File Manager launch tests

[TP109]

Got curious about the most responsive file managers and did some preliminary testing. Results below are not completely accurate, but are probably in the ballpark in terms of launching speed as compared to each other. With more testing the positions will likely change, but the catagories are probably accurate. I already edited this post a few times with more testing.

In order of fastest to slowest. Not formally tested with apptimer yet.
More testing required to obtain accurate measurements and to insure that the
file managers are setup the same way (loading same set of directories, testing lastest versions, etc). Tested on an XP SP3 system.

Fastest 0-1.5 secs (the top 6 are 1 sec or less)
Pablo Commander
Doszip Commander
Snowbird
AltCommander
Total Commander
XYplorerFree
TotalCommanderPortable
Q-Dir
Explorer++
Double Commander
TabbyFile2
A56

Medium 1.5-2 secs
FileCommander
xplorer2_lite Portable
FreeCommanderPortable
XPlorer
FreeCommanderXE
MultiCommander
Master Commander
ExplorerXPPortable
UltraExplorer
Handy File Tool
EFCommanderFree Portable
CubicExplorer
SE-Explorer
JustManager

Slowest 2-4 secs
Tablacus
A43

[TP109]

Retested using the same set of directories for each FM. Some postions changed from previous results. More testing is required. Quickest FMs were still fast and didn't change. Explorer++ did change significantly though.

Fastest 0-1.5 secs (the top 6 are 1 sec or less)
Pablo Commander
Doszip Commander
Snowbird
AltCommander (has splash screen, but only displays it for short time)
Total Commander
XYplorerFree
TotalCommanderPortable
Q-Dir
Double Commander (launch probably affected by splash screen - still very fast and responsive)
A56

Medium 1.5-2 secs
FreeCommanderPortable
XPlorer
FreeCommanderXE
Master Commander
ExplorerXPPortable
xplorer2_lite Portable
Handy File Tool
EFCommanderFree Portable
CubicExplorer
SE-Explorer
JustManager
FileCommander
TabbyFile2

Slowest 2-4 secs
MultiCommander (splash screen slows down intialization)
Tablacus
A43
Explorer++
UltraExplorer

[webfork]

Cool, thanks for expanding your Text Editor performance tests to other programs.

[freakazoid]

I think XYplorer gives you the best of both worlds - performance and features.

[Midas]

I think XYplorer gives you the best of both worlds - performance and features.

• I assent 100%. I'm still partial to Xplorer2 less cluttered UI, though...

[TP109]

Edited 1/20/16. Added File Navigator.
Edited 3/23/16. Updated Double Commander results
Edited 3/29/16. Revised results

Ran AppTimer tests and uploaded the results. All but two of the FMs tested could be integrated into the test system and those were tested manually - SE-Explorer and Tablacus. Also had trouble with MultiCommander. AppTimer measured its launch time at about .5s but manual testing ranges from 1.4s to 2.5 secs. Gave it the benefit of the doubt for now and calling it 1.4s, although to the user it looks more like 2.5s (for the directories to appear and provide a usable interface). Had similar issues with a few other FMs but the results were not as wide between the AppTimer measurements and manual tests as with MultiCommander. For those FMs I used the lower value if within 100% of each other and averaged them if between 100-200%.

File managers with launch times of less than 1.5s should be fast enough for most users. Anything above that will have a noticeable lag when launched. Some, like MultiCommander, have slower launch times, but operate quickly once they are initialized. DOSZip Commander, Pablo Commander, and Snowbird use very little resources and are extremely fast. However, DOSzip Commander doesn't have the friendliest UI and Pablo and Snowbird have stripped down UIs, but they are speedy and have a small footprint; something that may be handy in certain situations.

Below are listed the fastest to slowest file managers. See the uploaded spreadsheet for versions, launch times and resource usage data.
DOSZip Commander
Snowbird
Double Commander
Pablo Commander
FileNavigator
Total Commander
Alt Commander
Total Commander Portable
EF CommanderFreePortable
A56
XYplorerFree
FileCommander
xplorer2_lite
FreeCommanderXE
FreeCommanderPortable
Handy File Tool
Master Commander
Cubic Explorer
SE-Explorer
JustManager
Explorer++
Q-Dir
A43
MultiCommander
UltraExplorer
MuCommander (no splash)
Tablacus (32-bit)
Xplorer


File Manager launch tests. Link good for 28 days.
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=g0 ... 27da5c3832

[TP109]

Tested Tablacus v16.1.14.

