XYplorerFree - file manager

[Ennovy]

The XYplorer Free Edition has been discontinued. It lived
for three years but the extra work grew too much to handle. New releases
became rare, and too much time and energy was drawn away from the main
project. Another reason is that the free edition simply was too good,
which was unfair to those who paid.

Source: https://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic ... 80#p145008

[Midas]

The XYplorer Free Edition has been discontinued. It lived for three years but the extra work grew too much to handle. New releases became rare, and too much time and energy was drawn away from the main project. Another reason is that the free edition simply was too good, which was unfair to those who paid.

So, can anyone confirm that the last freeware was v17.40.0.100?

Incidentally, old build might be available from the "Unofficial XYplorer Archive" (see https://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?t=9679).

[billon]

Links changed to Archive.org

[smaragdus]

XYplorer has several incurable flaws:

• XYplorer is written in Visual Basic which is 19 years old (Visual Basic 6 was released in 1998) and is no longer supported:

  Mainstream Support for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 ended on March 31, 2005. Extended support ended in March 2008.

  so in the long run XYplorer is doomed.
• Being written in Visual Basic 6 means that XYplorer cannot have a native x64 version.
• XYplorer cannot connect to FTP. Lack of FTP support is quite rare for file managers- even Just Manager which is still an Alpha product, supports FTP. As far as I know the developer is reluctant to add FTP support.
• More- XYplorer does not support burning, cloud storage access, disk Image files.

I think that XYplorer lacks too much for a commercial file manager.

Another reason is that the free edition simply was too good,
which was unfair to those who paid.

For me this sounds ridiculous- I have the commercial version, I do not like it and I think that this commercial version is not good enough to be used on a daily basis. Yet the developer claims that even the free version was too good. He also says that the mere existence of this free version is unfair to those who paid. I could not disagree more- no one forced me to pay for the commercial version, it was my decision and when I purchased the commercial version I was aware that a free version existed.

For me XYplorer (as of version 17.40.0200) is just a toy, a nice toy with several interesting features, but just a toy, not a full-fledged file manager.

[Enternal]

Yes the last free version is indeed 17.40.0.100. I can get it uploaded from the Unofficial XYplorer Archive when I get home as I'm one of the contributors there. Only issue is I need to find a good place to upload it too. Maybe just MediaFire or something...

Anyways it's unfortunate about the free version but it's expected. The developer has a lot of things he had planned for a long time as well as things that needed to be done right away for XYplorer but with the extra work, and therefore time, required to maintain XYplorerFree, it's not really ideal.

@ smaragdus
Yes that's true. That's the biggest problem with XYplorer that I'm worried about. Being written in VB, in the long run, it's not ideal. In addition, VB6 doesn't support multi-threading.

However, I disagree with you on your second paragraph. I think XYplorer is really good. Its strongest strength is its portability. Custom file associations are extremely useful as you can set file type associations relative to the root of your USB drive and basically use your own favorite programs and stuff at any computer without having to go through the "Open with...". Basically for fixing people computers or computing in general at other computers, it's great. The scripting functionality is also pretty awesome. I have written and use many scripts that does things such as hashing, verification of hashing files, various backup scripts, upload and verify files to VirusTotal without the need to open a web browser, and more. As for daily usages, I think it's perfectly fine if all you need is to manage files on your computer and not on the cloud. I do a lot of file managing and it does not feel inadequate at all. I have various XYplorer scripts that does many things that are all configured in custom buttons or the Catalog (where you can place scripts, locations, programs, and other things).

On the other hand, there is also Directory Opus that I also have a licence for. The FTP support is incredibly useful. The scripting support in Directory Opus is native too meaning it uses the system to run scripts (through Windows scripting host) so the performance is better than in XYplorer. In certain aspects, the scripting capability in Directory Opus is more powerful. However, XYplorer also has a lot of useful built-in functions ready to be used at anytime. So both have their pros and cons. I personally use both side-by-side.

My least favorite would be xplorer2. It's hard to suggest anything to the developer as he doesn't really care even if the feature or a change requested is more intuitive. "Well it's intuitive to me so no." It does support FTP but in my opinion, it feels very clumsy to use. The interface does not look very good either. For picture viewing, it's decent but not great and there are plenty of free file managers that have better picture viewing experiences.

[HairyPorter]

Yes the last free version is indeed 17.40.0.100. [...]
My least favorite would be xplorer2. [...] in my opinion, it feels very clumsy to use. The interface does not look very good either.

