Freeware Files: 5 Add-ons that Make Windows Explorer Even Better!
Freeware Files: 5 Add-ons that Make Windows Explorer Even Better!
Posted 02/17/2010 at 8:30am
| by David Murphy
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Windows Explorer hasn't always been the most feature-packed of elements inside Microsoft's operating systems. Yet, oddly, it's probably the one part of your Windows version that you use most frequently. But that's not to say that everything is Microsoft's fault. We're often so quick to blame the software giant for what's more a lack of future-proofing than outright failure. In this case, Windows Explorer can't predict what's going to be the next big thing--it can't know that you'll want your photographs easily updated to Maximum Photos someday; it has no idea that you might somehow need to paste a direct link to a file instead of its name or containing folder.
Windows Explorer is, in a word, dumb.
But that's not what we're here to talk about. We're not going to sit around a table and lament about all the features Windows Explorer could have were you one, Bill Gates, and had access to an engineer, or two, or twenty thousand. We're going to go over all the unique little elements that you can build into Windows Explorer right this darn second. I can think of five off the top of my head that are useful additions to your standard interactions with your operating system. They're free, they're awesome, and they're yours for the taking.
Lammer Context Menu
Right-clicking on a typical piece of content via Windows Explorer gives you a useful, but limited, number of options for manipulating said content. Lammer Context Menu is like calling up a fifty-person catering squad to serve food for a dinner with you and your cat. It's chock-full of useful features and shortcuts that can all be access via your standard right-click context menu in Windows Explorer. This includes the ability to quickly mount anything as a virtual drive, batch rename files, open up a command prompt at a given directory, and a whole host of parameter-based copying and moving options. And that's just the tip of the contextual iceberg!
Download it here!
TeraCopy
I didn't believe in the raw speeds unlocked by the popular freeware program TeraCopy until I tried it. And once I tried it, I became hooked. This little application integrates into your right-click context menu as well, and it's designed to turbo-boost your copying and movement capabilities in Windows Explorer. Not only does it work--a big complement for a program that sounds a wee like snake oil at first glance--but it also comes with a number of other great features that Windows Explorer lacks: pause transfers, resume transfers, and blow past transfers that simply don't work for whatever reason (unlike Explorer, which would automatically kill the whole batch).
Download it here!
Vanity Remover
Have a whole bunch of empty folders clogging up a particular directory on your hard drive? Not anymore! Fire up the ultra-portable (and ultra-easy-to-use) Vanity Remover, and this little open-source utility will scour said folder in search of directories with nothing in them. When it finds said directories, it will eliminate them. If the totality of its work ends up leaving the actual folder that Vanity Remover resides in empty as well (save for the program, obviously), it will delete itself and said folder in one heroic self-sacrifice. For Spartaaaaa!
Download it here!
ShellMenuNew
Tired of seeing a laundry list of options whenever you right-click inside a folder, in Windows Explorer, and hover your mouse over the "new" option? ShellMenuNew, as the name somewhat implies, allows you to dig deep into your operating system and excise or add these options. Prune your "new" listing to your heart's content and assume control of your overflowing ability to create!
Download it here!
NoDrives Manager
I'm not going to ask what you might use this for; I'm just going to tell you what it does. The helpful-yet-sneaky utility NoDrives Manager allows you to quickly and easily edit the system registry to display or hide any of your system's drive letters. From hard drives, to optical drives, to USB key assignments, you can make it look as if your C:\ drive is the only chunk of files that exists on your system. You won't be able to stop creative users from accessing other drives by typing in the drive letter, but nobody's that crafty, right?
Download it here!
David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!
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RD
August 19, 2010 at 8:30am
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jondylorge
June 27, 2010 at 12:20am
Thanks for this useful Maximum PC info.
I really like this service & the information supplied by you is so useful that i feel so glad that i often recommened you to the people around me.
Nice post Man!! Keep it up.
