5 Free Windows Explorer Add-ons to Increase Productivity

I love using Windows, but I’m not a big fan of Windows Explorer. It’s one of the most used features of Windows, but it’s not all that powerful and it has a lot of small annoyances.

For example, if you’ve ever tried to copy or move a large number of files, you’ve probably had to sit there and watch the whole process because you’ll get about a hundred pop up message during the process about read-only files, system files, etc, etc.

And if the system runs into a file that is being used by a Windows process, it will simply end the entire copying/moving process, leaving you to figure out what the heck was actually moved and what wasn’t! In this day in age, you should not have to deal with such issues.

Luckily, there are some freeware apps that you can use to fill the gaps in Windows Explorer and make your life easier. In this article, I will go through four apps that I like to use.

TeraCopy

TeraCopy is simply an awesome program! It is the best program to use if you want to copy files in Windows. It’s faster and you don’t get a lot of annoying pop up messages during the process.

You can also pause and resume file transfers, which is great if you need to do something else on the disk in-between a large copy/move process. If it hits a file in use or corrupt file, it will simply skip  it over and then give you a list of files afterwards.

Lastly, it supports Windows 7 and 64-bit operating systems! Definitely worth checking out.

File Synchronizer

With home networks becoming more prevalent, there are many times when I want to synchronize two folders without having to do it manually.

File Synchronizer is a free program that lets you keep folders in sync easily. If you have a folder with tons of sub-folders and you want to sync this with the same folders on an external drive, this program will scan and tell you which files are missing both ways.

This is really useful for the My Pictures folder. I copied the My Pictures at one point to my external hard drive, but keep adding new folders to the one on my desktop. This program quickly tells me which new pictures and folders I’ve added and then syncs them so they are identical.

QTTabBar

Another feature that I find is missing in Windows Explorer is the ability to open multiple tabs instead of opening multiple Explorer windows. That way you can save space on your desktop and taskbar and easily navigate multiple folders.

QTTabBar is a free program for Windows that gives you tabbed browsing in Explorer. Everyone knows how useful it is to have multiple tabs in the web browser, IE, Chrome, Firefox all do this now. It seems logical that it would be useful for Windows Explorer also!

PlacesBar Editor

Ever notice the default locations along the left hand side in an Open/Save dialog in Windows? It’s called the Places Bar and includes Desktop, My Documents, etc. But what if you use a folder deep on another drive all the time?

PlacesBar Editor is a program that lets you conveniently edit the locations for the Places bar. This is great for programmers or IT admins who always access network locations or folders on other drives.

Explorer BreadCrumbs

Love the bread crumbs feature in Windows Vista and Windows 7? It lets you navigate up and down the folder hierarchy by adding a folder trail to Windows Explorer. Normally, you would have to click the Back button numerous times to get up to the root of the drive.

ExplorerBreadCrumbs adds this feature to Windows XP. It saves me a lot of time navigating through files and folders using the breadcrumbs feature.

Hopefully, these programs will allow you to use your computer more effectively while not completely replacing the built-in Windows Explorer interface. Enjoy!