I agree. xplorer2 is frustrating to use, even for basic functions. Some workflows are unintuitive, even illogical, such that the program often doesn't work as the user intends it to. The developer actually has a "headaches" page where he describes xplorer2 as having "Alzheimer's disease".

In comparison, XYplorer is a breeze to use. At the time of writing, the last freeware version v17.40.0.100 (released: 26 Nov 2016) can still be downloaded from the developer's site.

• RAR archive (3.52 MB, MD5: dbd9e6faa4350e7ad29ef4f13110b757)
• ZIP archive (4.26 MB, MD5: f8b7535a1ead9435024bebdda0d05da5)

The Freeware description page is gone though, & redirects to the homepage.

[Stoik]

A question for
Smaragdus :

Which file manager do You use ?

Or can You give us a short review and compare a couple of them.

I also depend on more than one, my preferred criteria are :
- is it customizable - including colors, toolbars (including adding my own shortcuts), context menus ... ,
- it it fast - the launch, no waiting and staring at splash-screens, file handling, 64-bit is preferable,
- is it portable (reasons are obvious to users of this forum) & free (but I don't mind paying for quality, providing it is not per computer).

Based on these criteria, this is my top list of file managers :
1. XYplorer (it is still the best, in spite of the shortcomings listed above)
2. Double Commander
3. Just Manager
4. EF Commander
5. Total Commander
6. Nomad Net
7. Free Commander
8. Cubic Explorer

[Enternal]

I uploaded it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/u9yfw86lk ... .00%5D.zip

@ Stoik
Have you considered MultiCommander? I think it also fit the requirements too, right?

[freakazoid]

I'm always on the lookout for better file managers, but XYplorer checks all the boxes for me.

The dev is right that the free version has more than enough features. I was using the free version for the longest time, until I got an older version of Pro in a giveaway that I'm still using.

These features are requirements for me in any new file explorer:
- Portable file associations
- Easy symbolic link management (XY creates absolute symbolic links. Any alternative that can create relative symbolic links will, no doubt, win me over!)
- Customizable UI
- Undo history
- Folder bookmarks

Know any file explorer that matches this functionality?

[smaragdus]

@Enternal
I do not expect anyone to agree with me, people have different tastes and different requirements for file managers. According to Wikipedia the first version of XYplorer was released on 1999.12.05 and for 17 years of development common features like FTP and synchronization were never implemented, for me this is shocking.

@Stoik
I have licenses for four commercial file managers (in alphabetical order)- Directory Opus (I have the Light version, which is very "light" in features and therefore almost useless to me), System Navigator (ugly, poor, abandoned), oMega Commander (I acquired a license via a recent giveaway), XYplorer. I like none of them very much.

I have also tested three commercial file managers (in alphabetical order)- SpeedCommander (it comes in two versions- Standard & Pro), Total Commander, xplorer (it also comes in two editions- professional & ultimate). I like SpeedCommander best (as far as I can remember it offered portable installation)- it provides almost all the features I would need in a file manager (archiving, burning, FTP, cloud services, synchronization, junctions, disk image files handling, etc) but for me the themes (Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, etc) are ugly or at least unattractive and as far as I know the developer does not offer lifetime licenses. Total Commander looks nice and is flexible and powerful but customizing it is not always very easy, for example for me customizing the tool-bar was painful compared to Multi Commander. I don't like xplorer at all, neither the looks (although the ribbon can be disabled) nor the usage- for me this manager is neither intuitive nor handy. Also I have problems installing it.

I have never tested the following commercial file managers (in alphabetical order)- AB Commander, Altap Salamander, Blue Explorer, EF Commander, Frigate (many years ago I think I used ot for a while on someone else's machine and I was impressed but this manager has been abandoned long time ago), Magellan Explorer, V, WinNc, XplorPlus.