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Patrickmaddog
May 12, 2010 at 10:26am
Windows Explorer is the file browser that you use every day to access your stuff, NOT a web browser. You are thinking of Internet Explorer, and yes; it does suck.
lien_meat
February 17, 2010 at 4:00pm
Tabs, ability to tag files and search by tags, ssh/sftp capability (you know, so you don't have to use a separate program just to upload/manage content on a webserver or something...really basic thing here...), video file thumbnails instead of just the icon of the program that defaults to running it, make symlinks (not shortcuts...shortcuts suck), there are many more...but I can't think of them right now.
Those are just a few reasons I continue to favor linux over windows(any version really) especially for web programming. I enjoy ALL of those perks, and have for a while, and I just wouldn't want to manage files without them. Step it up MS I've been waiting for this stuff for a good long while now...
compro01
February 17, 2010 at 1:36pm
Anyone know if teracopy properly supports sparse files?
NTFS has supported sparse files for a decade now, but even in windows 7, if you attempt to copy a sparse file to another NTFS formatted drive (an external drive, for instance), it will attempt to unspare the file and refuse to copy if it can't (due to insufficient space).
DBsantos77
February 17, 2010 at 1:08pm
Wow Murphy, great apps! Can't wait to try them. Especially TeraCopy. I don't know how many times Explorer has screwed up GIGS of transfers, causing me to re-start them.
-Santos
PhoneyVirus
February 17, 2010 at 12:36pm
Why use Lammer Context Menu that calls for .NET Framework when you can use Send To Toys 2.5 @
http://www.gabrieleponti.com/software Great work Dave the rest of the Guys need to take there head out there Ass with the Mag and Site with Virus, Spyware etc....NO MORE good APPs in the mag and the How -To’s getting bad same thing over and over watch when April or May magazine Comes How to Copy your DVD's and backup your music with the same Applications from before, anyway Dave keep up the Excellent work and Free Apps without Spyware coming Thanks because I wouldn’t be here if You Gordon and Norman wasn't.
Samizdat
February 17, 2010 at 12:13pm
...use ZTreeWin instead.
Signature This is a block of text that can be added to posts you make. There is a 255 character limit. (Just in case you didn't know.)
littlecathats
February 17, 2010 at 8:48am
Did Microsoft pay for this promotion? "Even" better--how about less sucky?
TheMurph
February 17, 2010 at 11:32am
Come onnnnnn. Windows explorer isn't that bad, right? You would prefer...?
Techrocket9
February 17, 2010 at 4:14pm
No easy to use alternatives≠good
And there are alternative shells. MPC has done a few rightups on them, though I beleve that they arn't any good.
_____________________________________________________
An army of pacifists can be defeated by one man with the will to fight.
lien_meat
February 17, 2010 at 4:03pm
Nearly ANY linux file manager beats explorer hands down. Maybe check out dolphin's or nautilus's feature lists sometime... or my post above.
Techrocket9
February 17, 2010 at 7:39am
Remove"even" from the title.
_____________________________________________________
An army of pacifists can be defeated by one man with the will to fight.
jrocknyc
February 17, 2010 at 7:09am
i've been pruning my Music folder and ended up with a lot of non-quite-empty folders (with a thumbs.db or album_art.jpg still inside)... ended up using "TreeSize" to find those, but had to delete 'em manually.
spentnickles
February 17, 2010 at 6:30am
In all the years that I have been reading your magazine (and now great website), you have never disappointed... This is a wonderful batch of freeware add-ons that I can't wait to try when I get home...
I often re-encode "home" movies (I like them of great quality but smaller file size) so they often are recompressed (Handbrake) down to about 2Gb of MP4 quality. I then transfer them through my Giga-network to my WHS machine so I can stream them anywhere in the house at any time. I'm looking forward to testing TeraCopy to see if it really is the Dogs Bollocks and speeds up my movement from the "reencode" folder to the "upload" folder (before being moved to the server) and then to the "double backup" folder...
Again, you guys never disappoint!! Keep 'em coming...
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