So, instead of typing every time 'start .' or going up to the beginning of the directory, (which requires stopping the thing you are doing ATM, which is often very annoying), placing the cursor on '..' and hitting 'shift+enter' (possible under FAR, not possible under TC anyway), I just press F2 and then A and I have the window I wanted in front of me and I don't have to stop browsing the directory under FAR to achieve it. TC has similar option for opening the current directory, but it's not that convenient. Again, when I want WinRAR, I press F2 and W, and so on. It's particularly useful when you're in the middle of writing a long set of commands for mppdec32 for example. I don't have to type 'start .' and lose what I already wrote, I just press two keys.

- a lot of keyboard shortcuts

TC uses only F3-F8 range, while FAR uses F1-F12, and combined with alt, shift, ctrl or their combination, they can give you different options. TC is s bit limited here.

- ability to quickly switch between character tables in viewer and editor windows, and you can install different tables for FAR

- for me, FAR interface is cleaner and I don't have to concentrate to find something - as a bonus, I have the file size, free space on the disc and the space taken by all of the files in current directory displayed in the same part of the screen, which is sometimes way more comfortable

- built in process manager and print manager

- it's able to remember the position inside viewed or edited file - you can resume reading or editing 250 kB text file in the same place where you left last time without searching for that darn location in the text

- folder shortcuts - you can go to the specified folder without browsing through dozen of directories

- sort groups - I have them defined the way I see executables on top, then go archives and then the rest of the files. Finding the file responsible for launching a program is fast

- mark the file, place the cursor on the folder (folder in the same panel) you want it inside, F6, shift+enter, enter - it's very fast and convenient (the same applies to renaming the files, for example when you want to rename the subtitles file for your AVI - just F6 and then shift+enter and the only thing left to do is to change the extension)


These particular things, along with FAR's look, make me really love FAR and really don't like TC.

FAR has its disadvantages, for example it can't create or verify sfv and md5 checksums, has a bit more primitive FTP client, can't do copying in the background and cannot decode base64/uue binaries, but for checksums you can get separate util and any decent nntp client decodes binaries by itself. As for background copying, you can always launch the second copy of FAR.

For me, FAR is much better file manager, but it's just different and harder to learn and configure the way you want. Once you're done with it, it's a tool you can't live without. Or at least I can't.

Give it a try - it's shareware.


P.S. Have you ever tried to make backup of emule.exe and emule.tmpl at once ? Under FAR you can use ** mask, which means everything, including any amount of dots in the name, so I just mark the files, press F6, type **.bak and I get emule.exe.bak and emule.tmpl.bak. You can't do that under TC, or at least I haven't found the way and have to rename them separately. Besides, FAR can remember your masks, so next time you just press * and you have the full mask. You can also press ctrl+down and browse the list

There's a lot of similar small things you find in FAR and you don't in TC. Combined, they make better file manager than TC - or at least better for command line weirdos.

OK, I'm gonna finish this before all TC users lynch me.

Regards,
MTM

[Raymond]

Thx a lot mtm, for your detail reply.
Though it seems TC also has some of the feathers you've mentioned in FAR, I think I should take a time to try FAR before I say more.
I will try FAR, and your post is a nice cue for it, thx again.

[Krest]

Best (IMO) functionality-wise shell replacement: Opus Magellan,unfortunately it's not free.

[LPTB]

P.S. Have you ever tried to make backup of emule.exe and emule.tmpl at once ? Under FAR you can use ** ... [snip]

Actually you can do it with TC, to copy files and give them a different extension just select the files, press f5, you'll get [path]\*.* just put [path]\*.*.bak or however else you want to mangle the files (it's not limited to extension only).

[Tarod]

Best (IMO) functionality-wise shell replacement: Opus Magellan,unfortunately it's not free.

Just two points:

1. Is not a shell replacement. Just an Explorer replacement.
2. Correct name is Enriva Magellan because Opus Magellan was the explorer for Amiga back in the '90s.

Cheers.

[Krest]

Just two points:

1. Is not a shell replacement. Just an Explorer replacement.
2. Correct name is Enriva Magellan because Opus Magellan was the explorer for Amiga back in the '90s.

Cheers.

1.You're right on that.
2.Could be,I haven't used it for a long time now but you can google it as "opus magellan".Besides I just switched to pc from amiga and i'm used to call it Opus

[Gecko]

Imho best file manager is Servant Salamander. My only gripe is the lacking support of Rar 3.0 archives in version 2.0. Version 2.5 is in the works (beta available but expires at a given date). Not free unfortunately. 20 US Dollars for the single license.

http://www.altap.cz/

[Xenno]

Best? File Manager (yes...really)

If you have a NT4 (maybe 3.51) disk laying around, then extract winfile.cnt, winfile.exe, winfile.hlp. Place them in your winnt dir. Runs fine under W2k and should under XP as well.

Alright..maybe not the best but it loads fast and is laid out well. Suitable for 99% of the things I want to do with files.

xen-uno

[mtm]

Actually you can do it with TC (...)

Thanks, I haven't thought of that.

I use TC only when I work with my university's computers. I'm somewhat ashamed - it was an obvious possibility and I even use similar masks sometimes...

This post has been edited by mtm: Oct 13 2003, 23:32