I have tested and used these free file managers (in alphabetical order)- A43 (a humble manager with some nice features, superseded by A56), Double Commander (x64 version available, permanent Beta, cross-platform, in development), FileVoyager (no x64 version, very promising, in development), FreeCommander (the x64 version is available to donors only, for me version 2009.02b is more feature-rich and less buggy than the current version), Just Manager (Alpha, light, tiny, nice-looking, easy to use but unfirtunately- abandoned), muCommander (cross-platform, requires Java, slow development), Multi Commander (x64 version, powerful, customizable, in development), NexusFile (cute-looking but disappointng and abandoned), Nomad.NET (.NET), Q-Dir (x64 version, rather a directory browser than an actual file manager, sometimes it crashes on my system), Tablacus Explorer (x64 version, like Q-Dir- more a directory browser, not very easy to customize, lots of add-ons, in development), trolCommander (muCommander fork, requires Java, in development),Unreal Commander (the current stable version is x32 only while the current Beta has both x32 and x64 builds, some features (like FTP) are available to donors only, very ugly interface), wxCommander (free for non-professional/non-commercial home use, abandoned).

For quite some time my favourite among the free file managers was Multi Commander but because of this:



message, which seems that cannot be disabled although I have disabled update check, Multi Commander forced me to dump it (I have my reasons to be unwilling to update to the latest versions).

So no file manager, neither commercial nor free, is really dear to me- all have their virtues and flaws so I have no real favourite. I mostly use Q-Dir because I cannot do without its four panes and I need scores of tabs because I do lots of tests and I need permanent access to many directories. For different tasks (FTP, archiving, burning, renaming, searching, synchronizing, viewing, etc) I use dedicated tools- I don't think that a single program can cope with all these tasks well, or at least better than the dedicated tools I use. So, Q-Dir as a browser is convenient to me for fast access to folders but it is not a real file manager for sure.

By mistake I closed my browser just before publishing this post and I had to re-write it by memory from scratch, most likely I have forgotten some of the things I wrote initially.

[HairyPorter]

By mistake I closed my browser just before publishing this post and I had to re-write it by memory from scratch, most likely I have forgotten some of the things I wrote initially.

@smaragdus -- That's a comprehensive summary of file managers (thanks for all that info), & you have a good memory to retype everything again !

If you are using Firefox, you might wish to check out the Textarea Cache add-on. It autosaves typed/pasted-in content within the browser's text-input areas & form-input boxes. This content can be recovered if the browser tab/window is prematurely closed.

Back to the topic: Do you know of any file managers that natively support filecopy pre-allocation (which minimizes file fragmentation at the destination) ? Directory Opus apparently pre-allocates the required space, but I'm not sure if this is true or not. On this note, I've also come across dozens of totally conflicting info as to whether certain file-copying apps do or do not perform pre-allocation.

[Stoik]

In response to the comments above ...

@ Eternal

Yes, I tried MultiCommander some while ago, and - if I remember correctly - I was put off by the slow launch and the large splash-screen, and the update nags, or something like that. I might want to check the more recent versions to see if these issues were resolved.
UpDate (today, on January 13th 2017): I tried the latest MultiCommander, very good indeed. The launch is much faster, so the splash-screen does not linger on for long (although it would be better if one could disable it altogether). However, an update nag pop-up that one cannot disable (as mentioned by Smaragdus) would annoy me a lot - probably to the degree that I would abandon the program. But going back to core requirements, this program still feels immature in its development - the layout is a bit chaotic and confusing, You cannot customize the toolbars (like the order of the buttons, add Your own shortcuts, etc) ...

@ Smaragdus

Wow, great review ! For a moment, though, I was disappointed with the apparent lack of a clear conclusion (a "best" list, with a clear order/sequence). But then I realized that You are right - there is no clear winner ! A demanding user will have to end up with several file managers, some will do a better job with "this", and others will do a better job with "that". I have a similar situation with web browsers: PaleMoon version 24 is still my default browser (64-bit, portable, add-ons still all work - unlike later PaleMoon versions) even though is is very old and technically outdated (no muti-threading, occasionally crashes on YouTube), but I love the extreme customization, some lovely add-ons that I cannot find on Chrome (like ScrapBook), etc. But Chrome (I use Cent browser) is a must for multi-media-rich sites like news, YouTube, etc ... Sometimes I also use K-Meleon (handles MSNBC.com best - for some strange reason). Hence, thank You for the pros and cons that You listed for each file manager !

[joby_toss]

Just out of curiosity, why do we list archive.org website and download links for XYplorerFree? The official website and download links are functional for me.

[webfork]

Just out of curiosity, why do we list archive.org website

Just glancing through the thread, it seems like the program went commercial so we were hosting the old version. I"m not sure about now.

[Andrew Lee]

Doesn't seem like there's any good reason to link to the Internet Archive, so I have edited the entry to point to the URL hosting the free version.