Browse and manage your Windows file system via a split-screen interface to operate two file trees at once - move up and down through the two lists of multiple folders and drill down to sub-levels and files; drag-and-drop them from one list to another to move or copy files between locations. Navigate, view and extract archives of various formats: ZIP, 7ZIP, ARJ, LZH, RAR, etc.
Despite the undeniable usefulness of Windows File Manager, its limited functionality and the despairingly slow development over the years, make tools like Total Commander a much-needed complement to the file management requirements of the average Windows user. Thus, this tool, with its two-pane interface and a wealth of useful utilities, can perfectly replace (and improve in more than one way) that obsolete File Manager.
Something as simple as a two-pane window where you can view the contents of two folders or even two disks at once is something that Microsoft has been unable to implement in decades. This simple feature is the first thing you see when you launch the program. Then you can decide which of the available views better fits your needs and preferences and customize each pane to present your PC contents as a list, a tree, thumbnails, etc., and even change the look of the button bar.
Once you’ve selected the folders or disks (including remote disks via FTP) you want to work with and start browsing the various menus and options available, you’ll begin to understand why you needed a tool like Total Commander. Files and folders are displayed in all their glory complete with whatever attributes you prefer (including id3 tags for audio files, for instance), though I sorely missed the possibility to know the size of a folder straight away. However, to compensate for this and other minor flaws (such as the option to export to file a list of the elements displayed in the panes without any fiddling about), you will enjoy a Multi-rename tool, a file comparison utility that looks at the contents of the files and displays their differences, a folder synchronization tool, an advanced search function, pack and unpack files and archives, and so on.
Not being a free tool and knowing what other free options are out there, I find Total Commander a bit laggy in some respects. Having said that, it is but fair to say that those interested in purchasing the corresponding license will appreciate a program that works like a charm, that is comprehensive and easy to use, and that is miles away from the old fashioned and limited Windows File Manager.
v10.0 [Mar 28, 2012]
General:
- Directories created by MacOS on ExFAT flash drives are now shown in TC. They were not shown because they had the inavlid attribute 8: Volume label.
- Always show hidden directory "AppData" in c:\Users\ even with hidden files disabled.
- Allow user to install key file automatically when double clicking on it..
- Add a "Zone Transfer" data stream when downloading files via anonymous FTP (Ctrl F), or HTTP (Ctrl N) from outside the intranet, like web browsers.
- When unpacking files internally or via plugins, copy "Zone Transfer" data stream from archive to unpacked files, just like the Explorer.
- New zone transfer option can be disabled via WantZoneData=0.
- Always look for key file also in c:\totalcmd, even if Total Commander is installed elsewhere.
User interface:
- Allow to use "Windows Hello" on Windows 10 to securely store master password until TC is closed. Use fingerprint, face or pin to connect again.
- Use mouse wheel to scroll through directory tabs (like in Firefox) when not using multi-line tabs.
- Zoom thumbnails with Ctrl Mouse wheel between 10% and 200% of the size configured in Configuration - Options - Thumbnails.
- Load thumbnails from EXIF data (preview image) from JPG and various camera RAW formats: Canon RAW 1-3, DNG, Fuji, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Sony.
- New option "Return to locked tab root directory on tab change" in Configuration - Options - Folder tabs.
- Show "!" prefix when current dir differs from locked dir on tabs which are locked with directory changes allowed.
- New option to only execute command line when it is focused (Configuration - Options - Layout).
- When closing TC while there are unpacked temporary files, show the user the first 3 file names and their origin.
- Drop file from outside (e.g. virtual folder in Explorer) to read only directory (e.g. c:\windows): Better dialogs to allow overwrite and copy as admin.
- Automatically scale dialog boxes with the chosen font if the font needs more space than the default font.
- Ctrl L on single file now also shows the Zone.Identifier stream data for that file.
- Save displayed file types (e.g. *.txt) separately for each tab. Configuration - Options - Folder Tabs - Save displayed file types separately for each tab.
- Ctrl U and Ctrl Shift U now also swap the displayed file types if DirTabFilters=1, because they are part of the tab.
- Directory menu (Ctrl D): Option to hide menu items which begin with a user-defined character, by default a question mark '?'.
- View modes, Auto-run commands: Put '-' at the start of the command field to not execute commands on tab change, only on directory change.
- For locked folder tabs with directory changes allowed, show both the current directory and the locked directory if they are different.
Saving settings:
- When user cannot save settings (e.g. in Configuration menu or main settings), offer to copy ini files to user profile.
- For plugins in write protected directories, intercept calls to CreateFileA/W and all INI functions, and redirect write calls to %APPDATA%\GHISLER\redirect.
- Disable redirection of plugins: Add 8192 to RestrictInterface in wincmd.ini or registry.
- Specify different ini locations for specific plugins: wincmd.ini [ReplaceIniLocation] (see help).
Lister:
- New DirectShow media player in Lister, replacing the old one based on Video for Windows (can still be chosen via configuration).
- Support full screen playback via double click or Alt Enter, leave the same way or with ESC.
- Change audio and subtitle streams via context menu.
- Configure preferred DirectShow filters via Lister configuration (3rd Tab).
- Show chapters as tickmarks below seek bar, jump there with Ctrl PageDown/Ctrl PageUp.
- Buttons to jump backward/forward by x seconds (default 10s and 60s, configurable via right click).
- Preload DirectVobSub filter if the source filter has a pin "Subtitle".
- Allow to use LAV filters and ffdshow filters without installing them, by putting them in subdir filter32 or filter64, respectively.
- Save last playback position of the last played tracks longer than 10 minutes.
- Keep sound pitch constant when changing playback speed, using custom DirectShow filter based on open source SoundTouch.dll.
- New option "Additional multimedia file types" and "Additional Irfanview/Xnview file types".
Search:
- Internal regular expression library updated to latest version (faster, more functions).
- Warn user when he enters a text in "Find text" which cannot be converted to ANSI and/or ASCII (if checked).
Synchronize dirs:
- Allow to use regular expressions and saved searches, with options where to apply them, e.g. one side, both sides, etc. via button [1x].
- New context menu items to show file context menu and file properties, and to edit left/right file.
- Show exclamation mark in button "Singles" or "Duplicates" if it isn't down when opening the dialog.
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