Windows Explorer Replacement – Free Commander

When it comes to file management in Windows, people are familiar with Windows Explorer. People may have used drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts, or Copy (or Cut) and Paste from the folder menus, to move computer files around.

Whether they have only skimmed the surface using My Documents and My Pictures, deleted files to the Recycle Bin, or dug into the depths of the System folder, Windows users have experienced Windows Explorer in one way or another.

For most, Windows Explorer has enough baked into it to serve the needs of the average Windows user. However, others may desire to have additional functionality at arms reach, so to speak.

The are many file management utilities available on the Internet, and unfortunately, most of them have very similar abilities.  This is one type of software where particular tastes may play a heavy role in deciding what file management tool he or she wishes to use.

However, when you want a file management tool, with a good deal of options, Free Commander (found here) may fit the bill. Though the graphical interface may lack an updated look and feel, it makes up for the aesthetic appeal with a dual-pane file navigation screen, and a handy grouping of useful tools.

Upon opening Free Commander, your attention will be drawn first to the dual-pane layout.  The two pane setup allows you to view the contents two different drives, two different folder views of the same drive, one drive and a network shared folder, and various other visual combinations.

You can easily drag and drop files between the two panes, instead of having to open up two different windows, as with Explorer. To bounce between these types of views, there is a icon strip just above the file views. This strip contains the letters for the drives on your computer, My Network Places, and one icon for an FTP connection.

In this main view, at the bottom of the Free Commander window, there is a text box area under each pane. These text boxes are filters for the pane view they sit below. Simply typing in alphanumeric characters will sift through the list of items present in the respective pane.

This is useful when you open a folder containing a great deal of files and you are only looking for a select few. In the example below, the letter set of “doc” is used to narrow the viewable items to only those containing the filter criteria; to include files and folders.

Aside from the drive view on the icon strip, there are two other views that need mentioning. Clicking the globe and computer icon, shown with a 1, will open up your My Network Places view. This will bring up the tools like Add Network Place, and the Wireless Network Setup Wizard.

Right next to the network icon is the FTP shortcut icon. If you already have an existing FTP connection, it will show up on this list. Should you not already have an FTP account, you can add one by double clicking on “New FTP connection”.

Above the icon strip containing the drive letters, there is another set of icons that perform various other functions in Free Commander. This area holds shortcuts for one-click type access, versus going through the menus at the top. Some of them are self-explanatory, such as Copy, Cut, Search, and Delete.  Others need further description.

The document with the magnifying glass icon is View File.  This tools is geared to open the program associated with the type of file you are trying to view.  For instance, if you click on a Microsoft Word document, then click on the View File (Shortcut key: F3), you will be prompted to open the document in Word, provided you have it installed on your computer.

However, File Edit (Shortcut key: F4), the document with pencil icon, will attempt to open documents and other files in Notepad.  If you prefer a different method of editing files, this can be change within Free Commander’s settings menu.

To change out the editor’s settings, click on the Extra menu, then Settings.  Navigate to the Programs selection, and then make the necessary modifications in the right-hand section of the screen. You can browse your files and folders from here (via the folder icon) to locate a different program.

You can also use the icons in the upper right hand section to modify the Editor’s list entries under File Name Filters and Programs.

The other section of note here is further right on the icon bar.  There are icons for two different boxes and torn document.  The box icons represent file packing (compression) with a down arrow, and file unpacking (uncompressing) with an up arrow.

The torn document icon allows you to split a file into smaller parts for things like transmission through email when there are attachment file size limitations.

Of course these are not the only tools in Free Commander, just a quick list of those found in the standard menus.  Each of the menus located at the top of the program’s window contain tools categorized by their named heading.

Beginning at the far left, we find the File menu.  The File menu contains functions like View, Edit, Copy, Move, and Rename.  Here you also have some more advanced options such as the ability to create MD5 checksums and completely wipe files from your hard drive.

The Edit menu contains the normal Cut, Copy, and Paste actions.  However, there are a variety of “select” type choices at your disposal here as well. These selections allow you to choose all files with the same extension, invert selections (e.g. select all other than what you first chose), and save your selection choices to a file.

The Folder menu offers more than standard fare.  Here you can create a text output for a folders list, filter by executable files and documents, and quickly move your view to a specific folder (Go to Folder selection). Additionally, there are two excellent tools at the lower part of the menu. Compare and Synchronize can be great time saving methods when working with folders containing hundreds of files.

When you have two “identical” folders open, one in each pane, Compare will highlight any files that are located in one folder, but not in the other. Note that this will not work with folders, only files.

Synchronize, on the other hand, opens up a separate utility.  Here you can copy left to right, or right to left to match up two sets of files. The Synchronize menu will allow Free Commander to show recommended actions in order to get the two sets of files aligned with one another.

The View menu incorporates the standard views employed by Windows Explorer:  List, Details, Thumbnails, and Large and Small Icons.  What Free Commander adds to this selection are things like Tree View, allowing one pane to be further split in two showing the parent folder on the left, and contents on the right. You can also use the Flat view – files, to see all the files under one main folder, and any sub-folders, in one large column list.

The Extras menu contains some other shortcuts to Windows tools, and throws in the Settings menu for Free Commander, and an area where you can edit the shortcut key combinations within the Free Commander program.

Within Extras, you can find the Run command, open up a DOS command line window, as well as Connect and Disconnect from a network drive.  For those who prefer something other than the Print Screen key, there is a Desktop Snapshot option for basic screen capture needs.

For the casual Windows user, Free Commander may be more than what they need. This type of user is probably more comfortable with the standard options offered through Windows Explorer.  For those of us who needs more options when it comes to file and folder management, Free Commander is a decent program to have on your computer.