From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands

Today, a bit of news that keeps with the general theme of the site, customizing the Windows experience!  Here we customize everything from the UI skin to desktop icons and often complete shell replacements.  We animate our wallpapers, gadgetize or screens and trick out our media players.  In part we do it for the fun factor, and sometimes we even do it for usability and functionality.  One area of Windows though is often left completely untouched by the hand of customization:

Windows Explorer.

Yes, that file manager that has stubbornly followed us around from Windows version to Windows version.  It's basic by most standards, and power users who are familiar with other operating systems are often left frustrated by the lack of options and power.  Last week, DownloadSquad rounded up five of their favorite Windows Explorer replacement programs.  So if you're feeling brave and want to get more out of your file browsing experience, grab a few and try them out.  It's important to note that the programs listed are for Windows XP users only.  It will likely be some time before people figure out how to replace Explorer in Vista.


Comments (Page 2)
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on May 16, 2007
I've allways reverted back to using the Explorer Shell. All of the Shell replacements I've tried have turned out to lack some of the useful features the explorer shell offers.
on May 16, 2007
I prefer Directory Opus, especially with the update to v9.
on May 16, 2007
I've always used Xplorer2.... however the Vista integration is not so great. Had a very interesting adventure with directory renaming / virtualized files (which x2 is not aware of apparently). Of course, that led to my learning all about file virtualization in Vista (which is a b____h in some cases)...

Looking for a replacement that has better Vista integration though...


Okay, so I looked at some of those.

XYPlorer: No split view??!? I thought that feature was ubiquitous to explorer replacements. No good.

Windows File Explorer: Nice, simple, has split view. However, file context menu comes up blank - with default vista Aero, no wb applied. No good.

Universal Explorer: Look/Feel of a win98 app, and doesn't theme with windowblinds. It does have a split view, though it wasn't readily apparent how to enable it, and I had to move around the preview pane which took up half the screen initially. Other than that, looks promising, though as with all the others, some vista integration is still missing.

ExplorerXP: Doesn't appear to have split view. Yes, I'm demanding that way. It does use OS-Native controls apparently, which seems to be out of fashion with file managers.

I think I'm gonna have to keep looking.



Honestly? I would think about buying Universal Explorer - EXCEPT for the fact that it has not been updated since February 2004.... that falls under "dead product" category to me, and I won't pay $40 for a simple windows utility (which is what it is) when I know there will be Zero support. If it were for sale in the retail channel, it would've been on the bargain bin by now.
on May 17, 2007
For those who haven't given Directory Opus 9 a try, do it. Do it right now. The Vista support and USB option is fantastic. If there's something you don't like about DO9, chances are you can change it to fit your needs or preferences. It is very customizable.

I will warn you though. There is a bit of a learning curve to really make use of all of it's features. Although, with the new version, the developers have done a great job with improving their user guide and it also has a sweet feature of being able to quickly search the Preferences to find what you are looking for. There is a very active community forum to help you out and the developers respond very quickly to any support requests. Certainly worth checking out...
on May 17, 2007
Explorer Plus is a replacement program for Windows Explorer. The interface is

similar to Windows Explorer, so you do not have to learn a totally new

interface. But unlike the Windows Explorer, it allows you to browse multiple

folders from a tabbed interface.

Home: http://www.chilihotsoft.com/explorer_plus/
Download: http://www.chilihotsoft.com/explorer_plus/explorerplussetup.exe
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