File Manager launch tests. Link good for 28 days.
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=g2 ... a0fa8efea0

[TP109]

Tested File Navigator v1.7.4.606.

File Manager launch tests updated. Link good for 28 days.
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=gf ... 5a966e4997

[TP109]

Ver 103 of the file manager test results includes installation size. Uploaded to link below:

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 0500572652

[TP109]

Tested Double Commander v0.7.0 beta. There was a substantial increase in launch speed. DC in now the 5th fastest FM overall and the fastest fully-featured GUI-based FM tested.

Results uploaded to link below:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 2976284840

Edited 3/29/16: Removed incorrect RAM usage information.

[TP109]

Tested DoubleCommander 0.7.1beta and MuCommander 0.9.0. DoubleCommander's speed more than doubled from the previous version.

Results uploaded to link below:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 7685184565

[webfork]

Tested DoubleCommander 0.7.1beta and MuCommander 0.9.0. DoubleCommander's speed more than doubled from the previous version.

Interesting stuff. Kudos to the Double Commander crew. I'm disappointed that my favorite two file managers muCommander and CubicExplorer are so far down the list but oh well. Neither have seen updates for some time now.

[TP109]

Tested MultiCommander 5.9.0, Q-dir 6.32, and XYplorerFree 16.40.

Also, I went over the file manager test results carefully today and found some issues:

1. Q-dir wasn't loading the test directory with the automated test setup. When tested manually the launch speed was significantly lower when loading the test directory than with the default root directories.

2. ExplorerXPPortable and TabbyFile2 also were not loading the test directory. ExplorerXPPortable didn't load the test directory even when "Load last open folders" in its settings was set, and TabbyFile2 doesn't appear to have an "open last folders option". Further investigation is needed to determine if the problem can be corrected or not. The results for these two FMs are still included on the spreadsheet, but are separated from the other data.

(The test directory issue wasn't apparent before now because the test setup automatically loads and closes the application under test so quickly that the contents in the application's UI can't be readily identified)

3. A search was made for the latest versions and those were tested. Test data older than one version back was eliminated from the spreadsheet.

4. There were a couple of errors for RAM usage, mostly due to a copy/paste error or from reading the wrong column. Peak RAM is now included in the spreadsheet along with the current RAM usage, which should help reduce future errors of this type.

Probably the biggest changes from the previous results are for Q-dir, XYplorerFree and MultiCommander. Q-dir is fast when loading root directories but slows down significantly when loading the test directory of 32GB. The new version of XYplorerFree is also significantly slower than for previous versions. MultiCommanders's launch time was changed to 3.5s because it really does take that long for the UI to appear after the splash screen, regardless of what is measured with the test setup. The splash screen can't be disabled even though users have requested that option at the MultiCommander user forums.

Results uploaded to the link below:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 3288178608

[Midas]

Quick note to report on a DotNET v3.5 tool I came across that could possibly be helpful for your testing: LaunchTimeAnalyze...

• http://www.tmurgent.com/appv/index.php/ ... me-analyze

[TP109]

Quick note to report on a DotNET v3.5 tool I came across that could possibly be helpful for your testing: LaunchTimeAnalyze...

• http://www.tmurgent.com/appv/index.php/ ... me-analyze

Interesting application. Extracted the msi file (didn't test for portability), ran it for a quick evaluation, and read some of the white papers. Like about 99.9% of testing SW, it's developed specifically for high-frequency performance testing for remote server-based applications rather than for desktop testing. However, it looks like it can be configured for PC-based applications too.

It integrates various testing functions like scripts, calculations and graphing. Internally it calculates Minimum, Maximum, and Average (Arithmetic Mean) values, Mean Absolute Deviation, MADVariability, Expectation Envelope, produces graphs and/or charts for the stats, and provides a way to include supporting test scripts without affecting measurements.

The setup I'm now using does the same thing and it's fairly efficient, so there is no advantage to switching at this point, but it could be useful for future testing. Thanks for informing me about it.